Need some ebay help

Hope this is the right forum.

I am trying to sell a coin on ebay, set the start price at 200 and do not have any bids yet. So someone sent a message via ebay asking if they could buy it for $150. I said no, I really need at least $200. Then a couple hours later I get the following:

'ok, i just called my wife, she said, go ahead, so i will pay $200 thru postal money order, and send tomorrow, if ok, with you, you must close out on e-bay, thanks XXXX'

I don't have much experience selling on ebay, in fact this is my first item I have listed for sale. Is this a scam? I have a funny feeling about it.

 

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This is a deal outside of ebay. So you have no seller protection what so ever. No paypal or any help. If he gets you, you are out the coin.

 

You didn't specify if your listing includes a Make an Offer. If it didn't Hull nailed it, you are about to make a deal outside of eBay and could get burned. I'd suggest you tell your buyer that what he is proposing is against eBay rules, and encourage him to bid on the coin.

 

I agree. Let the intended buyer bid on it. You lose any protection if you do it outside of the auction. Every auction I've had, someone has come approached me to close the auction early. I stuck to the rules and more often than not sold the item for far more than what was offered.

 

You also did not say what country this was from. If you do not know this buyer, run! It makes no sense for him to avoid the only protection he has when it costs him absolutely nothing.

 

If you look at most coin auctions on ebay, they don't get action until near the end time of the auction. There is no way I'd end it early for a couple reasons.

a) making the deal outside of ebay is risk you should not take, and maybe it is an ebay rep trying to get you to make a mistake, consider it a random audit.

b) if it really your first auction, then I think you might consider it good fortune that it doesn't sell. Higher dollar items with limited feedback or none may be scaring many buyers off.

 

It sounds fishy. Be wary.

 

You think it's good if he fails to sell his coin on ebay? That is ludicrous.

 

Wow you all are quick, and thanks for the nudge. I was leaning toward telling him to just bid, but in the back of my optomistic mind was thinking I could avoid the fees.

But this thought did cross my mind too. Thanks again for the advice, I will decline the offer.

 

Can you post a link to the auction? Thanks Henry

 

I would tell him for a postal money order it's his, IF the auction ends and it does not sell. If he's sending you $200, which is what the item is starting at anyway, there is no benefit to the buyer in doing this. And you may as well let the auction go and see what happens.

I have dealt with a couple sellers on the side over the years to get a price down while sending them what they would have gotten minus fees anyway. But most sellers, especially coin dealers, will not do this.

If it doesn't sell and he wants to send you a MO, then do it. If he wanted to pay by credit card, I'd say no, because it's too easy to back charge it and the buyer could get all their money back and keep your coin. With a MO, it's cash in hand. The buyer has all the risk.

 

Here is a link to the auction:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250643404407&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT

 

it is a scam.

In a month or so the money order will bounce.

only accept Postal money orders, those you can take ot the Post office and cash.

 

That's a scam. When the money order arrives it will probabley be:

1. Made out for more than the $200, and stolen.

2. Stolen.

This is a deal outside of eBay and your protection from eBay will not cover any problems you have with this deal.

Keep your coin listed, and sell it through auction or BIN.

 

Never deal outside of ebay, and always use paypal only. Anyone can print a bogus money order. Paypal is safe. Good luck on your auction!

 

Tell him to bid the $200 on the auction and you will end the auction to sell to the high bidder. You can do that. That makes the deal through eBay and you'll still have their protection. Although I don't know what kind of protection ebay provides for sellers. (I would agree that paypal would be safer than a MO unless it's a Postal Money Order. If he does send you a Postal Money order take it to the post office for cashing. They can cash it and confirm that it isn't stolen.)

 

Just curious, why not list it as a BIN, or place a reserve price on the auction?

 

I don't know why, this is my first time selling and ebay was running a free listing promo, so it did not cost me anything to list it. If I did a reserve it would have cost me money, as would a buy it now. So basically I set the price at my reserve and figured I would see what happened.

Any ebayers out there want to give a new guy advice?

 

True that on the fees.

Just my opinion, but may I suggest lowering your starting bid. The reason I suggest this to you is you may not get any hits on that starting price.

 

Personally I would tell the dude you're not interested as all the others have stated. If you use the SEARCH option above and type in ebay you should be able to find all kinds of threads. Those should get you started and when you run into stuff you have questions on, just post here like you did. :kewl: