I once sold the Bumblebee and Cliffjumer alternity figures for less than what BBTS was asking for one of them. The seller claims that the steering wheel was missing in one of the figures. Obviously, most auctions show robot and vehicle modes. I didn't take a picture of the inside, so I had no way to dispute the claim. The piece is smaller than a grain of rice and inside a tiny obscured cockpit. The guy knew what he was doing. He wrote eBay about how he's a "serious collector" and that the one figure was now worthless. eBay let him get half of the costs back. He got two diecast Takara Alternity figures for $20. The guy was bidding on three of my auctions. Had to block him on the others to stop me from getting screwed worse.

There's other people like that. I try to snuff it out before it goes too far. If I get a bunch of questions about what parts are included or the conditions of various parts- when I've already described it and included pictures on an "As-Is" sale.....I know to block and remove. More of the "serious collector" guys fishing for claims.

Another person tried to buy a lot auction with all of Transformers:Cybertron. He paid a decent amount and then began asking me to ship to a specific location in California. I thought that was odd, because your address usually comes up during closing. When I went through printing, his eBay address was the Philippines. He wanted me to mail it to his friend in California, who would mail it to him (I banned out of country sales - always get burned when I ship out of US from shitty tracking, inflated shipping costs that I wind up paying part of, etc...). Had to cancel the sale, repost the ad and block the guy. Shady transaction. I just know there's a "didn't receive" complaint buried in there.

I think the major thing to remember is most people on eBay aren't professional sellers who make a living or have a consistent 'side hustle.' A lot of us are collectors who are trying to recoup costs or buy another collection piece. When we get conned for costs and lose both $$$ and items, it's a bit harder than a business losing one of fifteen identical items. This is where eBay's policies truly fail.

 

To be fair, a lot of honest foreign buyers do that due to people not selling out of their countries. The buyers have the items shipped to friends or relatives and have them shipped to them. Filipinos do it a lot.

It's a shame that honest buyers have to suffer because of the scammers out there.

 

A few years back I sold a lot of TFs and sent to a Miami address. A few weeks later I had a claim against me saying the package was missing figures. I had banned out of country sales and at the time I didn't realize I was sending it to a forwarding company. Long story short because I had banned US sales, and the end address on ebay/paypal showed delivered, ebay ruled in my favor as having it sent to a forwarding company voids almost all guarantees, or it used to.

 

It still does as long as you can prove they're a forwarding company. Especially if you banned international sales.

 

Call eBay again, and show them that the package arrived, and was delivered, and they should reverse it to be in your favor.

 

Is there another place where you can sell things internationally without problems? I want to sell q lot of items soon and thought of using eBay. Never sold internationally, but I fear there are not enough buyers when restricted to my country.

 

Hopefully all the "The seller should leave positive feedback immediately after the item is paid for!!" people are seeing this thread.

 

Yeah but it doesn't even matter because as a seller all you can do is leave a positive feedback. They've stripped the right to leave a negative or even neutral for a crappy buyer.

 

Yeah, it's ridiculous. If a buyer does something warranting negative or neutral feedback than a seller should be able to do so. Unfortunately eBay has their new program in which you can tell them about problems you had or are having with a buyer that they then do nothing about. Or the three strikes and you're banned policy for non-payment that they don't enforce either.

 

It is completely ridiculous. eBay allows deadbeat bidders to continually bid and not follow through with no repercussions. Even worse, they make the seller file a complaint, then wait for several weeks to get their listing and final value fees back AND they don't allow the seller to post negative feedback regarding the transaction.