Shipment before payment on eBay?

General
1

I’ve got a curious case here on eBay… I bought from a zero-feedback seller on eBay yesterday, nothing extraordinary, just a single Base Set 2 Charizard for a reasonable price, the account is a few weeks old and he has sold a couple of things for all reasonable prices…

Now today the seller has shipped the item before I have paid for it, a little bit odd, isn’t it? But that’s not all, he also provided a tracking number that’s currently on “SHIPPING LBL CREATED USPS AWAITS ITEM”. Does he know my shipment address before payment, I doubt it? And doesn’t this smell fishy? If it does, is there anything I can do without making a payment?

2

You can make a label without the buyer paying, eBay only discourages this but doesn’t make it impossible.

I’d try to get the money to the seller as soon as possible just because being new they might not fully understand the process.

And if your item never comes you always have the fantastic eBay buyer protection on your side.

*Edit* you can see the buyers shipping address but cannot purchase shipping from eBay directly as cullers mentioned.

3

You can see the buyers address before receiving payment. eBay labels won’t print if there isn’t any payment received and eBay recommends against sending out items before payment is receieved. To me it looks like someone who doesn’t understand that items aren’t paid for and there’s shaddy people that will take advantage and not pay. I’d send them a message warning them in the future and pay for the item.

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4

Thank you, it indeed looks like an inexperienced seller then, I’ll just go ahead and pay then, there’s always the money back guarantee.

One more thing though, the seller has a number behind his name (like randomname-7), any clue where that could come from, eBay’s name suggestion? I would think scammers are not stupid enough to just keep increasing the number if they get banned.

5

I wouldn’t worry about this transaction at all; it sounds like you’re just dealing with someone who is new to selling on eBay. If this individual was truly a scammer; why would he/she purchase and pay for a shipping label? I have a feeling this transaction will go very smoothly for you - it sounds like the seller has been doing everything properly (aside from nearly mailing the package without payment).

In regards to the user-name; stop being so nervous! Haha There are many reasons why there’s a number at the end - his/her original name was taken (thus adding a number at the end), it is his/her favorite number… My e-mail is "myname"36 - doesn’t mean I’ve created 36 different e-mail accounts, that just happens to be my favorite number.

1 Like
6

Thanks for the reassurance :blush:

Maybe I am a bit too paranoid haha, I did get scammed, though money back covered me, a number of months ago. I just thought that such a naming pattern occurred more with accounts which have zero feedback. Though to be honest I don’t pay attention to the name as soon as there is a reasonable amount of feedback.

7

As old school said, calm down bro. Life is short;)

I often ship before payment if we’re hitting a weekend or something like that. Several times they’ve received the item before they paid lol. They love that and has resulted in some very large follow up deals;)

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