Question about selling on eBay.

The_Boss

The_Boss

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Feb 18, 2012
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Hey everyone... I've just sold one of my knives on eBay tonight.. I've never sold anything on eBay before, but my main question is about shipping... I was planning on using one of the USPS Flat Rate boxes.
The person I bought from is in Hawaii.. I believe the flat rate boxes are still flat-rate to Hawaii though (please let me know if I'm wrong!) .. but my main question is about where it's shipping to, which is a hotel.. anyone ever shipped or received mail at a hotel before?

Just trying to be cautious about it as I don't want to be out $175 and I'm not familiar with selling or shipping things at all...

Thanks for any help, and I apologize if this is the wrong place to ask!

EDIT: This probably would've been better in the community area... sorry. :( I don't see a way to delete or move it.
 
Last edited:
You can't delete or move it, but a moderator can, so I will. The forum we use for questions on shipping is FEEDBACK.
 
Flat rate box is the same price to HI as to anywhere else in the USA. No experience selling on dBay, but unless the hotel is the buyer's verified PayPal address, I'd be very leery about shipping to it as I'm sure they'd rule against you if he disputed the charge.
 
When the buyer pays with paypal, it will tell you if it's OK to ship to the address they have listed, to ship to.
 
Hello,

I have bought and sold on eBay.

When selling, make sure you
-set up "Buyer Requirements" which can be found under the "Shipping Details" when you are listing an item. This can help you to prevent people from being able to bid/buy that don't meet your specific requirements.

- (as Jill Jackson mentions) verify that the Paypal payment states that it is "Okay to Ship" (see below)
- "Not Eligible" means just that you are not protected as a seller in any way
- "Partially Eligible" means that you are protected as a seller ONLY for items not received.
- "Eligible" means you are fully protected, which you will need to verify with Paypal what covers, which IIRC, is chargeback disputes and items not received, but there may also be additional coverage

Your eligibility will appear at the top of the "DETAILS" page (next to "Print Shipping Label") of the received payment on your Paypal account "Overview". You should also have received an email from Paypal regarding the receipt of payment from your buyer, in this email, it will also note your eligibility.

With regards to the address being a hotel, I would agree with The Deacon, and be a bit leery. On the other hand, you might be dealing with the owner or an employee that would like the knife shipped to his or her workplace as they don't want it sitting on their porch on in their mailbox all day/night. Could also be a Snowbird/vacationer that is going to be there for a while.

If the buyer in question is an habitual scammer, then you can probably find out pretty quick doing a Google search with their name and an additional word such as scam, fraud, knife, etc. There are too many decent people willing to expose such behaviors (just look at other posts on this particular forum).


Rob
 
Thanks Esav, sorry for the trouble!

Thanks for all the help guys... I think the best thing to do might just be to call eBay/Paypal up and ask them... His old address is to Afghanistan and is confirmed and "OK to ship to" according to Paypal, but not where he'd like me to send it now... I'm sure it's all legitimate, I'm just a little worried about being scammed and such when it comes to selling things.. hopefully I can ship him his knife today though. :)
 
If he wants to be a reliable buyer, he should add his current address to his record so PayPal will be able to vouch for him.
 
Definitely would make it easier...

Well.. after about 45 minutes on the phone with eBay/Paypal.. 30 of which were on hold... they've said that if I ship to anywhere other than the confirmed address he provided when buying, I'm not protected and that I shouldn't ship it... so I guess I'll be sending him a message and refunding him... didn't even think about saying that I'd ship to confirmed addresses only when I listed it!
 
I've shipped to unverified addresses before and admittedly there's some risk in doing that. But if the purchaser has a lot of transactions to their credit with a 99% or better feedback rating, I'm generally OK with doing it. FYI, I've never been burned shipping to an unverified address. But then I've never shipped to a hotel before, either.
 
Yeah, I'd be more comfortable if he had a higher feedback rating, but it's only 16 with an 85% positive feedback percentage, I've had things shipped to me with an unverified address before, but I'll just play it safe for now.
 
Yep. I don't like the odds based on the specs you posted for the buyer. I'd also suggest you pass on this one.
 
Yep... refunded him and sent him a message to let him know why before relisting it... oh well, hopefully it'll sell again.. it only took about an hour last time. :)

Thanks for all the help, really appreciate it!
 
Keep in mind that we have a thriving exchange here on BF. For $25.00 a year, you can sell as many knives as you like. By the time you factor in eBay and PayPal fees, you're probably dollars ahead selling them here. At least I've found that to be true for myself.
 
You did good letting him know what the problem was. If he is honest, he'll realize he has to get in line with the fine print, to reassure sellers.
 
Esav Benyamin said:
If he wants to be a reliable buyer, he should add his current address to his record so PayPal will be able to vouch for him.
Click to expand...

This is extremely difficult to do, depending on how you want to do it. I have bought on ebay for 15 years or more, I always have packages sent to my work address so that I know for sure someone will be there during the day to receive the package. I have had no problems with this and most sellers have no problem doing it.

Recently I wanted to buy a few things from sellers that insisted on sending only to the verified address so I decided to try to add my work address. I filled out the forms on paypal, they sent me a letter to my work address. The next step was to fax back a form along with some additional verification paperwork including a utility bill for that address with my name on it. Even though I am part owner of this company it does not have my name on any utility bill. Since we rent space in an office building I'm not sure that we even pay for any utilities directly. After some internet searching I found that many people have had difficulty getting paypal to add a second confirmed address so I just gave up on the matter.

As for shipping though, most US sellers on ebay will restrict shipping to the 48 continental US states. They may ship to AK or HI but they will charge more. I personally don't want to ship outside of the US because of the problem of tracking a shipment.
 
I sent him a message and waited a couple hours before relisting... he bought it up right after with the HI address (confirmed in PayPal) ... went out and shipped it right away for him. Hopefully it all works out well for him, seems like he really wanted it. :)
I tried to be as honest about everything in the description as possible and provided as detailed pictures as my iPhone would allow me... so hopefully no surprises for him when he receives it!
I carried the knife for about a month but I don't remember using it even once.. think I always used a different knife I had on me, wasn't any wear on it or even on the pocket clip... so he got a nice deal on a pretty much brand new knife.

I understand your point too Bdmicarta.. I've had trouble getting an address confirmed when I moved last year for a few months, I lived with a friend and didn't have any bills in my name so it was hard to 'prove' that I lived there. Couldn't open a savings account there for the same reasons. I think what I did was get one of those prepaid cards from Walmart and open it at the address I was at, which was good enough for PayPal to confirm that address. I'd be more willing to ship it anyways, but his feedback rating was 16 with an 85% positive feedback rating.. so I didn't feel as comfortable doing so.

Thanks for the info on the exchange here... I'll be sure to look into it next time I'm looking to sell a knife. :)
 
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