Selling watch on eBay, advice needed

[custardtart]

I've had a watch up on ebay and someone has just bought it for the buy it now price.

However, they have no history and only joined 5 days ago.

I was certain I'd placed this as a restriction but there you go.

I have requested payment by paypal but the question is, what should I look out for to make sure I'm not scammed?

I've sent a message asking for their name and address and asking them a few simple questions about why they bought the watch but I've very suspicious.

Any help appreciated as usual.
Matt

[Timberwolf]

I sold a few things on eBay recently, large collection-only stuff. With that it's particularly bad as unless you've done lots of selling before, you have to accept PayPal, and without online proof of postage from an approved courier any chargeback dispute will resolve in the buyer's favour.

Almost immediately, the higher value items started getting 0 feedback bidders, and questions that looked very much like the start of scams. (e.g. "if I pay by PayPal, can I send my mate's courier firm round to pick it up?" and so on.)

Eventually I got fed up and stuck on a request that anybody who paid by PayPal would need to bring passport or photocard licence and submit to having a copy made of it next to a signed receipt saying they'd picked up the item. Even if PayPal wouldn't have accepted it, I assumed there would be more than enough there to stand up in the small claims court. More to the point, the scam bidders disappeared and everybody who turned up happily paid cash. It's the old opportunist theft prevention trick really; your house doesn't need to be totally secure, just that bit harder to break into than the ones around it.

If they're genuine, a request for ID either shouldn't phase them, or they'll be happy to pay cash instead.

If you're posting it, just make sure you use an courier with signed-for delivery and online tracking. The buyer can still open an "item not as described" dispute, but in that case they have to provide PayPal with proof they've sent it back to you so you're not as much at risk of losing both watch and money.

[custardtart]

Well it turned out to be a scam, today I got an email asking to post to Thailand even though the address was in Netherlands.

Very cleverly though they sent me two emails, one replicating and ebay email saying the funds had now been cleared into my pay pal account and i should go ahead and ship the good. The other replicating pay pal saying the payment had been received.

So I wont be selling stuff of any value through ebay again. Just listed the item on good old Pistonheads.

Any other good places to sell watches?

[jshell]

Did the money ever actually show in your Paypal account?

[LordGrover]

custardtart said:

Well it turned out to be a scam, today I got an email asking to post to Thailand even though the address was in Netherlands.

Very cleverly though they sent me two emails, one replicating and ebay email saying the funds had now been cleared into my pay pal account and i should go ahead and ship the good. The other replicating pay pal saying the payment had been received.

So I wont be selling stuff of any value through ebay again. Just listed the item on good old Pistonheads.

Any other good places to sell watches?

TZ-UK - you'll need to have a few posts under your belt first though.

[custardtart]

jshell said:

Did the money ever actually show in your Paypal account?

No, they just faked emails from ebay and pay pal saying the money was in the account and to go ahead and post.

The only reason it might've looked genuine was because they used a dutch architects firm as the original ship to address. But they used a Dodgy name so I phoned the architects firm and of course no one of that name existed.

That's when the emails came through and they had an address is Thailand and the wording was as you'd expect, ie. grammatically worse than even I'd use.

It's the second one I've had in a week, the other one ebay cancelled their membership but I'd say it's not worth bothering with eBay hence trying a more watch specific site.

[custardtart]

LordGrover said:

custardtart said:

Well it turned out to be a scam, today I got an email asking to post to Thailand even though the address was in Netherlands.

Very cleverly though they sent me two emails, one replicating and ebay email saying the funds had now been cleared into my pay pal account and i should go ahead and ship the good. The other replicating pay pal saying the payment had been received.

So I wont be selling stuff of any value through ebay again. Just listed the item on good old Pistonheads.

Any other good places to sell watches?

TZ-UK - you'll need to have a few posts under your belt first though.

Hmm, wont accept registrations. Anywhere else?

[lowdrag]

Fleabay is to be used very carefully, to be sure, but I've sold three watches from £1,500 to £3,000 on there but at each stage have fully investigated the prospective purchaser and checked everything very carefully - especially their history. Once I tried to buy a bimetal Rolex and having won suddenly everything changed - he suddenly couldn't accept Paypal - so that was a very definite sign of a scam.

[Mr E Driver]

Make sure you get the selling fees refunded.