Selling on eBay - how to protect yourself from possible scams by malicious buyers | Rules and safety

passione_giochi · 2021-12-08T18:02:55.794000Z

Hi everyone,I’m not a professional seller, just a board game enthusiast, a boardgamer as they say, who sometimes sells used games or even new ones, and I wanted some advice on how to protect myself from potential bad-faith buyers.Specifically, nothing has happened, I just have a strange feeling, because of a sale that happened just this morning. Specifically, I had listed a rare board game on eBay several months ago at a fairly high price in line with how impossible it is to find and with its like-new condition, since it had never been played, only opened to check the contents, a detail I obviously put in bold in the listing along with photos of the game.So, this morning, around 9:00 on December 8, I get an email from eBay saying the game had been bought. Happy with the news, I went to see who had purchased the item and noticed that the user, who lives in Italy, had registered this same morning (so they have no feedback), which of course isn’t a red flag since it can happen that, while searching for a product you’re interested in, that exact item pops out of the vast sea of the internet and you sign up to the site on the spot to buy it immediately... What did seem unusual to me, though, was that I had included the option in the listing "send a purchase offer", to give potential buyers some room to negotiate on the price, but apparently the guy didn’t hesitate and paid the full amount as listed. Then I figured that since he’s not an experienced user and has never used eBay, he might not have noticed the button to send an offer, so maybe let that slide too...At this point here I am writing on this forum because I have until Tuesday, December 14 to ship the package and I wanted your opinion on it, and above all some advice/precautions to take before shipping the game.Personally, I photograph everything while I’m packing the box and once I’ve shipped the game, I send the buyer a message via eBay saying the item has been shipped, attaching photos of the packaging as well as the tracking number so they can follow the shipment.Someone told me the buyer could file a complaint claiming that the goods received don’t match what was described in the listing or maybe saying that parts of the game are missing or something else, asking me for my money back and possibly sending me a "brick" in return, with the result that they keep the game and the money.I’m asking you, is a scenario like that really possible? How does eBay handle situations like this?Lastly, since the shipment will be with Poste and in the listing I had indicated shipping with Poste Delivery Standard, do you think it would be better to go with Poste Delivery Express? The latter, besides insuring the shipment, also provides return to sender in case of non-delivery (naturally I’d cover the difference in shipping price myself). Thanks in advance to everyone who will chime in.

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Selling on eBay - how to protect yourself from possible scams by malicious buyers | Rules and safety | eBay Italy