A recommendation to all classifieders

kshapero

South Florida Man
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When selling an item I would recommend based on experience that sales be based on who PAYS first not who PM's you or shows intent otherwise. This will make your sales process very simple. If you are selling a popular item and try to keep track of intent but not actual purchases, i.e. money received, it can get very messy. Having said this I acknowledge the rare exception to the rule.
Just my 2 cents.
 
Yeah and what happens if two people payed at once or in close intervals? Nearly happened to me here. Not a good idea if you ask me.
 
When selling an item I would recommend based on experience that sales be based on who PAYS first not who PM's you or shows intent otherwise. This will make your sales process very simple. If you are selling a popular item and try to keep track of intent but not actual purchases, i.e. money received, it can get very messy. Having said this I acknowledge the rare exception to the rule.
Just my 2 cents.

Well, that may be a sound policy in some ways, but it does have its down sides. For example, some of us are not online 24 hours/day --- say, we need to sleep now and then, or earn a living. So it's perfectly possible for someone to send a PM saying "I'll take it" and mean exactly that, but for a second buyer to send a later "I want it" PM. If the seller accepts payment from the second buyer --- because that person happens to be online --- then the first buyer loses through no fault of his/her own. That doesn't seem quite right.

And I have had this sort of thing happen to me here. I sent an "I'll take it" PM as I headed out of my office to a business meeting. I returned 45 minutes later to find two PMs from the seller screeching "Do you want it or not?", along with a third PM saying "I just sold it".

I appreciate that would-be buyers sometimes fail to follow through (that has also happened to me as seller), but I do think that sellers need to allow would-be buyers some leeway.
 
Yeah and what happens if two people payed at once or in close intervals? Nearly happened to me here. Not a good idea if you ask me.
I have had that happen but just first come, fist served, then I refine the guy who came in second. I have had it happen where they are a minute or two apart.
 
not a good way to run a sale for both parties--
1 (seller) - i would not like to have to explain to those who paid for something and have to return payment - "sorry - you didnt make it in time, thanks for playing" -
2 (buyer) - i would not like to receive news that after i got my hopes up, maybe even cancelled other searches or other purchase avenues since i think i have this one, i sent payment for an item, that i wont be getting. -- (how to make friends fast)

no -- i'd stick to "time stamp" of intent.


but i dont do much selling -- you do what works for you. (wear a helmet for all the friends who are going to roll-up a newpaper and smack you with it) - wink.
 
I think this is much ado about nothing. I've sent an "I'll take it" PM several times where I've gotten an "It's your's" response and then, 15 minutes later, an "You didn't pay fast enough and I sold it" response. I just figure the seller is desperate for the money and move on. I've lost nothing. So what's the big deal?

But, I agree, a seller shouldn't expect multiple folks to send money and then sort it out later.
 
As a seller, I don't want the trouble of having to refund payments.

I tell ya what, how about you run your ad your way, and I run my ad my way ;)
 
I have had to wait for my bank to open if I purchase on a Sunday or late Saturday. I don't keep a lot of funds in my paypal bank account. But I always discuss this with the seller and get approval from them first. I guess a certain amount of honor/trust is part of what makes this forum so much better than e**Y.
 
In most cases one can only pay after the seller has replied with a paypal account or such though.

Therefore if the seller has sent a link to pay they should honour that and not expect the money to come through in the next few minutes. If they decide someones to slow and give their paypal accounts to another and suddenly they've got 2 sums of money sitting there... well that's not very good seller etiquette.

Nothing wrong with a bit of patience. Though yes there are many, many cases of buyers not honouring the deal.
 
I believe that RFF offers an option to direct pay right from the ad which would work for the OP's preference. I've never used it, because I'd rather work out the details with the prospective buyer first, then give them the payment info.
 
With my last couple of ads, I've had a lot of folks think they have verified paypal accounts, but don't. I'm not going to question their motives or suspect that they aren't being up front, but when we go through it step by step, they realize at some point, that they don't have a verified address or whatever to be "verified"

To sellers, this is a big red flag, upon receiving the payment, the seller see's a prominent "Not Eligible for Seller Protection" in which case, I refund immediately, and send the info to the prospective buyer so they can either remedy the situation, or try the scheme elsewhere.
 
With my last couple of ads, I've had a lot of folks think they have verified paypal accounts, but don't. I'm not going to question their motives or suspect that they aren't being up front, but when we go through it step by step, they realize at some point, that they don't have a verified address or whatever to be "verified"

To sellers, this is a big red flag, upon receiving the payment, the seller see's a prominent "Not Eligible for Seller Protection" in which case, I refund immediately, and send the info to the prospective buyer so they can either remedy the situation, or try the scheme elsewhere.

Ebay would appear to be your only choice then...

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Paypal seller protection is valid for goods shipped between Paypal Certified users, under these guidelines:

http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=xpt/Marketing/securitycenter/sell/SellerProtection-outside

It is not related to ebay specific items at all.

That's for the US only, so I guess you're covered. But Seller Protection varies by country and region.

PayPal Seller Protection protects eBay sellers' online transactions in 190 countries and regions. Off-eBay transactions are eligible for protection in select countries. To qualify, the transaction must be marked as eligible and meet the same terms of coverage in the US.
 
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I won an item on ebay a while ago,was declared the winner,got the pay for it email and when I tried to pay for it they would not let me pay.This was all in a matter of two minutes or so.
Seems there was some sniping going on,not by me,I don't use such stuff and there were three buyers to be considered.I probably could have fought it an won by virtue of the email declaring me as the winner but having dealt with paypal in the past I did not trust them to be fair with me.It was for two parts cameras which were split between the other two bidders I think.They offered something like that to me but I wanted all or nothing because I won the bid so I got nothing.Ron G
 
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