This question honestly stems from an issue I'm currently running into. For context, i'm a newer collector, and I've never made purchases online, on eBay, until this year. As a result, I clearly have a newer account status with a low feedback score (due to a low volume of purchases made).
Back to my situation, long story short, I found a prize piece I wanted to add to my collection and completed the sale, but the seller currently has cold feet about actually shipping me the product (has yet to be shipped) due to fear of a potential chargeback case, which seems understandable as I am a newer account.
So, my questions are the following:
How do I provide confidence to the seller in order to actually receive the product after I’ve already paid for it? I paid a solid amount for the card so I’ve already made a large investment from my end.
Is the seller actually able to cancel the transaction even after the sale has been confirmed completed and is only pending shipping? If so, what would happen?
Is there anything I can do to build confidence with the seller? For context, of the purchases I’ve made on Ebay so far, one of them is actually a card from the same set as the one being discussed in this thread. I’d hope this would provide some level of credibility.
Is it possible to have other eBay accounts “vouch” for another?
Bonus Question
Clearly, having a newer account with low feedback can make a seller feel apprehensive. This makes it seem like the solution is to build that feedback (i.e. making many purchases) How can I best do this without breaking the bank by buying tons and tons of cards and spending loads?
Any and all advice is much appreciated! Apologies if this was discussed somewhere else on the forum (still navigating my way around and hadn’t seen anything similar at first glance).
Don’t know if there’s much you can do other than explain your situation tbh
2.
Yes, the seller can cancel, in which case you will get a refund
3.
Never hurts to try, this can only help
4.
Probably not.
If you want to build feedback, you can buy a bunch of small cards, build up over time, or sell
It’s not the sellers place to judge a buyer on the amount of feedback they have imo. Everyone has to start somewhere and not everyone has a 10 year old 14,000 feedback account. If it were me, and my order was cancelled based on literally nothing but the seller being scared, I’d report them and block them. Sellers know the risks of selling through ebay
While on some level I can understand the hesitation of sending an expensive item to a low feedback account, it’s not really your job to prove anything to the seller. The best you could do is explain that you’ve been collecting for a while but are new to eBay specifically. Honestly if the seller is that paranoid, there’s a good chance their mind is already made up and you won’t be able to convince them. The seller listed the item, you won the item, the seller is obligated to send it. The seller is able to cancel even though you already paid for it, but they’ll get a defect on their account and I believe you’ll have the opportunity to leave negative feedback if you were inclined to.
People get really caught up with feedback, but plenty of scams have happened from higher feedback accounts. While selling cards on eBay myself, I’ve noticed lately that a lot of low feedback accounts made very recently have purchased things from me. I’ve yet to have an issue with a single one of them. I think a lot of those people are new to the hobby and being brought in with how crazy everything is right now.
For your bonus question, I personally think it’s just easiest to build up feedback naturally over time, not every seller is going to be as apprehensive as this one. If that’s something you want to accelerate though, I would just start looking for cards that align with your collection goals, and start with the cheapest ones.
I never understood why it´s generally assumed that everyone on this planet has a high feedback old ebay account - many people I personally know NEVER bought/sold on ebay. While being cautious is warranted, the seller should honor the sale, if he doesn´t do that cancel and block.
In regards to your bonus question, don’t buy anything just for the sake of getting more feedback because you’re not guaranteed to get feedback from a buyer. Just buy things that you normally would, I don’t think you should be running into this situation too often because I feel most sellers understand the risks that come with selling on eBay. I really hope that the sale goes through and you get your card! Alternatively, if they decide to cancel the order, once you make 50 posts here you can make a buy thread in hopes that someone here has a copy of the card that they’re willing to let go of. You would just need to post what card you’re looking for, the condition you want it in and how much you’re willing to buy it for. Hopefully, you won’t need to do that but the options there if you weren’t aware of it before seeing that you’re a new member.
The seller should have set their buyer requirements higher if they don’t want to sell to low feedback accounts. Explain the situation and it ends up being their call. If they cancel without explanation I would leave them feedback accordingly.
Generally speaking, it’s not right to cancel just because the buyer has a low feedback score. But I think it’s a bit context-dependent. If an account with no feedback BINs a $10,000 card, I think it’s reasonable for the seller to cancel. But if it’s a $500 card, I don’t think it’s fair to cancel solely because the buyer has a low feedback score. But if there were other red flags (i.e., not a real name attached to the address), then I think it’s not unfair for the seller to cancel. So it’s all a matter of context.
In this situation, there’s not much you can do. If the seller doesn’t want to sell to you, they don’t have to. If they cancel, you’ll be refunded obviously. But there’s no recourse, except for leaving negative feedback, if you wanted to.
The only time I ever cancel a sale is if I go to the buyer’s feedback and they have a bunch of feedback from sellers basically saying how they’re terrible buyers/scammers
Low feedback buyers have never caused me a problem. Nothing you can do but hope he ships the card though sadly
You have nothing to prove to the seller and it is his responsibility to send the card to you upon purchase.
Personaly, I would steer away from a seller who has trust issues, but I do understand that if the card you’re after isn’t available anywhere else it may be worth jumping through hoops to get it.
If you really want the card and are concerned about him puling out from the deal you can explain that you are a legitimate buyer and advise him to send the card to you fully insured, tracked and signed so there is zero risk to him.
Depending on the value of the card and on how desperate you are, you can try offering to cover insured shipping costs.
Another option may be to deal with a middle man but that would be an off Ebay issue. I think the homie above me with sig confirmation is a solid way to go about it. Or just try and find a different card if you can? don’t know how prize card it is but there must be another copy unless its really up there.
Insurance/tracking/signature confirmation doesn’t eliminate all that much risk for the seller. The buyer can just open a false INAD case. Ultimately, if the buyer wants to scam you, he/she will succeed. There’s no way to prevent it.
I appreciate the response @jonbo, this is good to know going forward, and it also provides some reassurance that I’m not doing anything that would could be considered deceptive.
