The Official E-Bay Scalping Thread

Watch out for this "ingenious" scam guys.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Sony-Playstation-3-60-GB-System-In-Hand-w-Receipt-NEW_W0QQitemZ140057055233QQihZ004QQcategoryZ62054Q QrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

60GB PS3 sold from a legit eBay seller for $570. The reason the lucky buyer got it for so low is that "someone" placed a bid for $1000 and retracted the bid like 10 seconds before the auction ended. The buyer won a few auctions this way for real cheap, like a $150 Xbox 360. What happens is this:

Buyer bids $570 for PS3.

Scammer bids $1000.

Buyer bids $1010.

Thousand dollar price tag scares away other buyers and no one bids on the auction anymore. No one watches the auction anymore either.

Scammer retracts $1000 due to "entering wrong amount." Buyer's bid goes back down to $570 because the $1000 was "taken out." Thus buyer doesn't need to pay $1010, the next "legit" highest amount is $570. Since the retraction occurs 10 seconds before the auction ends, there is no time for anyone else to bid. Moral of the story, delete ANY 0 bidders. I don't care if we all "have to start somewhere." For something like this, you delete automatically. And if its an awesome amount, like $1500, don't get your hopes up. Delete it right away.
 
I thought there was a time limit within which you could not retract a bid... If there isn't, there should be--at least for bidders with low feedback or relatively new accounts (say, less than 30 days). Not foolproof, but it would help.
 
[quote name='javeryh']I was "paid" on Saturday night. I tried my best to keep her informed though - I wrote her an email when she won thanking her and saying I'd ship when payment was received. I wrote another when payment was made telling her I'd ship as soon as the eCheck cleared. I wrote another as soon as the check cleared Wednesday night explaining that I probably couldn't ship until Friday morning because of the holiday. Finally, I wrote her one on Friday with all of the shipping information when I sent it out. She didn't write a single one acknowledging anything. Maybe I should say "payment was slow" in her feedback. What a moron.[/QUOTE]

Another thing that I have found often, javeryh, is that MANY ebay buyers don't read their email, or, if they have yahoo or hotmail accounts, ebay notices from sellers often get put into their spam folders. I had some jackass do a chargeback on me for a $20 game - he kept writing me asking when I sent it. I kept responding. Then he opened the dispute saying I was a horrible seller who never contacted him. Note that this was all within 3 days of the auction ending too :rofl:. Turns out all my messages were in his spam folder. He finally figured it out and apologized, but what a pain.

As for the bid retraction, I was wondering if you could do that. I thought of that early last week and wondered if some of these $1500 bids back then weren't made for that purpose. Glad to see THAT loophole exists :roll:.
 
[quote name='Kendro']Watch out for this "ingenious" scam guys.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Sony-Playstation-3-60-GB-System-In-Hand-w-Receipt-NEW_W0QQitemZ140057055233QQihZ004QQcategoryZ62054Q QrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

60GB PS3 sold from a legit eBay seller for $570. The reason the lucky buyer got it for so low is that "someone" placed a bid for $1000 and retracted the bid like 10 seconds before the auction ended. The buyer won a few auctions this way for real cheap, like a $150 Xbox 360. What happens is this:

Buyer bids $570 for PS3.

Scammer bids $1000.

Buyer bids $1010.

Thousand dollar price tag scares away other buyers and no one bids on the auction anymore. No one watches the auction anymore either.

Scammer retracts $1000 due to "entering wrong amount." Buyer's bid goes back down to $570 because the $1000 was "taken out." Thus buyer doesn't need to pay $1010, the next "legit" highest amount is $570. Since the retraction occurs 10 seconds before the auction ends, there is no time for anyone else to bid. Moral of the story, delete ANY 0 bidders. I don't care if we all "have to start somewhere." For something like this, you delete automatically. And if its an awesome amount, like $1500, don't get your hopes up. Delete it right away.[/quote]

Wow. As an experienced ebay seller, I'm surprised I haven't heard of this scam before. How did you find out about it?
 
Wow. I wouldn't be sending out the PS3 if I were him and I think he would be completely justified - although he should have set a reserve.
 
[quote name='getmyrunon']Did you actually pay the guy before receiving the systems? If yes - why? If no - don't get them?[/QUOTE]

yup, its kinda mandatory to pay for stuff before you recieve it.
 
So the PS3 appears to have bottomed out recently on ebay. I'm looking through the ebay and seeing systems end for $700 and $800 regularly. Is the PS3 no longer THE hot item this year? Has Sony over priced the system?

I'm wondering if $399 or $299 is really the high end price for most gamers. Personally I'm a gamer who has not spent more than $199 for a system, but I'm starting to think that I'm in the minority.
 
[quote name='Indiana']So the PS3 appears to have bottomed out recently on ebay. I'm looking through the ebay and seeing systems end for $700 and $800 regularly. Is the PS3 no longer THE hot item this year? Has Sony over priced the system?

I'm wondering if $399 or $299 is really the high end price for most gamers. Personally I'm a gamer who has not spent more than $199 for a system, but I'm starting to think that I'm in the minority.[/quote]

its still hot but not 500+ over retail hot.

paying 700-750 for a 20gig system costing 500+tax is still a good profit margin for ebayers. (80-100dollars profit)
 
I got $1,100 for mine (Gamestop didn't get mine in until Tuesday). I'm happy with that because I didn't camp out for hours to get it. I'm glad I got it when I did, because it seems like I put mine up on Ebay just in time.
 
That $1000 bid was retracted with 26 seconds left. I don't think that kind of crap should be allowed. The buyer can always weasel out of paying if they TRULY made a mistake - they shouldn't get to hose an auction like that (whether it was intentional or not). This guy has pretty cheap shipping on the auction too, so he's set to lose about $100 after shipping and fees.

Looking at the bid history, the eventual winner first bid at 19:52. Then the zero-feedback retracting bidder bid at 19:54. Then the winner bid two more times at 19:56. Then the retraction happened at 20:44:01. The auction ended at 20:44:27.

So this is what happened: The eventual "winner" bid $500 at 19:52 and then something a bit higher a few seconds later as another bidder had a $520 bid in there. Then the fake account is used to bid $1000 at 19:54. The "winner" then bids some amount above $1000 and the auction sits there at $1010 or something till near closing. No one bids since most are ending under $1000 now. Then they retract the first $1000 bid, leaving the "winning" bid at $570, which is the minimal increment over the last real bid from another buyer (which was $560).

Seems clever, but the timing of it all is very suspicious and I'd be surprised if ebay didn't side with the seller in this case. The "winner" and the other bidder are still registered, so it will be interesting to see if they get banned.


WOW - look at this auction, for which the same buyer got a positive feedback for:

http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBids&item=130045933543

Looks like the same kind of activity here - a cancelled bid of $570 with about 30 seconds left and robotchickenfried wins an Xbox 360 for $142.50. This seller didn't seem to notice. Amazing...

Holy crap! This guy used the same fake account to get a (relatively) game cheap too:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230049292733

This was nearly the same time as the Xbox 360 auction. That one would be hard to notice, probably, without seeing the pattern in the other auctions. I'm surprised the Xbox 360 seller didn't notice - though that seller seems to have her own issues (bad feedback).

If you look at the negative feedback for the fake bidding account it looks like he didn't get a retraction done in time on this one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250047527056

and thus just didn't pay for it. Notice robotchickenfried has bid on that also - he just messed up the retraction I guess. Because of the negative feedback he had to use another new account (with zero feedback) for the PS3 auction.
 
[quote name='fred_h_haddad']Reported. Hopefuly robotchickenfried will see (suspended) next to his name.[/quote]

I reported him too. Though honestly, Ebay doesn't give a fuck. They don't give a fuck about any of their users.
 
Hey guys a little advice is needed.....

So I finally sold a ps3, it ended early with buy it now at 1050...unfortunately, the buyer is from Nigeria and he payed with paypal even thought I specifically said money orders only.....The money is in the paypal account but isnt credited until I send a tracking number, but anyway, I dont have a business account, so I cant accept a payment of that size, right?

Anyway, this seems like an obvious scam, am I right?
 
[quote name='charles']Hey guys a little advice is needed.....

So I finally sold a ps3, it ended early with buy it now at 1050...unfortunately, the buyer is from Nigeria and he payed with paypal even thought I specifically said money orders only.....The money is in the paypal account but isnt credited until I send a tracking number, but anyway, I dont have a business account, so I cant accept a payment of that size, right?

Anyway, this seems like an obvious scam, am I right?[/QUOTE]

NO NIGERIA, I DONT CARE IF HE SENDS YOU CASH IN THE MAIL ITS A SCAM
 
haha, yeah that was my first reaction, so many cams coming out of there....now I have to wait a week before filing a non-paying bidder dispute and the like right? and could he leave me negative feedback for not sending it to him?
 
[quote name='charles']haha, yeah that was my first reaction, so many cams coming out of there....now I have to wait a week before filing a non-paying bidder dispute and the like right? and could he leave me negative feedback for not sending it to him?[/quote]
I would start up another auction right away. Add the dude from Nigeria to your blocklist so he won't do it again (Google for instructions).

Go ahead and file the non-paying bidder thing, but put that PS3 back up for auction before you get the dispute settled.

He might leave you negative feedback, but you could reply to it with reasons as to why he's a lying scumbag ("paid in Paypal when I said not to, from Nigeria, etc.").
 
heh, this guy is a real bastard, he now changed his feedback to private, and it went from (1) to (-1) without his overall feedback changing, so he mustve hacked ebay or something weird is going on....
Now he sent me an email using a different email account pretending that he's from the netherlands saying:
"Good to hear from my good friend well i whould have love to pay you via poster money order but deu to the problem i have with my bank i can only pay any payment with paypal for now so kindlly bear it with me and get the item ship why you also provide me the shipping tracking number"

haha, very funny why would I ship to Nigeria if you are in the netherlands....

wow, ebay really sucks for sellers....I learned my lesson, no more scalping after this fiasco
 
[quote name='imascrub']I wonder what it is with nigeria and scammers[/QUOTE]

It is the most ridiculously and sadly corrupt country in the world. You can get away with anything with Nigeria as long as you have some cash. And, thanks to oil, quite a few people in Nigeria are very well off, although they represent a small proportion of the population.
 
My friend used to do the bid retract thing back long long ago in like 1998 or so and it worked for him. He said around 2000 ebay started cracking down, but before that it was easy to do that trick.
 
[quote name='fred_h_haddad']Block bid from foreign countries. It's in your setting to 'only allow bids from u.s. & canada' users.[/quote]

awww man but what if you consider canada a foreign country?:hot:
 
[quote name='charles']heh, this guy is a real bastard, he now changed his feedback to private, and it went from (1) to (-1) without his overall feedback changing, so he mustve hacked ebay or something weird is going on....
Now he sent me an email using a different email account pretending that he's from the netherlands saying:
"Good to hear from my good friend well i whould have love to pay you via poster money order but deu to the problem i have with my bank i can only pay any payment with paypal for now so kindlly bear it with me and get the item ship why you also provide me the shipping tracking number"

haha, very funny why would I ship to Nigeria if you are in the netherlands....

wow, ebay really sucks for sellers....I learned my lesson, no more scalping after this fiasco[/quote]

Please give us his ebay user name so I can look him up and report him to ebay.

Also, feel free to string him along as long as possible. For great ideas read up on scamming Nigerian scammers at 419eater.com. The Harry Potter hand written scam is one of the funniest things I have read on the internet.
 
What exactly is the Nigeria eBay scam? I'm still kind of a newb at the eBay thing. But I always see auctions that end with, "No I do not care if your daughter is studying abroad in Nigeria, I will not send them a PS3." What is it about Nigeria that makes the scam and not some other foreign country?

Edit - So I Googled "eBay Nigeria scam" and found some pretty funny yet sad stuff. I guess even the most level-headed person can get caught off guard, but I can't believe these morons fell for fake emails.
 
i've started just adding anyone whose bid on a ps3 before mine ends AND who has 0 or 1 or 2 or less than 10 feedback to my blocklist...seems to keep tthose damn spammers away...i hope...i got my PS3 now at an $1100 BIN...hope it sells
 
[quote name='Kendro']What exactly is the Nigeria eBay scam? I'm still kind of a newb at the eBay thing. But I always see auctions that end with, "No I do not care if your daughter is studying abroad in Nigeria, I will not send them a PS3." What is it about Nigeria that makes the scam and not some other foreign country?

Edit - So I Googled "eBay Nigeria scam" and found some pretty funny yet sad stuff. I guess even the most level-headed person can get caught off guard, but I can't believe these morons fell for fake emails.[/QUOTE]

It happens on craigslist with other countries. A person will have an item for sale and then all of a sudden when you e-mail them, they moved to the UK or Amesterdam or something....but the good news is they still have the item!

So i thought to myself, why would someone sell a plasma but pay to bring it overseas and bother to sell it at the same price where they used to live at. Not to mention that the listing date and the current date werent too far apart.

So i did a quick google search and everything from the listing to the e-mail word for word was a scam. For that reason i stay away from selling or buying from other countries(aside from canada). Only exceptions i make are as a buyer for sellers with alot of feedback or as a trader on a site like gametz or CAG where i talk to the person before hand.
 
[quote name='Kendro']What exactly is the Nigeria eBay scam? I'm still kind of a newb at the eBay thing. But I always see auctions that end with, "No I do not care if your daughter is studying abroad in Nigeria, I will not send them a PS3." What is it about Nigeria that makes the scam and not some other foreign country?

Edit - So I Googled "eBay Nigeria scam" and found some pretty funny yet sad stuff. I guess even the most level-headed person can get caught off guard, but I can't believe these morons fell for fake emails.[/quote]

That's the classic hook that they use to attempt to reel you in

It's usually something about a son or daughter studying abroad and the parent really wants to surprise them. Or somebody is dying and would like to make this their last dying wish (I'm dying! Gib me ps3!). Some kind of crap like that.
 
MINE WENT FOR $1100! YAY! so i made about a $400 profit...with ebay and paypal fees and all...man IM happy...and the guy already paid and everything, so im quickly withdrawing all the money out of my account so he can't do any chargebacks :)
 
[quote name='animemaniac14']MINE WENT FOR $1100! YAY! so i made about a $400 profit...with ebay and paypal fees and all...man IM happy...and the guy already paid and everything, so im quickly withdrawing all the money out of my account so he can't do any chargebacks :)[/quote]

Is that the same PS3 you were going to make around $1200 + on, but the guy backed out?
 
[quote name='animemaniac14']i've started just adding anyone whose bid on a ps3 before mine ends AND who has 0 or 1 or 2 or less than 10 feedback to my blocklist...seems to keep tthose damn spammers away...i hope...i got my PS3 now at an $1100 BIN...hope it sells[/quote]
Would you mind sharing your blocklist?
 
[quote name='Dhuk']Is that the same PS3 you were going to make around $1200 + on, but the guy backed out?[/quote]
well the girl backed out on it...but i demanded compensation for lost time and effort and ebay fees to pay off...and i got a good $300 from her instead of $2500 like the amount she had won the auction for...but i still made a profit of about $500-$600 so im happy. and im AMAZED that someone actually pays attention to my posts o_O

[quote name='eau']Would you mind sharing your blocklist?[/quote]

quite a long list i've compiled...

82transam350, 9659victor, acarlisle53, acj2121, adamelodi, adewomon, akey2007, alank212, allamerreject145, alyss03, aqua2479, ariggs96, atkinson727, austin0040, ayeep401, b.johns, baboon701, bajan1234, beccaface22, bh56ko, bid_boy_walshey, biggrigs173, bigjody111, billybaru13, bloodtearzsweat, bonesviper777, brainz11203, btinsley992, cardgod111, cashyo999, chocalek24, couponclipperntx, crazyandyhair, crock4200, ctran1337, danielec7232, danschley, depasquale866, eyelyktoys, ez_shops, farshad_81_2002, foreverfit79, frankieboy745, frshplyr488, fsdc1, gohuskies1908, gummyrabbit, harald4786, hawk247ada, heroslegacy24, heybabe_12, hf299, hp_rsx_s, huai, ich00012, ihategreedypeople, ihategreedypeople3, imcken32, isaac-5212, jad19760, jake5343, jayberk17, jbccity82, jharris401, jlucido7, jmcbride2010, john77hike, johnnyballgame5, johnnywadd37, josephaddai10, jreed075, jswank973, jtpatriots, keystonecop96, kiangsta, kneser2006, knoameshie, lazer9284, ldanc3likemj, lgutfa, liltif_012001, lovelikewinter0, lovetobid1008, luiandterry, machineissad, marclasry, matt307165, metungyamu, michaels1501, midwestsports2002, mixloud, mmlasiter, moeabdallah24, mrsophistication, mxmstr88, nighthawklxxxvi, noxsucow_1noxsucow, plasticadhesive, prosprac92, pserra68, psingley85, purchcraig, qside23, rachellenandre, rangersnyrangers1, rayd4565, ream8213, rinsudabell, robert42899, robin_elite, robotchickenfried, rohrer23, rounderj32, rpgamer101, samwkim, sdfd_504, sh0esy, shadowhearted, shakkit, snation100, soldatos, spy358, stevenchung1984, suckit123456, superman1584, taylorneuman17, tejjh1, themp3zone, thormaster3, tonyt3879, trustnu2, vanoctane, virtualdropzone, wardmusic29, wootang365, xitebike
 
Aren't you like the second person who got compensated for someone backing out? I can't believe that - I've had many buyers back out over the years and I don't get so much as a response from them, let alone any compensation :roll:. It is unbelievable to me that they gave you $300 for not buying it. Wow...

In any case, it seems the BIN are the way to go on these. They seem to get $1100 or so BIN, while ending under $1000 if they are regular auctions.
 
[quote name='io']Aren't you like the second person who got compensated for someone backing out? I can't believe that - I've had many buyers back out over the years and I don't get so much as a response from them, let alone any compensation :roll:. It is unbelievable to me that they gave you $300 for not buying it. Wow...

In any case, it seems the BIN are the way to go on these. They seem to get $1100 or so BIN, while ending under $1000 if they are regular auctions.[/quote]

i was VEry reasonable with this woman and i could tell she was an honest person so i was always as accomodating as i could be. thats what'll get you the compensation you need...gotta be a nice guy ;)
 
[quote name='animemaniac14']i was VEry reasonable with this woman and i could tell she was an honest person so i was always as accomodating as i could be. thats what'll get you the compensation you need...gotta be a nice guy ;)[/QUOTE]

Uh, I'm hardly the "mean" guy. It is just that 99% of buyers who don't pay just never respond in any way shape or form, whether your contact them or not. What I do is send out multiple invoices (one every few days). If I don't hear from them within a week I file the non-paying bidder alert. Then 8 days after that I get my closing fees credited back - all usually without a peep from the buyer. YOU were lucky to have such a nice buyer - she obviously contacted you about backing out instead of just ignoring everything.

Though I wouldn't say you were the nice guy and so accomodating - asking for $300 in compensation when she didn't even get an item is pretty bold and uncompromising! After all, the worst you could do to her otherwise is give her a negative feedback. I wouldn't consider 1 negative worth $300! The "accomodating" thing would have been to just ask for the listing fees back ($30 or so depending on how you listed it). But, hey, it worked out for you. I just don't want anyone else to get the impression that they will be able to do this - it is very rare.
 
[quote name='animemaniac14']MINE WENT FOR $1100! YAY! so i made about a $400 profit...with ebay and paypal fees and all...man IM happy...and the guy already paid and everything, so im quickly withdrawing all the money out of my account so he can't do any chargebacks :)[/QUOTE]

PAYPAL is limiting access on seller accounts which are involved with Ps3 auctions. This is what happened to a relative of mine, as soon as the auction ended, she transfered $1000 to her bank accout and a few hours later PAYPAL reversed the transfer and limited the account until they get proof that the buyer received the PS3. It sucks big time.

Anyway I am still debating if I should sell the PS3 I am sitting on (I got it this past Sun.) $1100 sounds like a good price to me, but I still kinda of hoping the price will get higher closer to Xmas. I may end up keeping it but the only game I want to play right now is Resistance, plus I have a Wii and a 360 which I don't even have time to play right now.
 
[quote name='ofacto']PAYPAL is limiting access on seller accounts which are involved with Ps3 auctions. This is what happened to a relative of mine, as soon as the auction ended, she transfered $1000 to her bank accout and a few hours later PAYPAL reversed the transfer and limited the account until they get proof that the buyer received the PS3. It sucks big time.[/quote]

This was a surprise to me when it happened. I got all of the crap that I needed to get to Paypal and the PS3 was delivered today. I estimate that if I get my money released by the end of the year, I'll be doing good.

Is this limiting access policy allowed in their EULA? If not, we should all get together and file a class action lawsuit against Paypal. You could probably make the case that they are illegally holding money. I only had an account to get paid for my PS3, and it sucks that I might not have the money in time for the holidays.

TBW

PS I guess, in retrospect, its no more than I deserve....teach me to scalp a damn system.
 
I saw that post about the limited accounts and PayPal waiting to hear from the buyer. What level of feedback do you guys have? When I sold mine I pulled the money out the same day and had no problem - no "limiting" or anything. My buyer has received their PS3 (according to signature confirmation) but I haven't heard anything from them in 2 days since they received it - no acknowledgement and no complaints... I don't consider myself semi-safe till I see that feedback though. But I don't get this PayPal limit thing - it must only apply to low feedback sellers or perhaps new PayPal accounts??

Edit - just checked my bank account, the money I xferred out of PayPal last Friday minutes after my buyer paid is now sitting in my checking account. Of course, I didn't empty my PayPal entirely - there's still a few $100 in there, which could get snagged in a chargeback.
 
thats SO ridiculous that paypal is making you keep the money in your paypal account until the buyer has received the ps3...cuz the buyer CAN say that he/she DIDN'T get he ps3...even if they aCTUALLY DID...and they can do a fucking chargeback on you and get all their money back...WTF paypal...fuck you
 
[quote name='animemaniac14']when exactly did you do this?[/QUOTE]

Mine was last Friday. Just got an email from my buyer that the PS3 was received in good condition! Woo-hoo!

I'm wondering if the PayPal restrictions were just on new sellers or sellers with new PayPal accounts. BlueWizard seems to be implying he just got his PayPal account for the purpose of selling the PS3. So that could be it. It makes sense for ebay/PayPal to keep an eye on brand new seller accounts for this type of item. Though probably, at this point, with the prices way down they could stop with all the restrictions (including the pictures with receipt, etc).
 
ya i got PLENTY of verified transactions on paypal with 50+ feedback...so i better not have a problem...man the guy i sold my ps3 to made me call him up and confirm that i wasn't going to scam HIM...i was more afraid he was gonna scam ME...o_O
 
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