Question to those who sell high-priced items..

[phear3d]

ive been getting a few high-priced items ($200+) that im probably going to sell on ebay for the upcoming holiday rush. i guess my question is what type of precautions do you use/take so you don't end up getting screwed. im not sure what type of scams are out there besides the non-factory re-sealed games. oh and the occational "theres no game when i opened the box!" scam.

[refusedchaos]

well take pics from all sides to show that its sealed. says weather or not the plastic has and rips or tears. put "ALL SALES FINAL" to cover ur ass on the "no game in box" scam. put on ur auction that u r not responsible to what happens if insurence is not purchased. just be very descriptive and u should be fine....good luck!

[Brian9824]

well take pics from all sides to show that its sealed. says weather or not the plastic has and rips or tears. put "ALL SALES FINAL" to cover ur ass on the "no game in box" scam. put on ur auction that u r not responsible to what happens if insurence is not purchased. just be very descriptive and u should be fine....good luck!

Listing all sales final won't do anything. You agree to ebay/paypals terms when you list which state THEY get to decide if it warrants a refund not you.

Take multiple pictures, make insurance and signature confirmation mandatry. Anything over $250 requires signature confirmation or paypal will immediately rule against you. Make sure to only sell to verified accounts with confirmed addresses.

If possible place a tiny non-descrepit mark on the item and get a picture of it. That helps protect against people trying to switch stuff out. If it has a serial number get a picture of that before shipping.

[dragonreborn23]

If you're allowing the buyer to use paypal, you might want to remove/transfer all your paypal funds right after a big sale. Protect your money at least.

[zionoverfire]

1. Accept only Money Orders, preferably from the post office. With paypal you can do everything correctly and still be screwed but with post office money orders that can be cashed at any post office you avoid dealing with paypal and fake MOs.

2. If you chose to accept Paypal don't ship outside the US, you're pretty much guaranteed to lose a paypal dispute.

[scott2hotcott]

1. Accept only Money Orders, preferably from the post office. With paypal you can do everything correctly and still be screwed but with post office money orders that can be cashed at any post office you avoid dealing with paypal and fake MOs.

2. If you chose to accept Paypal don't ship outside the US, you're pretty much guaranteed to lose a paypal dispute.

Not accepting Paypal will probably shy away numerous potential buyers. How often do you see Paypal only auctions as opposed to money order only auctions?

[Vinny]

Not accepting Paypal will probably shy away numerous potential buyers. How often do you see Paypal only auctions as opposed to money order only auctions?

That's an issue even I had to accept. I went on the longest time without accepting PayPal but there's a few advantages to PP for the seller. With money orders, you never knew if and when a buyer would actually send payment. Plus, it was time consuming to have to wait for payment as you couldn't plan on shipping dates.

On the other hand, I only started accepting PP a this summer. I've sold tons of things sell using money orders and they've averaged the same as other auctions that accepted PayPal.

But no matter what you do, there are something's you can't protect against. Like if a buyer claims that they received a new game without a disc... you really can't do much about proving them wrong.

[phear3d]

before paypal, all there was was concealed cash or mo's (occationally checks too). but these days theres more people that uses paypal and i find that at a advantage as a seller. i havent accepted a money order payment for awhile and it was a big mistake. i waited and waited but the money order never came.

when this happened before, i would get alot of apologies from the person and i would just tell them to pay my fees and forget the whole thing happened to avoid negative fbs. these days, i cant even get a person to leave a fb!!

anyone notice the youtube-sellers? they make a video of themselves describing the item and post it on youtube, then embed on their ebay listing. i was kinda thinking of doing that. but that might take too much work.

[kklems]

Be careful with money orders esp non postal ones. Tons of counterfeit ones floating around. You can cash or deposit them fine but a month or two later it gets returned and the bank will come after you... Same with certified checks.