Ebay scammer help: Selling in-game items

I LIEK CHOCOLATEMILK

I LIEK CHOCOLATEMILK

CAGiversary!
Feedback
4 (100%)
About 2 weeks ago I sold a bunch of metal for TF2 for about $46. I added the buyer, gave him the metal and everything went fine. A couple of days ago I get a "I haven't received my item" message. The buyer claims I never mailed anything to him and when he would be getting it. We went back and forth for a couple of messages where I would state it was an in-game item, I couldn't physically mail it and he has already received it, each time his response would be "I never got it, when is it going to be mailed?".



A couple days later a case has been opened with the buyer stating this: ""Communicated with seller through eBay messages. Seller stated that nothing would be coming in the mail (not a physical item). Different from listing description, and full refund requested."



I responded with a very long message again stating for the millionth time that it was an in-game item and he HAD received it but that obviously will not do anything since he just won't listen. I will have limited internet access for awhile, if at all starting tomorrow so I added him on Steam to see if we could talk today.

Anyways my questions are: Will I get ripped off and have to refund the money because I have no way of proving it was given even though it's an in-game item and the item description stated so? How long do cases go on for? I had another one with another scammer where they got a refund because I didn't have delivery confirmation so I'm hoping this doesn't happen again.



 
I wouldn't hold on to too much hope. I sold an old school book on eBay and (of course) had delivery confirmation. The package was lost in Texas, I even sent eBay a copy of the form from the Texas post office saying they had lost it but the buyer still got a full refund, including shipping, even though I had proof that I shipped it. eBay seems to be overly "pro-buyer" right now. In the future you should think about selling in-game items differently; perhaps to people you play the game with. I'm not really using eBay anymore; it's like you're the good guy but the whole system treats you like a criminal.
 
You're hosed. Pretty sure eBay had already banned the sale of virtual/in-game goods, largely because of intellectual property issues...you never really owned the metal in TF2...and as such you can't really sell the items.

And, as I'm sure you've already realized, you have no way to prove that you did in fact send the item. Only way you can sell such items is if there's something physical you actually can mail, such as the WoW TCG cards that came with codes for in-game crap.
 
Ebay is really pretty bad now. Not only do they really charge too much in fees but they only want you to use Paypal also and even more fees are taken from that. Between that and scammers is pretty worthless to even try to sell anything on ebay now. Like the other poster said, Ebay is pro-buyer, anti-seller.

Sorry to hear about your misfortune but unfortunately this happens all the time with virtual items and you really have no recourse. The buyer I am sure knows knows this and is playing off it. Ebay protects itself with the wording Salamando3000 said and pretty much washed it's hands of the whole deal.
 
Ebay is definitely pro-buyer and gives them all the protection they want while we are left with nothing. I still sell on it because I can make a bit more money but this will be the last time I sell in-game items. The really sad part is the buyer has about 172 ebay feedback and according to his feedback history he has bought tf2 metal before, I wonder if he's scamming that guy too. I also got the metal by gifting bc2 ($19.99) to a guy from the Steam forums so essentially I lost $20, which is the bigger deal to me rather than if I has collected the metal from playing.

Thanks to the kind CAGer who is giving me some metal.
 
[quote name='ArQuesta']I wouldn't hold on to too much hope. I sold an old school book on eBay and (of course) had delivery confirmation. The package was lost in Texas, I even sent eBay a copy of the form from the Texas post office saying they had lost it but the buyer still got a full refund, including shipping, even though I had proof that I shipped it. eBay seems to be overly "pro-buyer" right now. In the future you should think about selling in-game items differently; perhaps to people you play the game with. I'm not really using eBay anymore; it's like you're the good guy but the whole system treats you like a criminal.[/QUOTE]

I agree eBay is pro-buyer but in your case the buyer should certainly get the money back. It is the responsibility of the shipper to purchase insurance or assume any risk of loss or damage. Buyers will be refunded if the item is not delivered. I'm quite sure your opinion would be different if you were the one who had purchased the book.

Anyway, selling in-game items on eBay is not a good idea and as mentioned before I believe they banned it years ago. So you really have no hope. Your could try to talk with the other seller(s) and have eBay investigate if the buyer has tried to do this to other sellers too. But since it is banned they'd probably just cancel the transaction and you'd lose the money anyway.

I have been selling on eBay regularly for a few years and haven't had any scammers buy from me. The worst problem I've had selling is a buyer not reading the description of a game and leaving neutral due to its condition.

I have way more problems buying. Unless I'm buying from a large volume seller/business there are almost always problems with anything I buy. For example the last thing I bought was someone's Wii with games, etc. They didn't ship it for like 2 weeks, just threw everything in a box with no protection at all including a loose wii sports disc, game discs were horribly scratched, and one nunchuk was broken.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Couldn't agree more. I did contact the other seller to see if he had gotten a case as well. I even contacted the buyer one last time explaining how I desperately need the money but I doubt that will do any good.

This is the second time I've gotten scammed on ebay, the last time was because I didn't have delivery confirmation, but even if I did I didn't have insurance so that wouldn't of done any good. I'm very much considering not dealing with ebay at all anymore. Even if I could make a bit more selling with them it's just not worth the risk. I only sold on Amazon before and there are reputable forums to do in-game item selling with so I think that's the way to go.
 
[quote name='I LIEK CHOCOLATEMILK'] I even contacted the buyer one last time explaining how I desperately need the money but I doubt that will do any good.[/QUOTE]

If scammers had a heart, they wouldn't be doing it in the first place.
 
[quote name='SlammedNiss']If scammers had a heart, they wouldn't be doing it in the first place.[/QUOTE]

I was hoping he might admit to something and could show it to ebay. A long shot but nothing to lose.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top