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Sold my MBP on ebay, now concerned about getting scammed!

murdercitydevil

murdercitydevil

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Feb 23, 2010
1,561
0
california
So, I put the MBP in my sig up on ebay for a starting bid price of 2000 and a buy it now of 2200. The listing specified free shipping within the US, however, being a first time seller, I assumed ebay would be smart enough to then reject international buyers. Not so. One guy bid on the win-it-now price of 2200, but he has zero feedback and lives in Canada. After winning the MBP, he sent me a request for an invoice. How should I proceed? Already my gut is telling me this may be a scamola, and so now I think since I'm locked into this transaction, I need to do every single possible thing to ensure I don't get scammed.

Can someone please lead me through this process? My main concern aside from scams, is that now I have to deal with this guy's stupid shipping costs and hope that he agrees to pay them.

One more thing, the phone number he has listed on eBay is disconnected. :( I think I'm getting set up for a scam.
 
Yeah, I'd say it may very well be a scam... The no phone number part doesn't help at all...
 
Selling on eBay has always scared me. It's a site that caters to the buyers not the seller. I heard a story on here that someone had sold their iPhone but the guy who received said it didn't work so eBay took the money from the seller back and the buyer now had his money back along with the seller's iPhone.

That's why I prefer to sell on forums like these, if someone tries to screw you over there's at least a public outlash.
 
I have had instances like this happen to me, and a quick call to PayPal can sort these things out since they can look at the transaction and determine risks. Since the phone number is incorrect it points towards a bad indication for this sale though.

eBay makes it your responsibility to filter through the bidders and cancel bids that you don't want to proceed. I find it is best to not set a "buy-it-now" price on high dollar electronics since you do not have time to screen the buyers and these seem to be the most inviting auctions for scammers. I would say it is in your best interest to cancel this sell (you should not be bound to the auction since the buyer did not adhere to the requirements in your description).

When you do relist make sure to leave out the buy-it-now option and simply start the bidding at a price you are willing to accept if only a single person bids.

GL
 
EBay allows you to electronically send an invoice to him. You'll need to figure out what the shipping costs are to Canada, and include them. Log into EBay and go to items sold. The site will walk you through the process.

What form of payment did you specify? Hopefully it's PayPal, because it provides you protection against getting scammed.

FWIW, there are security settings that you can set to help lock down who can, and can't bid on your stuff. i.e. if you only want those in the US, you can specify that.
 
There's an option that allows you to prevent international bids.

You never know though, the bidder may be a real buyer. Just contact him/her. If they pay, you shouldn't have a problem. If you want to, document your whole transaction. Take a video of the laptop working as advertised, showing the whole packing and shipping. PayPal won't be able to argue against that.
 
One of my friends sold a 17" MBP on Craigs List. It worked out fine for him but I am very skeptical about selling a computer on eBay or Craigs List.
 
Unfortunately, there is always a risk on selling on these websites. You do get high resale money than any other places.

I usually do not proceed with ebay or even craiglist.


I go with websites that will allow me to sell my MBP or MBA at modest price. With that, I am fine. I also usually keep my macs around 4-5 years.


If you upgrade every year, then you need to be careful with selling your macs.
 
LoganT said:
Selling on eBay has always scared me. It's a site that caters to the buyers not the seller. I heard a story on here that someone had sold their iPhone but the guy who received said it didn't work so eBay took the money from the seller back and the buyer now had his money back along with the seller's iPhone.

That's why I prefer to sell on forums like these, if someone tries to screw you over there's at least a public outlash.
Click to expand...

I only buy or sell in person only for this reason. I use trading sites to find people who are interested and then hope to find one that lives close to me so we can arrange a trade in person :D
 
Thanks for the quick replies guys. Here's how I think I'm going to proceed:

First off, I called ebay and asked them how I can cancel this guy's bid and quit the whole transaction. Like someone else mentioned, because of the buy-it-now, I'm pretty much forced to keep the ball rolling. However, it looks like at this point, nothing can continue until I send him the invoice. So, instead I will email the buyer and request that he provides me a real phone number so that I can actually speak to him, if he does, I will then ask a few questions that should get me a better idea of what this guy's motives are, and then finally tell him about the shipping thing and see what he says to that.

If he never replies to my request, I think I can just do nothing and the whole thing should blow over.
 
murdercitydevil said:
So, I put the MBP in my sig up on ebay for a starting bid price of 2000 and a buy it now of 2200. The listing specified free shipping within the US, however, being a first time seller, I assumed ebay would be smart enough to then reject international buyers. Not so. One guy bid on the win-it-now price of 2200, but he has zero feedback and lives in Canada. After winning the MBP, he sent me a request for an invoice. How should I proceed? Already my gut is telling me this may be a scamola, and so now I think since I'm locked into this transaction, I need to do every single possible thing to ensure I don't get scammed.

Can someone please lead me through this process? My main concern aside from scams, is that now I have to deal with this guy's stupid shipping costs and hope that he agrees to pay them.

One more thing, the phone number he has listed on eBay is disconnected. :( I think I'm getting set up for a scam.
Click to expand...


your in total control...and wont be scammed unless you loose your cool and do something silly...

send him an invoice and add a shipping fee....say 5% or check with shipping company..

....paypal only since its not in a business category...no wires...no cash...nothing but paypal to the certified address....7 days after the funds clear you will ship....

you will not hear from him again.
 
Last edited:
email the guy and tell him you are cancelling his order ... tell him, if he cannot keep his phone hooked up he cannot afford the purchase
 
Apple OC said:
email the guy and tell him you are cancelling his order ... tell him, if he cannot keep his phone hooked up he cannot afford the purchase
Click to expand...

I have a feeling I won't be hearing back if he really is a scammer. That said, I still hope that it all looks worse than it really is, and that maybe he's actually legit. We will see.

This is probably my first and last time ever selling on ebay, haha.
 
As someone who sells on eBay quite a bit this may help. Ebay only allows paypal these days so you must go that route. This is a good thing because paypal will cover you if you follow their guidelines. Make sure the buyer has a verified account/address. If the buyer does and you ship it with signature confirmation then you are fully covered. If he does not have any of those tell him you will not ship as it is too risky.

Next time you list make sure you specify in the listing that you sell to verified paypal accounts only and only ship to the US.
 
Phone number or not. I wouldn't ship out of the country under any circumstances at all when dealing with paypal and ebay.

Your best bet is to just cancel the deal.
 
me personally i sold an iphone 3gs on ebay in the uk - the person had low feedback but made contact pretty much straight away...

go to the seller and say that you dont mind them buying your item but its gotta be paid for through paypal

SEND EVERY FORM OF CONTACT VIA EBAY INVOICES MESSAGES THE LOT

then once it into your paypal - log into paypal via www.paypal.... dont click any links on invoices or payment emails and check its there and then id transfer to the bank and get it cleared into my account...

i did this with the phone and the buyer was patient and i sent the item special delivery which covered insurance and was trackable...only thing different was it was a iphone in my name that i could get blocked/barred...

BUT MORE THAN ANYTHING GO WITH YOUR GUT!!!!

Vinda
 
Not sure why everyone thinks this is fraud. He could easily have left his phone number in his account, changed phones, and forgot to update it. It's not like you're shipping to Nigeria - Canada vs. USA makes practically no difference for all intensive purposes.

Look, it's quite simple.

1) Ask for his phone number and call him to confirm.

2) Ensure you are shipping to a verified PayPal address. Look this up if you don't know what it is, but basically it confirms that the person lives at the address you are sending the computer to.

3) Don't ship until you've received the money

If you follow these three steps, you will be fine.
 
laser71 said:
Not sure why everyone thinks this is fraud. He could easily have left his phone number in his account, changed phones, and forgot to update it. It's not like you're shipping to Nigeria - Canada vs. USA makes practically no difference for all intensive purposes.

Look, it's quite simple.

1) Ask for his phone number and call him to confirm.

2) Ensure you are shipping to a verified PayPal address. Look this up if you don't know what it is, but basically it confirms that the person lives at the address you are sending the computer to.

3) Don't ship until you've received the money

If you follow these three steps, you will be fine.
Click to expand...

Yep, this is basically my plan of action, I'm just waiting for him to reply with a real phone number.
 
1) Do not worry. Congrats, you sold your mac.
2) Send the guy the invoice.
3) After the paypal payment clears, ship to the EXACT address on the paypal receipt with USPS EXPRESS MAIL, with FULL INSURANCE. Express mail requires a signature. This is VERY important.

4) Profit.
 
don't do it.

you cant get tracking/delivery through USPS for international shipments.

if you go through UPS/FEDEX then you have brokers fees, duties, etc.

canadians are scammers, I put them in the same basket as nigerians. :D

I would contact ebay, and let them know that buyer is unable to complete the transaction b/c he failed to provide a confirmed US address as specified in the auction listing, and then demand your listing fees back.
 
the only thing i wanted to stress was to make sure you get some kind of sig on delivery. so if it trys to reverse the charge on his credit card through paypal you can dispute with the receipt that he received it. although honestly if the guy started off with a dead phone number i wouldnt even risk it and cancel the order. if ebay says anything you can say he falsified information.
 
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