I’ve never sold anything on E-Bay before. Last night I listed two saddles for sale. One for $1,495 and another for $1,995. Early this morning I receive an email making an offer for the first one . . . for $1,800!

They go on to say “because i won't be able to wait until the end of the auction due to the nature of my work. Please text me at ....................saying offer accepted only if my offer is been accepted to ease up this transaction and payment will be arranged immediately your text message is been received. Await text message anytime as i'm at work. Thanks”

After thinking WOW this is great, I see the person is located in MD and it says they have been a member since TODAY! Of course a big red flag goes up after seeing that. Scam, right?

What would you do?

 

Seems fishy to me, but I'm not an eBay user so let's see what others say.

 

Tell him to send you full payment,first,after that you will see.

 

One thing I saw is that whatever the transaction, you need to conduct it within eBay, not outside, and avoid anyone who doesn't want to do it that way. Also, PayPal is best.

 

It is set up for Pay Pal as the payment method. Since it sounds "too good to be true" I don't think I should answer it using the text number they provided; as you suggest I may answer it via eBay. TBD.

 

 

Sounds like a scam to me, Dave, but you would know better than the rest of us. Is there something special about this saddle? Would the replacement cost three times as much?

If I'm selling an old Smith gauge that came in every Midget or Sprite ever made and someone acts like they just have to have it immediately, I get a lot more suspicious than when someone contacts me about a rare speedometer for an XK-150. You could send him a message on e-bay and ask for his phone number and then call him (or her) to check them out and see what payment arrangements they want to make, etc, but yes, it sounds like a scam.

As Deb says, e-bay frowns on these off-auction transactions. As Cosmo says, it happens all the time.

 

No, no, no, Dave. Big time scam. Don't even reply. Too many red flags there. (I'm a long time eBay user)

 

Paypal is not a guarantee that you won't be scammed. If it turns out that the buyer used a source of funds that was fraudulent, Paypal will likely recall the payment back from your account. They enable this protection for themselves by preventing you from withdrawing fund for several days. This is why the buyer is willing to pay you more than your asking price: the money is not real.

Paypal is really only good for one thing: conveniently exchanging money between two honest people. And it's an expensive way to do it.

Walk away from this offer.

 

Exactly!