That doesn't sound like my experience with crooked PayPal deals. In my experience, the buyer won the auction, sent the funds, then WITHIN AN HOUR filed an "item not received" complaint. (This was a couple of years ago; PayPal might have imposed some common-sense constraints since then, but I wouldn't count on it.) This froze the funds. Then, a couple of hours later, PayPal sent a notice that the hold was lifted, and I could go ahead and send the item. For reasons that I won't go into right now, I ended up sending the item -- trackable, with delivery confirmation, to a confirmed address, so I'd get Seller Protection coverage. But when UPS tried to deliver the package, they raised a "recipient no longer at this address" exception, and rerouted the package -- WITHOUT CONSULTING ME -- to a new address, which, of course, was not PayPal confirmed. I, and the guy whose item I was selling, decided to recall the shipment. If we hadn't, the "buyer" could've claimed "Item Not Received", and we wouldn't have had a leg to stand on. And that was the last time I tried to sell anything on eBay. Your case is different, though. If you've shipped the item with tracking, and it gets delivered to a confirmed address, it shouldn't be you who eats the loss -- by explicit PayPal/eBay policy, not just by "what's fair". Please keep us posted.
If you printed your shipping label using PayPal shipping and they gave you a OK to ship notification at the time you printed you should be covered under their seller protection. Part of the reason the fees cost so much is the insurance.
if every seller did this, how would any new people ever get to bid? not everyone with a low feedback is a scammer, some are new accounts on ebay.
Well that's easy, new users purchase BIN only and after 10 feedbacks they can also bid! But seriously, I see your point. The "Buyer Requirements" should give sellers the options they need to protect themselves, although it doesn't mean much. Skilled fellow could hijack PayPal+eBay+email credentials, make a 5000$ gold coins purchase and probably get away with it, especially on today's Internet.
You have his address. You should be able to track down a phone number. I would place a call to him and advise it is in his best intrest to return the coin. I am sure he does not want theft and mail fraud charges brought up against him. I would even advise him he has 24 hours to send you the tracking information or you will be more than happy to contact the authorities. People like this do not belong in this hobby. It is a disgrace and I am sorry that it happend to someone in the CT family. I dont know your background bkozak, nor how much the money means to you but If it has caused you any financial concerns I will be more than happy to flip you a few dead presidents to compensate for the irresponsible and unacceptable actions of said ebay bidder.
As a seller, this thread has definitely made me more aware of how scams can be played on the seller and to be another step more cautious. Now on if a low amount of feedback history, I'll print the label and pack it immediately, but hold it back from shipping for a couple of days.
