Thought this was a good time to put up a sticky on how to protect yourself as a Seller and/or Buyer. Mostly just commonsense. Please add your best practices.

1. Always send toys with at least Delivery Confirmation if not insurance and/or tracking. DC is only like $0.75 extra.

2. Some might argue it's safer to make large payments via Paypal with your credit card account so you have extra protection.

3. Don't send to an un-confirmed address.

4. Don't send to a different address than what is tied to the buyer. Several scams have occured here with stolen credit cards.

5. Be wary of sending payments as a gift on ebay. You lose your right to dispute.

6. For high priced items, ask for shipping with some sort of tracking up front before you agree to purchase.

7. If you have never dealt with this person before, search the board to see if there has been any previous complaints or issues.

8. Communication as seller or buyer is the key. If you can't get the toy in the mail for whatever reason, just explain the issue to the other party. good communication makes up for a lot.

9. my personal rule of thumb is to get the toys in the mail in less than a week. and I can promise you with a full time job including travel and two kids at home, i'm busier than you are. Less than one month is forgivable. Longer than a month is not.

10. Give your fellow board members the benefit of the doubt.

thank you toybotstudios. another point i'd like to add is that it is probably worth paying an 8% premium when purchasing items from boardmembers with over 6000 posts. Life is a numbers game and through my research, these people that have spammed... i mean, contributed to this community have a good track record in sales... you may be spending a little bit more now, but you're saving alot in the long run (not to mention the headaches)

***** viewtopic.php?f=9&t=37281 ******
ebay: http://shop.ebay.com/sirrhino324/m.html

apparently, some noobies don't understand how paypal works so I'm bumping this !

I never understood why people don't confirm addresses on paypal accounts. It's so easy to do. Also why does paypal even allow people not to have confirmed addresses? Seems like they're just asking for headaches and scams. I get that a lot when I sell records and I'm always telling them you need to confirm the address. I don't like to generalize, but people who don't often are the ones trying to pull that "Oh you never sent the item" BS. It's a known scam.

Common sense but still a good idea to start this thread. I've hardly ever sold anything but I was considering selling some stuff here on SB so this is all good to keep in mind. Thanks.

I am new to the board, but I wonder about what people here think about the personal payment issue. I know some members prefer those, but I am a bit afraid to make them since there is no buyer protection. Esp for large purchases.

So what do you all think? I am not against personal payments if I know someone. Or for small purchases. I understand that it saves fees, prevents tax issues, and is ok if you trust the person.

cindy

Um, there are a lot of flags coming up immediately with this Cindy, but let me just shorten it all by saying that a regular payment transfer (i.e. not personal or 'gifted') is always the safest bet for both you and the seller. Especially since you are covering the extra fees involved, there is zero reason why anyone would or should say 'no' to this.

Now I don't know who the member is, nor does it matter. There are no special rules that apply to some but not others. Suggesting that there is a hierarchy or tiered system to the board where certain people get special treatment is a farce. The best thing to do is to always protect yourself first. There are no shortage of threads on here about dealings gone bad. And, from my own experience, no one who has been around this board a long time or who has had significant dealings with the community would ever ask this of you.

There is no risk to him/her by doing a full and tracked payment through Paypal. If someone does not want to do it, I would question why.

Thank you. That is what I thought, but I did want to see what others thought. I can see this is a tightly-kit group of members and I did not want to come in as a newbie and rock the boat. But it does not feel safe to me, so I told him I'd pass.

^^^^
...i say do everything as a proper regular 'sale' payment.

IF people are concerned about fees, they can be paid as a 'gift' in a second payment.

Which is what i always do.

This protects both buyer and seller.

I could not fathom his reluctance to go the regular way either. He said early on that he needed me to send it the personal way because he did not know ME yet and had to be cautious, because the board had had problems with new members before. He said he was "nervous" about me. But I kept telling him that a regular payment was not risky for him - that ebay sellers and such accepted such payments from complete strangers precisely because it WAS safe, for both parties. But he kept acting as though only personal payments were safe for him.

cindy

I think that there were problems at one point with people buying items then disputing the charges, and getting a refund.

I believe the only way around this is to pay for the adult signature verified delivery, but wouldn't you do that on an expensive item anyway?

a personal payment is the most unsafe way to pay, because there is no recourse if something goes wrong. it sounds very fishy. i also agree to request signature on delivery is the safest.

Yeah, I would never gift payment $350, even if it was my best friend. They might become lazy and stall on shipping, and you would have no way to make them hurry up with the gift payment

Name and shame for shits and giggles!

I avoid "gifting" payments at all costs. It can be a sure-fire way to get screwed if dealing with non-reputable members of this hobby (which sadly there are too many of hanging around)...

I implore other new members to do their homework and possibly even ask other long-term members about the credibility of a seller when being proposed with such terms.

Also people, if you're selling something above $250 be sure to add signature confirmation when shipping or you will not be covered by PayPal in the event the sale goes south.

Edited in light of the full story

I put tracking on everything, but I will ask for either gift payment OR extra shipping fees if a package is international. No way am I sending out a package internationally without being able to track it unless I get paid as gift. I got screwed by someone internationally for $200 once.

resolved

I do exactly the same thing! If the buyer is willing to accept the risk for the sake of cheap shipping (often worthwhile with low value items) I'm happy!

Tracking on something worth $350 should be a no-brainer and would be automatically covered by Paypal dispute policy even if they file a claim!

fixed

Just for clarification . . . Paypal don't give a shit as long as you can supply a tracking number!

done

That's so true as long as you provide tracking # showing that package has been delivered buyer can claim whatever but Paypal always will rule on sellers favor.
Am telling this by experience!

also you want to be sure you ship to the confirmed paypal address to be covered.

resolved

I feel like I am still missing something from this story, but might I suggest that since this now seems to be about a personal transaction between a buyer and seller, rather than general advice about buying and selling on the board, it be moved to a separate discussion?