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Ship to an E-bay Buyer with ZERO Feedback???
Collector8578
Posts: 17 ✭
Just sold a Buy It Now for $300 and the buyer literally just opened their account today and has ZERO feedback. Am I out of line to cancel the order? I know E-bay allows protects the buyer and I'm afraid I'm going to end up getting screwed somehow on the deal. Hard to believe a serious buyer would create an account today and buy a $300 PSA card right out of the chute.
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as this is your 4th post, youll agree that everyone has to start somewhere.
engage them w a message of your concerns.
if something feels off or they dont respond, cancel.
canceling w/ no reason other than “being new” is wrong, imo.
Talk about discriminatory
Go with your "Gut-Feeling".
quite a few years back a 51 mantle 5 popped up on ebay from a seller w/ only a 3 feedback level. zero activity in the last 6 months. my figs may be off a bit, but i think he listed it for $3000. most were going for $6-7k. obvious red flags everywhere, but i snagged it anyways. few days later tracking was uploaded. next day it was entered. was 100% it was gonna be an empty box. first time i ever recorded the opening of a package. once i got past the plastic grocery bags and newspaper i found a very nicely centered 51 bowman mantle. sent it immediately to psa for a reholder.
sent the guy a message saying “thank you so much, positive feedback was left”. he responded saying just how thrilled he was, that he got his asking price & how quickly it sold. then went on to say just how worried he was selling anything thru ebay and basically the internet.
very rare, for sure. but it does happen.
i have sold over 300 items over a 22 year span to people with 0 feedback, never had any problems with any of them
I did too until this past week.
I don't think you should cancel the order. I've been seeing this happening more often, mostly on the TCG realm, and haven't had any problems at all.
Seem like quite a few new people are getting into the hobby, and getting in with a bang.
Currently collecting.....your guess is as good as mine.
Given the ease of ability for buyers to get away with receiving a full refund + keep the merch I'd cancel.
Unless otherwise specified my posts represent only my opinion, not fact.
agreed. but thats kinda why i suggested engage with the buyer. basically for a couple of reasons. first to feel them out. more importantly though, to have proof of conversation so it eliminates the “my kid ordered this”, “my account was hacked” and a whole host of other excuses they would use. and naturally if they dont reply at all, then huge red flag.
ive found in the past that legit new ebay users are MORE than excited to message. the bad ones go dark.
and i guess if more info from op was displayed, i might change my status. if its a luka base 10 and the buyers id is anything like SneekerBoi202-0 or KryptoKingFlipBoss-0 might would reconsider my position. yes, i know its terrible. but its true.
Have you said anything in description on feedback buyers?
We all start somewhere
1948-76 Topps FB Sets
FB & BB HOF Player sets
1948-1993 NY Yankee Team Sets
The only problem I've had with 0 feedback buyers is that they don't leave feedback for you - but their money is just as good as others with high feedbacks.
"When they can't find anything wrong with you, they create it!"
Thanks for all of the feedback. I totally appreciate that everyone starts somewhere, but I just feel very uncomfortable with it because the account was just created today. I will engage with the buyer and see what kind of response I get. I'm not exactly sure what to say, but I'll say something. Thanks again.
And remember - I've know buyers to send Negative feedback to you when you cancel a sale that they have already paid for. Always have to watch out for that side of the deal.
"When they can't find anything wrong with you, they create it!"
I don’t get “the account was just opened today” concern to be honest. Somehow opening the account and waiting a week makes it more secure? My first take is it’s a guy that’s getting into (back into collecting), been lurking on eBay, and decided to register to hit your BIN. You didn’t say what the card was but I’d guess it’s something hot with newbies right now - 80s baseball or modern basketball.
You have his name and address as a buyer, do some sleuthing and make sure the address is valid and that he/she resides there.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
You could also always send signature confirmation so they have to sign for it. For a $300 item, that certainly could be justified anyways.
Whats the card? Maybe it was something he has been looking for forever and got in a google search? When I search I always get the eBay items..
ON ITS WAY TO NEWPORT BEACH, CA 92658
It's a 2019 Topps Chrome Tatis. Plenty of those around, so it's not like it was a hard find that was finally tracked down on E-Bay.
a flipper card for sure. but again, address your concerns. its not that hard and youre making it way more difficult than it needs to be.
“hey joe, welcome to ebay. i see you are very new and happy to be your first purchase. tatis sure is hot right now. please let me know that you really want this card and alleviate any worrys about a possible return.”
and scene.
I thought Bob is usually the one causing a scene..
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
“hey joe, welcome to ebay. i see you are very new and happy to be your first purchase.
Probably his 10th purchase! Might have gone on a buying spree with his mom's CC
I don't know if it still exists but as a seller you used to be able to set a minimum feedback for buyers to bid on your auctions.
As far as I know that option was removed some time ago. I did get a response to my message to the buyer, so it should be fine.
FWIW, if I ever bought cards on Ebay I'd be in that same leaky boat of having 0 feedback too. Good luck.
eBay used to permit blocking buyers with negative feedback but no longer. eBay's sole concern and very business model appears to be obtaining 11-14% of a final sale price+taxes even if the seller is scammed out of both their money and their merchandise.
The most a seller can do now it seem is this, which is far too little:
Please note I was only an occasional eBay seller. Usually for graded comic books of which I had obtained higher graded copies. An average 8-12 auctions per year. With eBay's new Bank account requirement and NO more Direct to Paypal . I do not foresee any circumstance in which I"ll use eBay as a selling venue again. I'll stick to CLink (ComicLink) , they are a bit slow to pay but there is zero risk of the scamming nonsense that proliferates on eBay. They will even snail mail you an ol' school check if you desire.
Unless otherwise specified my posts represent only my opinion, not fact.
I know we all started at zero at some point, but as a seller I refuse to sell any high value item to a buyer with zero feedback especially with an account created that day. If they bought a trivial $5 card then I don't mind going ahead with the sale. But a high value card, no way! I immediately refund, block and move on. That buyer can go buy from (or rip off) someone else.
Google the shipping address. Every home is on Zillow or other real estate websites these days.
In a nutshell, if it's say a 500k valued house, don't worry about it. If it's say a cheap apartment in the bad part of town, i'd worry.
<<< I will engage with the buyer and see what kind of response I get. I'm not exactly sure what to say, but I'll say something. >>>
A note such as this could very well get you permanently barred from selling on Amazon.
I'm not sure about Ebay, but I do know that Ebay is trying to be more like Amazon on a continuing basis.
I wouldn't send that note. I wouldn't send any note. But it's your call.
Good luck.
there is absolutely nothing barred, even remotely considered “bending the rules” or wrong w reaching out to a buyer after an item has been committed to, won and/or paid for.
It sounds like you have peace of mind, good. I certainly would have no issues sending the card. I'd be more concerned if he had opened his account 18 months ago, and just bought his first card today. I would still send the card. The biggest thing I see with zero feedback buyers is sometimes they will leave feedback before the get the item. They just don't understand the system yet, no big deal.
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You're right and that's also correct on Amazon.
However reaching out to a buyer in the proper manner has to do with making sure the order is correct for what the customer needs, such as a size of clothing, etc. I don't see how that type of message is normally applicable to a collectible item? I think that Amazon and Ebay will interpret the OP's proposed email as the seller is in some way questioning the integrity of the buyer.
I'm tellin' ya, a message questioning the integrity of a buyer will likely if not definitely get your account permanently barred from Amazon. The fact is that Amazon does not allow a seller to block buyers. An Amazon seller has to sell to everyone on Amazon or they don't sell at all.
Again, on Ebay I'm not 100% sure if that type of email would get a seller account barred. Perhaps not. However the bottom line is why take the chance? The message is basically useless anyway. If the buyer is a scammer, then he's going to just respond to the seller's email with a bunch of lies. That's what scammers do.
key point though...this is not amazon. and have used that same message for years. zero problems.
and if the scammer lies and ultimately scams, then which ebay account do you think will get nixed?
the seller w a good track record or the newbie scammer?
I hear ya. I'm just saying that Ebay is trying to be like Amazon within the framework of their already established business model. Ebay has been doing that for several years now. So something that was "okay" to do on Ebay yesterday, may not be okay to do now.
Amazon will permanently bar almost any size seller in a heartbeat if their rules are violated, and will bar every seller if their rules are violated and not quickly corrected.
The OP here has the option of simply not shipping the item to the buyer. However that course of action may result in a neg from the buyer which absolutely will not be removed. And will result in a hit to his seller metrics. If a seller's metrics fall to a certain low level, Ebay will bar that seller.