I'm a new seller (not new buyer) but this has me worried...

[simwhit2015]

Ok, so...

I advertised a camera yesterday, excellent condition, reasonable price, buy now (or offers). I have never tried to sell on eBay before, just buy.

Received an offer a few hours later, from 'A'. Ignored it, as late at night, can't be bothered, deal with in the morning.

Received a slightly higher offer in the middle of the night from 'B', almost the same name as 'A', the same post code, same street in London, probably the same flat, and when I say 'almost' the same name, the surname is exactly the same, and it's an unusual surname. A has been a member for 6 months, B has been a member for years.

Buy Now completed by 'A' very early in the morning , with a message requesting I post today as 'A'  has travel arrangements. The listing was for 3-days posting.

Checking the feedback for both 'A' and 'B', the same 'travel arrangements' demand has been used by 'B' for demanding early postage.

So...  A and B have almost the same name, same post code, same demand to post early because 'travel arrangements' has been used by both, I'm a new seller so I kinda know I am going to attract scammers, 30-day hold on payment from eBay (well, the email says 30-days from now, the website says 7 days from now), and the camera in question is £700.

I'm tempted to just cancel the sale, not care about the hit to my profile (as I'll probably never sell on eBay again if I have to be out of pocket for a month), and sell the camera somewhere else.

Should I be worried? 

Am I about to get scammed? 

[**peaseblossom**]

I'd be worried, especially for that amount.   Better to be safe than sorry.   If you cancel using the reason "something wrong with buyer's address" it won't harm your account.   It's the nearest we have for suspected scammers.

And don't forget to put their IDs on your blocked bidder list:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/bmgt/BuyerBlock

[rare_treat]

Sounds like it could be a case where they will claim not to have received it.

Someone else just had a case involving a camera: https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Seller-Central/Buyer-claims-camera-wasn-t-sent-it-was-and-wants-a-re...

Is there a wave of camera thieves on eBay?

What's the feedback like on the buyer? (I think buyer on the other only had 1 feedback rating.) If they'ev got good feeback, and the BIN price was low, then it could be genuine.

[1902elder]

I would definitely cancel, it all looks too suspicious. High value cameras are a scam target. 

[simwhit2015]

Yes, I saw that case.

I've been doing a little bit of research as the whole thing seemed... suspect... to me this morning. 

The feedback for both buyers contains some negative comments, one involving the 'travelling arrangements, but is 100% positive for both - how does that happen with negative comments?

Something just doesn't feel right... 

Messaged the buyer already to tell them I am cancelling the sale, and have actually cancelled the sale. I'll find somewhere else to sell the camera, probably LCE.

I probably wouldn't have even bothered with eBay if I knew they were going to keep my money for a month... 

[rare_treat]

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@simwhit2015 wrote:

The feedback for both buyers contains some negative comments, one involving the 'travelling arrangements, but is 100% positive for both - how does that happen with negative comments?

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If they've never sold anything themselves then they can't ever have received negative or neutral feedback . Seller can't leave them for buyers, but can leave info in the (positive) comment itself.

BTW I’ve had several impatient buyers who have submitted an offer, then not waited for me to respond before buying at full price. The second account is a bit weird, but could just be due to impatience again – they wouldn’t have been able to make another offer on account A before you had rejected their first offer. Using account B meant they could submit a higher offer without waiting. Then impatience got them again, so they just finally bought via BIN. If they genuinely want it before going away, then that could explain.

But the risk is there. It’s always there.
If they’ve held an account for a long time, and have high and good feedback ratings, then the risk is going to be minimised.

A new(ish) account with little or no feedback, is going to be a greater risk.

I think it's that simple.
The decision on whether to actually sell, on the other hand, won't be tha simple.

[roger_roger_over_and_nowt]

"The feedback for both buyers contains some negative comments".

Some sellers leave negative comments under a positive rating.

[robbtyke132010]

All sensible advice here - cancelling the sale is the only option. 

[simwhit2015]

"Seller can't leave them for buyers, but can leave info in the (positive) comment itself."

That I did not know... and going back through the feedback it was a negative experience left in a positive comment. 

I decided not to sell - very easy really, I don't want to risk £700 for amonth while eBay hold onto it 'just in case'. 

[arkwebus]

Leaving negative comments on a [buyer's] green spot is totally against eBay's rules of course.  

EBay "may" take action against the seller

@simwhit2015 

[rare_treat]

They can't anymore, I should clarify. They used to be able to.

I don't blame you. I wouldn't risk it at that amount either.

[rare_treat]

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@arkwebus wrote:
Leaving negative comments on a [buyer's] green spot is totally against eBay's rules of course.  
EBay "may" take action against the seller

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That would involve eBay manually getting involved – i.e. costing them money. So unlikely to happen unless it’s something serious.

On my old account I had a buyer leave a link to a go-fund type page begging for tips for some project. (Which is against eBay’s rules - both the link and it being unrelated to the sale.) I didn’t want it showing on my profile, so I reported it to eBay (plus the fact they’ve done it for all their buyers). The only way was to finally speak with a human – and an hour later they passed it along to another team to get it removed. It was removed 2 weeks later. But the hundreds of similar feedback the seller had left remained. I don’t think they even got a warning for it. They continued to leave the same type of feedback.

[Anonymous]

Making offers using different accounts is fairly common, the idea is the 1st account makes a low-ish offer, the second account makes an offer that's not a lot higher, then a third account makes a slightly better offer, this makes the seller think that 'hmm am I asking too much? I may not get offered this much... I'll accept it'

Usually they do it with accounts that have different addresses and usually with 2 accounts, so unless the 'watch count' on the item went up I don't understand why they paid full price.

I'm sure cancelling the sale by selecting - 'buyer asked to cancel' - usually means you don't have to pay any fees either.