Morning/Afternoon/Evening all, firstly my apologies if this has been covered elsewhere.
Like many of you I’m beginning to amass a 5-figure (£) collection. While I have absolutely no desire to sell anything in the short term, it may become an attractive option in the future. Having only ever sold items <£500 in value over eBay/Paypal - thankfully with no issues - I have quite a few concerns over selling items like my base set booster box, PSA 10 gold stars etc.
As far as I can gather, eBay sellers assume quite a lot of risk - even with the supposed “seller protection” eBay claims. I understand that sellers can do their due diligence checks prior to selling high-value items, such as setting a minimum eBay feedback requirement, getting in touch with the buyer before the sale etc. - though this is far from fail-safe. What if I were to send a £2000 card through the post, the buyer opens an item NAD case for a return, and sends me back an energy card in the mail? Would there be any recourse after that?
I have also considered selling in person, which I have no problem with personally, however there’s still the prospect of the buyer requesting a charge-back through their bank for the bank transfer payment. I guess I could get them to sign a document confirming they’ve received the item as described, but there’s nothing stopping them writing a false signature.
As you can tell I’m a very risk-averse person - should I just accept that there is never a 100% risk-free sale, or are there other precautions sellers can take in these scenarios? I haven’t seen any articles or youtube videos addressing this topic with much substance (maybe I’ve just not looked hard enough) so would appreciate your thoughts.
I was worried when I first started too. Once you do it for awhile you realise that 99% of the people aren’t trying to scam. Why don’t you start by selling some lower priced items until you get comfortable?
Every seller has their own strategies when selling. For me I usually list my items on ebay above what they are worth. As people send offers I can filter who I want to sell to.
Good discussion post. Ultimately every transaction will incur some risk. Maximizing your potential return while minimizing your risk is really the best you can do. There are many options out there. The top three in no particular order are likely consignment shops (E.g. PWCC), auction houses (E.g. Heritage) and personal wire transfer/cash transaction.
For really high value items, I try to arrange deals privately with other established collectors in the community (over time, your contacts will grow and you’ll know who is looking for different items). I’m almost always more willing to deal with previous buyers and forum members and usually offer better prices to them, since there is an existing relationship and an assurance that a sale will go smoothly. I think a lot of E4 members operate in a similar manner, but that’s just my impression anyway. Like others have said though, most of the time eBay is fine . . . however, I would advise others to never make a transaction for an amount of money that would ruin you if something were to happen.
If you are very risk averse I would sell to people with an established reputation and not to strangers on eBay.
For graded cards I think you will be fine, but with sealed product I would try to sell to someone you know, and the demand is high enough that shouldn’t be difficult.
For high-end cards people don’t send you energy cards, they send you same card but in far worse condition. You sold a NM 1st base Zard, you will get back played Zard in return. This way it’s a lot more difficult to prove anything and fight back.
They would still get away with it even if they send back an energy (as far as eBay is concerned). You could file a civil suit and maybe win. And if you win, you maybe will get reimbursed. Luckily, mail fraud is a federal crime so getting scammed as a seller is a pretty low risk on tracked shipments. But eBay, as a matter of policy, won’t side with sellers in INAD cases. If the INAD dispute is done through PayPal, there is a tiny chance that a seller can win, though (but most people go through the dispute system on eBay).
My friend, a big electronic seller on ebay had many cases with high-end laptops/macbooks. Buyer replaced parts and returned laptop. He won several of these cases. Yeah, he is a big seller with a physical store so probably has some sort of system in place, but still. Of course with pokemon cards it might be different.
I should’ve made it clear: I’m referring to situations where the buyer is intending to defraud you. If they are intending to commit fraud, they will succeed (and that includes if and when they send back an energy card instead of a Charizard). And when I say ‘succeed,’ I mean as far as winning the case on eBay is concerned.
The only way your friend won the case is if both of the following were true: the item was listed as ‘new’ and the buyer acknowledged that they replaced parts. More than likely, the situation with your friend was not an instance of a scam, but he just had picky/entitled/moronic buyer. If someone is returning a card other than the exact, physical copy they received, they’re not being picky/entitled/moronic, but are committing fraud. In that case, assuming the person committing fraud doesn’t literally admit to it, there is not a 1% chance you will win the eBay case, but a 0% chance.