I was the second highest bidder on an ebay auction for a large lot of Legos, and the seller states the winner has backed out. He is offering me to buy the lot outside of ebay via paypal, or to do a "second chance offer." He has good feedback with plenty of sales and good history. If we do it outside of ebay he avoids the 10% fees amounting to $80 (which I'm assuming he'll pass some of that savings on to me). I'd rather do that than do the second chance offer. My question is this: is it safe to just use paypal to buy from this person? Can I still get a refund if it doesnt work out, even though I wouldn't be using ebay? Or should I play it safe and do the "second chance offer" and let feEbay get another $80?

I wouldn't do it outside EBay but that is just my opinion. I would just stay on the safe side.

Definitely a bigger risk doing it outside Ebay. Sounds like the guy's reputable, but who knows. How much money are we talking about? If this is a transaction for hundreds of dollars, I'd probably just eat the fee. But a smaller amount is decidedly less risky.

I do this fairly often actually on both sides as buyer and seller. For items that are expensive it's a good way to save a few bucks. The reality is that it's really PayPal that is offering the protection so as long as you use PayPal to pay you are in pretty good shape. My rule is I only do it if the item is clearly noted in the invoice so there can be no questions about what I should have received. If I am selling I will only ship to confirmed addresses.

I would have no issues if it was a seller I had worked with before.

Thanks for the input guys. It's a large chunk of money, between $650-$800 depending on what I talk the guy down to. I think I'll do it outside ebay if it saves me some extra dough, it sounds like paypal is pretty safe.

This is a really good way to get yourself banned from eBay. http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/rfe-spam-non-ebay-sale.html

I think it is a fairly common practice - like others I've done it from both sides a few times. Like emazers can tell you, you certainly don't want to make it a common practice and I'd try to keep it on the down low. I think in your case the seller has a lot more to lose (for being caught) than you, though. I'd try for a good deal.

This is a really good way to get yourself banned from eBay.

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/rfe-spam-non-ebay-sale.html

+1.

Be careful with this!

I wouldn't worry about it. Paypal has it's own buyer and seller protection policies that are almost same as ebay's, after all ebay own them I believe. The only reason that ebay goes on so strongly about violation of policy and tries to discourage and stop it, is because it stops them getting their 10% fee. As previously mentioned just make sure you have full details listed on the invoice.

I have purchased via paypal through another brick site, and it all went smooth. Wasn't off ebay though. Maybe lucky? As for being second place bidder after winner backs out...should the seller take into consideration that the only other person bidding was myself, and item went that high because winner jacked it up then bailed? It was for legos, only reason why I brought up here. Just wondering.

Thanks for the input guys. It's a large chunk of money, between $650-$800 depending on what I talk the guy down to. I think I'll do it outside ebay if it saves me some extra dough, it sounds like paypal is pretty safe.

I would advise against it - especially for such an expensive set, from someone you do not know.

Ebay owns paypal & could easily tell if you do this - They would likely do nothing, but with such a large purchase you never know.

I buy and sell outside of EBay all the time. Sometimes if an auction ends I'm interested in, I'll just message an offer to the seller. I haven't had an issue. It saves us both some $$$. I've also been messaged when I have available listings and we'll just make the deal outside of EBay to save us both purchase and seller fees, etc. I just end the auction after receiving payment.

Not to sound holier than thou but the lack of integrity shown in this thread is disturbing. I guess some of you are ok with shill bidding on your own auctions as well?

Not to sound holier than thou but the lack of integrity shown in this thread is disturbing. I guess some of you are ok with shill bidding on your own auctions as well?

agreed and these are the same people that will probably beg paypal to help them out after they get burned.

agreed and these are the same people that will probably beg paypal to help them out after they get burned.

Agreed! I hope the shill bidders stay away.

Isn't it the same as using Bricklink, Craigslist, or the up coming BrickPicker Classifieds - then using Paypal as the payment mechanism. Those other services offer no buyer protection. Paypal does.

Two different ideas at work here. Let me address each. One...Going around eBay auctions to avoid fees is a surefire way to get booted from eBay. You might get away with it for awhile, but eventually, you or the other party will make a mistake and you will get banned. People are careless and eBay does not take this lightly and many buyers and sellers still use eBay message boards to communicate. It is quite possible that the other party can do something foolish and get you in trouble as well. It's not worth it and topics like these are also monitored here. Brickpicker is not about scamming eBay, Bricklink or any other merchant. Tread carefully. Two...PayPal is a wonderful tool, but to be quite honest, for non-eBay transactions, there is little protection. A site like www.escrow.com is a better option for more expensive sets. We will offer both services for our Brick Classifieds, but we really guarantee nothing as well. We can't. For a dollar or less, with no commissions, what guarantees can you expect to receive for advertising on an extremely busy LEGO site? Want guarantees, use eBay and pay high commissions. Want low fees and no guarantees, use Brick Classifieds and Bricklink.

I do this all the time and have no issues. However, my friend did it once and got a nice email from ebay telling him to not do it or risk being banned.