Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Thinking of Selling on eBay using Paypal? Think Again

codenerdz.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

191–200 of 398 posts

Re: Thinking of Selling on eBay using Paypal? Think Again

#191

Post by JoblessWonder »

kerryfalk wrote: post #20
brk wrote: post #11

I stopped selling things like this on eBay a long time ago because I do not sell things frequently enough to keep up with the scams du jour. My local craigslist is where my for-sale items now go. Sure, I may get a little less than top-dollar for an item, or it might take a little longer to sell, but I'm never left with some after-the-fact dispute where I have no control (note: I'll only accept cash). eBay was fun whi…

Shameless plug; we've built one for automotive enthusiasts: https://www.styckyd.com Our target is to serve the C2C market and make shipping less painless as well as eliminate some of the risk on the buyer's side. With the current climate for buying goods online companies serving the space are at risk for opening themselves up to scams like this one by buyers. The reality for anyone accepting credit cards is that you'…

Secure Tading? Is that a typo or something I'm not familiar with?

Re: Thinking of Selling on eBay using Paypal? Think Again

#193

Post by discountgenius »

joonix wrote: post #130
angryasian wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

just wondering how would you expect or how do other companies currently avoid fraud. The costs associated or added with constantly investigating fraud would almost seem like a deterrent in making a system useful.

Chargebacks are a part of doing business any time you accept credit cards, whether paypal is your merchant provider or not. The problem here is Visa/MC/Amex etc. Since you almost have to accept credit card payments these days, you're stuck with their terms. Since the banks all provide credit through these card providers, there's very little competition. There are numerous ways to virtually eliminate CC fraud but the…

Bitcoin enables decentralized digital wealth transfers.

Re: Thinking of Selling on eBay using Paypal? Think Again

#194

Post by mibbitier »

chiph wrote: post #64
mibbitier wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One bad incident out of millions doesn't set a precedent.

One could say the same thing about OP's post. Yet, it isn't unique by a long shot. I've also given up on selling via CL because of the scammers. Now I donate to the local Goodwill or other charity (women's shelters want cellphones, for example), and take the tax write-off.

No, because most cellphones/iPods etc will be subject to scammers.

These devices are absolutely simple for scammers to work with. They're high value, cheap to post, and can easily be swapped with phoney/broken identical devices.

Re: Thinking of Selling on eBay using Paypal? Think Again

#195

Post by brigade »

DanBlake wrote: post #121
MBCook wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I sold my iPhone 4 on Gazelle. I know I could have got more through Craigslist or eBay, but it wasn't worth my time. With eBay I have to photograph it, write it up, list it, answer ridiculous questions about shipping it to the 3rd world and take payment in the form of casino chips mailed to me in a few months. Then I have to deal with the buyer, ship it, and the whole time I have to be worried about scammers. All the…

If you were willing to take $250 less for saving 5 minutes time, by all means. Most of your complaints are made up though (casino chips, third world, etc.. ) I dont use craigslist, so I cant answer to that. I find the eBay process mostly fine, with the exception of not being able to specify who can bid/buy. If they did that it would be a way more reliable experience.

Unless you're a regular eBay seller, selling one phone on eBay is going to eat up a lot more than 5 minutes of your time. And that's the whole point - eBay is terrible for selling newish electronics unless you're a frequent eBay seller like yourself. To the point that people will willingly accept $200 less (eBay fees!) to avoid it.

Re: Thinking of Selling on eBay using Paypal? Think Again

#196

Post by haakon »

UnFundedHype wrote: post #154
yebyen wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, the current ecosystem of Bitcoin is just fine. You have to click one link after another because you just don't _know_ anybody who has bitcoins. One day you will get robbed by one of these exchanges, and you will blame bitcoins (or the bad man) and swear to never work with Bitcoins again. But they will be just one link in a chain of exchanges that you've trusted each one, hundreds of times, to bring you music and…

So what's the quickest and easiest way to buy bitcoins?

It depends on where in the world you are. http://howdoyoubuybitcoins.com/ may be helpful.

Re: Thinking of Selling on eBay using Paypal? Think Again

#197

Post by ianferrel »

amalag wrote: post #182
Anechoic wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This would be a great value-added service option for the Post Office. Deposit money in an account, have it shipped to a local post office, postal worker witnesses the acceptance and opening of the package, if everything is kosher, the buyer signs a release and the money is leased to the seller. USPS already provide "witness" services for packages that are picked (for free!), just add an escrow account for 1 to 5%.

Still doesn't help you, which postal employee is going to sit for 1/2 hour while you test your iphone and make sure it connects to your computer etc? They can only say, "yup it looks like an iphone", not whether or not it works.

Most things can be tested pretty easily and quickly. This would reduce fraud considerably, since you'd have to come up with an item that would pass a cursory inspection, but still fail later. Not at all easy to do.

Re: Thinking of Selling on eBay using Paypal? Think Again

#198

Post by UnFundedHype »

TheAmazingIdiot wrote: post #90
UnFundedHype wrote: post #46

The whole tech culture is also to blame. I'm sure there have been a LOT of great alternate ebay, paypal start ups who just didn't get traction. Bloggers won't talk about you if you haven't raised a million and you won't get much traction on google without bloggers or spending major bucks. My Dreamybids.com site for example, is an awesome service that uses the quibids model. It allows anyone to host their own auctions…

Quibids is one of the scammy-iest "auction" site abound. It's name is called Penny-Scam Auction The gist for those that do now know: you buy bid-packs. A bid costs .60$, per BID. This doesn't matter if you "win" the item. If you do "win" (gamification abound), then you pay what the bid was brought up to. The other scam-note is that bids increase usually by $.01 so you see shit like "XYZ WON AN IPAD FOR 2.73$ !!!". Wh…

I can get just as many links for ebay and craigslist "scams"

It's no different than a gaming tournament where you pay a $10 entry fee.

You'd keep yourself from popping a vein if you just asked how does yours prevent the headaches of quibids.

Everything I didn't like about quibids I removed from dreamybids.

1. There are plenty of ways to get free bids, you don't even have to buy 1 bid.

2. One of the auction formats, everyone in the auction gets x amount of free bids. Each bid the final price goes up x amount of cents. At the end of the auction the winner pays the final price, if you didn't win the auction it costs you nothing since you never bought bids. Like this free auction http://www.dreamybids.com/contest.php?id=332

3. You can host your own auctions. So even if you did lose $50 in bids, put up an item of your own and make your money back. If we collect 30% more than the retail price of the item, you'd get 50% of the overage, so you can make way more than you would from selling an item on ebay or craigslist.

4. There are some great gamification tools that allow you to freeze the bid of the next bidder, or buy the timer down, or block a power bidder from joining an auction. Also once the auction starts new participants can't jump in.

Asking questions keeps you from being theamazingidiot

Re: Thinking of Selling on eBay using Paypal? Think Again

#199

Post by what_ever »

mikeevans wrote: post #133
DigitalJack wrote: post #17

This seems like a credit card/bank problem, it's not unique to paypal. I was thinking about upgrading my phone and ebaying the old one. After reading this, I'm thinking maybe I'll go the craigslist route, or one of the online trade-in deals. Does gazelle have this same issue? I'm not sure if Gazelle the company buys the product and sells it, or if they just connect me with a buyer like ebay does.

You could try Swappa ( http://swappa.com/ ) I haven't used them personally, but a friend did and had positive feedback.

Another vote for Swappa. I bought a phone using the service. As pdubs said, it still goes through PayPal but the site employees keep an eye on the transactions and there are reviews and negative feedback.
Post reply on HN