Announcement: Careful when buying anything online

dlilazteca

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This topic has been covered before, but I have noticed that relatively new forum members have been posting very expensive tools for sale and have failed to respond publicly, just like you can be taken on craigslist's, eBay, or any other place it can also happen here take precautions never send a check or money order in my opinion or cash, I would do PayPal as you are insured, also make sure there verified PayPal members. Take into account there join date number of posts, just so you can make sure they are an established member of this great forum.

I almost forgot don't just send money to a PayPal email address have them create an invoice requesting the money from you and have them described the items in the invoice

I hope this helps and happy buying
 
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Sam

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I couldn't agree more and it makes me nervous when I see someone post in our Classifieds to sell or buy something expensive when they have little or no post count. As Carlos said, if everyone is PayPal VERIFIED then the transaction should be protected.

Occasionally someone gets into engraving and then gets out of it and wants to sell their gear and nobody knows them and they have no forum history or reputation. This is a situation where a buyer must really go the extra mile in order to be sure the seller is legit. And sellers need to be equally cautious of buyers.
 

cutfingers

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For new users like me, without a posting history, is it alright to post in the "for sale" ads, with a link to their ebay listings? For example, I have over an 8000 positive feedback rating on ebay, but zero posts here (except now for this one). Engraving is a brand new interest here for me. I am hopeful to sell quite a few items I believe will be of interest to the users here, so I can buy a couple of engraving tools. I am what you might call an "industrial picker". I have found some pretty interesting sources for surplus and estate tools and products. I'd be happy to list here first if there is interest. If not, can I just tell folks my ebay user name, or item numbers, when I have things of interest?
 

Ron Spokovich

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As any 9 year old knows far more than I do concerning computers, eBay, PayPal, and as I don't have credit or debit cards, this puts me into somewhat of a problem concerning a purchase I might see on the Forum. I don't doubt that there are others like me. But, as I'm personally known to another on this Forum, and have bought from him, as he has from me, this is a case of someone personally knowing someone else, which might be of help. This is the only way I can think of in getting around this sort of thing. I know of a case where a businessman's brother is still waiting for $5k worth of furniture to be delivered. That, was from eBay, years ago. I won't be purchasing anything until a lot of my finances get straightened out, but this is the route I'd prefer to go if such need arises. If not, I'll just do without.
 

DakotaDocMartin

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I've been an eBayer since shortly after they got started. I've had a few "experiences" through the years alright. The Internet has some shady individuals on it for sure. Everyone knows of an eBay or PayPal horror story but the vast majority of the transactions go without a problem.
 

Sam

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I've been an eBayer since shortly after they got started. I've had a few "experiences" through the years alright. The Internet has some shady individuals on it for sure. Everyone knows of an eBay or PayPal horror story but the vast majority of the transactions go without a problem.

Same here. I've been buying and selling on ebay since 1997 and have only had a few minor problems that were all fixed right away. I've also been pretty cautious with my transactions.
 

dlilazteca

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My first purchase was a Rubik's Cube back in 1997.
But the advent of payPal has helped make it a safer place.

Saludos,

Carlos
 

Southern Custom

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My father recently received an email asking why the Cartier watch had not been shipped that the emailer had purchased from him. Of course Dad responded that he had never sold a Cartier on ebay. The man sent back a screen shot of the auction showing that Dad had indeed sold him a watch. Long story short, someone hijacked my fathers ebay account, switched the paypal routing to himself and then listed several very expensive watches for sale. At least 3 different people were taken by this scam leaving Dad scratching his head wondering why people were asking him for watches he never sold.
I only purchase from people I trust who have developed a reputation for selling a particular type of thing. Even that isn't fool proof.
Layne
 

DakotaDocMartin

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Long story short, someone hijacked my fathers ebay account, switched the paypal routing to himself and then listed several very expensive watches for sale.

It's too bad some people in this world figure they have to make their living from crime. Too bad we don't have an Internet version of a Delta Force. Track them down, kick in their door and dispense justice to them on the spot. :)
 

DKanger

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Dad must not have gotten the recent memo that ebay sent out warning everyone to change their password. Still not too late if you haven't done so yet.
 

Dale Hatfield

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I was burnt here by an engraver . The vendor fixed best it could be and made a bad deal somewhat better. Still a bad deal when somebody sells something listed as good to go and its far from it .
 

rayf24

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Just my Nickles worth I always check the sellers feedback on ebay and look for a contact phone number if you can give them a call if they are good ebayer they will answer your questions and you get a gut feeling as to what the person is like this has served me well the odd one get through with maybe not exactly as discribed but I must say those have seller that I have given a whole or part refund or replaced and as a seller I always give phone number I think people feel safer when dealing with someone they can speak to or contact should they wish.
Ray
 

Dani Girl

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I was just wandering through the buy and sell on here and was wandering to myself how do you know that what is being sold even belongs to the seller or will send. I always feel this level of risk involved when you send money away somewhere and just trust that someone on the other end will post you something.

What you were telling us about paypal was very interesting. I've never heard of asking paypal to send folk invoices before, or listing items being purchased.
Does anyone want to write a few words detailing proceedure with that?
 

Ron Spokovich

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I must add, and I can't recall if I've ever posted this before, but my turn-off, at least one, to eBay is me seeing the same exact tooling for sale with three different sellers. . .the same positioning, background, spacing, etc.. What would you think. I'm glad for the people who've made many quality, safe purchases, but I'd prefer to stay on the side of caution. With my bad luck, I'll stay in the coward's realm. I'll look for those purchases that I can contact the seller, and eithr pay in person with cash, money order, or a personal check. The commercial type suppliers have no problem with a personal check, cash, or money order and I've gone all three routes, as of late. This is a personal preference and whatever works best for someone is the route they should go.
 

DakotaDocMartin

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I've never heard of asking paypal to send folk invoices before, or listing items being purchased.
Does anyone want to write a few words detailing proceedure with that?

Log into your PayPal account, click on the Request Money tab, then on Create an Invoice. You will also see options for including a logo image, etc. Easy to do.
 
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