If you've been a member of the eBay community for any length of time, then you've discovered that the majority of Buyers/Sellers are honest folks who are just trying to have a fun time whilst making a few bucks/discovering deals and/or locating rare 'hard-to-find' items along the way; however, eBay also has its share of what I refer to as 'Sorry Sellers' aka 'Scammers'...Buyer Beware! 

These individuals are the new breed of thieves who appeared to have made their presence known within the last few years. They are obviously only here to make a quick and easy buck and could care less who they 'burn' along the way. You may have run across some of these auctions by some of these individuals.

They are those 'Sorry Sellers' who...

1.) Set their auction starting price at .01, yet will have the nerve to list the shipping price at up to 10x the actual shipping cost.

Example (taken directly from a Seller's item description):

1GIG 1GB 1024MB CompactFlash (CF) Memory Card 

CompactFlash is the world's most popular removable mass media storage device. The CompactFlash is about the size of a matchbook and only weighs half an ounce.

Yet, this 'Sorry Seller', as well as some others of this particular item, are charging up to $17.95 (uninsured) shipping for this single lightweight item!

2.) They will charge you for USPS 'Priority Mail' service, yet your item comes to you via 'First Class' (standard) or even via 'Media Mail'.

3.) You find yourself paying the Seller's recommended insurance fee, yet find that your item has in fact been shipped to you 'uninsured', with the Scammer 'pocketing' the extra cash!

4.) They advertise 'No Reserve' in their auction description heading, yet they've set their auction starting price at $24.99 ...who are they trying to fool?

5.) They evidently find it an inconvenience to leave their Buyers appropriate feedback, although their Buyers have already left it for them.  

6.) These individuals also, habitually, and just minutes before their auction is about to end, will immediately 'pull the plug' and cancels all prior bids, citing some 'lame excuse'; i.e., "Item is no longer available for sale", "There was an error in the Seller's original listing", "Seller states the item was lost or damaged", "The seller ended this listing early because the item was lost or broken". These individuals habitually practice this routine when they are not receiving what they had hoped to receive for their item(s), yet were too cheap to pay eBay the small fee for initially including a reserve amount.

7.) These individuals claim that they are not an expert at/have no knowledge of the particular item that they are listing, yet they have sold the same item previously and several times before.

8.) These individuals purposely post blurry photos of the auction item, claiming that they "have a poor camera", are an "inexperienced photographer", are utilizing a borrowed or "using a friend's camera", etc. Although on occasion this might be so, many are simply using this excuse in order to purposely hide some sort of item damage/discrepancy.

9.) These individuals are oblivious to the words 'Customer Satisfaction', and are the first to immediately leave a Buyer inappropriate 'retaliatory' negative feedback for rightfully complaining to eBay and/or PayPal, only after said Seller has refused to respond to the Buyer's repeated e-mails asking for some sort of satisfaction/compensation.

Trust me, as both a seasoned eBay Buyer and Seller, I myself have even fallen victim to these 'Sorry Sellers' aka 'Scammers' a few times in the past, and thus, also accounts for my only two negative feebacks...inappropriately left by two dishonest 'Sorry Sellers' solely in retaliation for me contacting eBay/PayPal and rightfully filing a dispute for items I had never received or received with undisclosed damage.

Unfortunately, in order for eBay to become involved in reversing inappropriate/retaliatory negative feedback, they also request that the victim in fact pay a $25 fee to begin eBay's Square Trade mediation process; however, eBay will also advise that they cannot ensure that the inappropriate/retaliatory negative feedback will in fact be reversed. I personally feel adamant that if it's only obvious that the negative feedback was in fact solely left for retaliatory proposes by the offender, then eBay should not force the victim to pay them a $25 fee to have it rightfully reversed by the perpetrator.

Like with any other business transaction, just be careful and 'do your homework' prior to making a commitment by placing your bid for an item. eBay has several helpful tools, hints, and recommendations, and please do read through a Seller's complete feedback history so that you'll get a 'better feel' with whom you are dealing with. Ensure that the you are aware of the item's actual condition and don't be afraid to ask the Seller questions. You can also ask the Seller to e-mail you additional photos if you feel comfortable doing so, so that you'll get a better idea of what condition the item is actually in.

Make sure that the Seller's shipping price is clearly stated, and if not, then send the Seller a message requesting the actual shipping amount to your particular receiving location postal zip code. Make printed copies of all e-mail communication in case it might be required at a later date to possibly resolve a dispute. Make your purchase via a credit card whenever possible, so that you'll still have some recourse in the advent that you do not receive your item or it is not as was described, pictured, or what you had actually expected.

Also, don't get caught-up in a 'bidding war' with one or more other interested Buyers. On a many occasions, I'm sure that those who do are in fact falling victim to 'Shill Bidders', whose only purpose is to drive-up the auction price solely for the Seller's benefit. These 'Shill Bidders' can be the Seller's friend and/or family member, or in fact just might even be the Seller his/herself utilizing another eBay ID. Rely on your 'gut feeling' (self-intuition), yet don't become emotionally involved in a bidding war, as more than likely, the same or similar item will come-up for auction at another time by a different Seller and/or possibly even by the same Seller whose auction you had been bidding on to begin with. At the same time, also take the Seller's total shipping costs into account, so that you are not paying more for a used item than what you can actually purchase it new for in a store.  

I've been involved in over * twelve hundred eBay transactions, and fortunately, with the exception of those few which can be found whilst examining my personal feedback history, almost all have been smooth and trouble-free transactions. I've found rare and hard-to-find items which I've been trying to locate for several years, I've been able to give some folks some great deals on items which they've wanted and I no longer need and/or use, and I've had the pleasure of meeting some very nice people from all over the world.

Good luck Buying and Selling, and most importantly...have fun!

Regards,

'JBH'

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* updated 02/26/08