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Buying from first time seller

Every seller has a first time selling so this is nothing against first time sellers. Still, a positive rating inspires more confidence when buying than no rating at all. Is there any way to at least somewhat protect yourself when buying from a seller with no rating? I would assume that a direct wire transfer to a seller's account would provide at least some protection from complete fraud since the seller would have to go through at least some kind of identification process to establish their bank account and this would be discoverable in a criminal or civil case. I do not know if this assumption is true.
allcaps
billbartuska
83 posts
 
First timers are a PITA. They don't know how/when they're supposed to do stuff. "Gee, I was out of town and didn't know it sold." This for am amp that could have sold for $1,000+ - yeah, sure you were! And, yes PP holds the money for first timers.

Anyway, one thing I do is to video the unboxing, and tell them I'm going to do it.

And never PayPal for a local pick-up, no proof of delivery as far as PP is concerned as there's no tracking info.

Hope that helps...
plurn
2 posts
 
I would like to see all sellers (of all classifieds sites preferably), stick a post-it note on the item for sale before taking photos. The post-it note should say the sellers public user name for the site, the site name (eg audiogon) and the date. If you are selling on multiple sites – do separate photos for each site.

If everyone did this, it would reduce the amount of fake listings. Its not perfect but at least you could reasonable believe they have the item they claim to have.
czarivey
5,946 posts
 
Plurn, Did you submit your legislature request?
zd542
5,339 posts
 
"06-16-14: Jedinite24
Damn zd542. Wow $5K lost for a week. Holy Moly. Good to know. I've only done transactions under $1000 via Paypal."

Sorry, I just noticed that post. The amazing thing was that they went directly in to defense mode. "Its not our fault, Can't prove anything, We're not responsible". That type of stuff. They could care less about finding your money. Once they found out what happened, I withdrew everything in my PayPal account and closed it.
plurn
2 posts
 
Czarivey, Obviously you can not enforce this idea everywhere or even just here. Rather than try and enforce it it could be "optional - but highly recommended". If a lot of sellers started doing it - say 5%, then it might catch on and buyers would start expecting it. Then buyers might ask untrusted sellers "can you please include a current post-it note 'proof of life' photo?". After a while it might just become normal. It could really be a benefit for all buyers and legitimate sellers.
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