Are fruitcakes running rampant on eBay lately? Selling, buying, listing, feedback, etc...

[Alpinemaps]

Someone posted this listing on the deals thread: 
https://www.ebay.com/itm/LEGO-Technic-Porsche-911-RSR-42096-Race-Car-Building-Set-STEM/402517324927?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649
Sure, it's probably sketchy, but ultimately, what is the risk as a buyer here (other than time/opportunity cost)?  I'm mostly a seller on Ebay, and it seems like most of the Ebay/Paypal protections are HEAVILY skewed in the buyer's favor?  Wouldn't it be somewhat trivial to get your money back if this is a scam?  Or am I missing something?
Jesse
 

The usual - the more money that eBay and PayPal lose to cover these refunds/protect the buyer/investigate this stuff, the more likely they raise their fees.

[Jessekidd13]

4 minutes ago, iahawks550 said:

I get people jumping on these Ebay deals that look incredible. But at a minimum, it ultimately increases costs, at some level or some venue, for others.

At worst, you are funding some $hitbag that is taking advantage of others or an organized crime ring.

First of all, he had positive feedback from that 1 dog flea collar he sold, so I trust him 100%. 

Seriously though, are these never a legitimate clearance or something?  I admittedly don't shop much on Ebay.

[iahawks550]

5 minutes ago, Jessekidd13 said:

Seriously though, are these never a legitimate clearance or something?  I admittedly don't shop much on Ebay.

On Ebay, the people with the connections to buy anything in bulk at dirt cheap prices are going to have much higher feedback, or most likely an Ebay store.

Let's say they ARE legit and just starting out. Why wouldn't they price these at $115? They would still sell through in days. The reason, they want to sell out in minutes, like they did, so they can get their money and erase their tracks.

Even if people do get these, they are getting them drop-shipped from someone who is using a stolen credit card. But, people aren't getting these.

[stuco191]

Seems Legit 🤣

https://www.ebay.com/usr/stanfordvi_46?_trksid=p2047675.l2559

[junkrigger]

There has been a string of recent infiltrated eBay accounts, or someone running a pawn shop from eBay but using different accounts.  Have seen this no less than 5 times in the last month via my regular searching for high end stereo equipment. Some of the items these sellers post are so rare I have never even seen the item in new condition posted in my eBay lifetime. Usually over 5k items, millions worth, everything from Rolex to excavators, not sure how they are doing this as most of the accounts look current and have been high feedback, and just the amount of time to list this many items seems staggering. Here is the latest example: https://www.ebay.com/sch/merryweather2622/m.html?item=383788968154&hash=item595b9ae8da%3Ag%3A5K4AAOSwXE5fnaXN&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562

 

All auctions so I don't get the play. I guess I am posting this just to let folks know to safeguard your accounts and be extra careful of suspect( to good to be possible) listings.  I have never seen a new in box Technics sp10 MK3 on eBay so I thought I had hit the jackpot, but alas just another scam.

[$20 on joe vs dan]

[from buyer's perspective] Does anyone know why after paying, some order say "Payment Pending" in your purchase history?

today I won two auctions and paid for both using CC in a single transaction, yet one of them goes thru and the other shows pending.

[KShine]

9 hours ago, $20 on joe vs dan said:

[from buyer's perspective] Does anyone know why after paying, some order say "Payment Pending" in your purchase history?

today I won two auctions and paid for both using CC in a single transaction, yet one of them goes thru and the other shows pending.

If a seller is new, or has limited seller experience, paypal will sometimes require some extra interaction with them (as a security measure, I believe). I have on occasion needed to ask the seller to get in touch with paypal to resolve things.

[exracer327]

18 hours ago, $20 on joe vs dan said:

[from buyer's perspective] Does anyone know why after paying, some order say "Payment Pending" in your purchase history?

today I won two auctions and paid for both using CC in a single transaction, yet one of them goes thru and the other shows pending.

You might want to call your CC as they may have froze the second transaction thinking your card was stolen. 

A good CC company should call you to confirm.  But I ran into this while traveling.  Fill up at a gas station  and a few hours later trying to fill up at a second station and suddenly the card didn't work.  I called the CC company and had to confirm my transactions so they would release my card.  It is very annoying.

[stackables]

Bought a lot of minfigures from ebay.  Got done going through the lot and remember seeing 2 of one fig.  Go back to the original pictures and yep, there are supposed to be 2 of this fig.  Look at the pictures a little closer and now notice several figs are missing from the lot.  Obviously, I contacted the seller first but was wonder what how the board would handle this?  I am pretty pissed off right now and when this crap happens I have little patience.  I bought the lot for $132. 

[fuzzy_bricks]

36 minutes ago, stackables said:

Bought a lot of minfigures from ebay.  Got done going through the lot and remember seeing 2 of one fig.  Go back to the original pictures and yep, there are supposed to be 2 of this fig.  Look at the pictures a little closer and now notice several figs are missing from the lot.  Obviously, I contacted the seller first but was wonder what how the board would handle this?  I am pretty pissed off right now and when this crap happens I have little patience.  I bought the lot for $132.

Give him the chance to make it right.  If this guy is a seasoned seller, then I would be more firm that if he just threw his kids stuff up on the Bay to get rid of it.  You can probably make an estimated guess what it would take to Bricklink the figures that you're missing and then add a PITA factor for having to deal with this.  If he doesn't refund you, it sounds like you have a SNAD case on your hand, unless the description says the lot may be representative of what you'll receive or some similar disclaimer that you see bulk sellers use.

[stackables]

4 minutes ago, fuzzy_bricks said:

Give him the chance to make it right.  If this guy is a seasoned seller, then I would be more firm that if he just threw his kids stuff up on the Bay to get rid of it.  You can probably make an estimated guess what it would take to Bricklink the figures that you're missing and then add a PITA factor for having to deal with this.  If he doesn't refund you, it sounds like you have a SNAD case on your hand, unless the description says the lot may be representative of what you'll receive or some similar disclaimer that you see bulk sellers use.

It gives the total weight of the lot and says as pictured. Hoping for a large partial refund or them to send the correct figures.  Snad case would be pretty easy but I think I want to keep the lot.

[fuzzy_bricks]

4 minutes ago, stackables said:

It gives the total weight of the lot and says as pictured. Hoping for a large partial refund or them to send the correct figures.  Snad case would be pretty easy but I think I want to keep the lot.

Just out of curiosity which figures did they keep?  Does it seem like they pulled the highest value figures?

[exracer327]

37 minutes ago, stackables said:

Bought a lot of minfigures from ebay.  Got done going through the lot and remember seeing 2 of one fig.  Go back to the original pictures and yep, there are supposed to be 2 of this fig.  Look at the pictures a little closer and now notice several figs are missing from the lot.  Obviously, I contacted the seller first but was wonder what how the board would handle this?  I am pretty pissed off right now and when this crap happens I have little patience.  I bought the lot for $132. 

I had a similar experience with a lot (12 lbs).  The short of it is, I claimed I didn't receive what was sent and returned it for full refund.

In the lot I could clearly see partially assembled sets: UCS AT-ST - both legs (one missing a foot) the head, hoses, etc.  6211 SD, 6208 B-Wing, 7965 MF - the blue hose was clearly part of the set, the entire base, cockpit, etc.  And several other sets.

When it arrived, everything had been disassembled.  I dumped it out on the carpet and started looking for parts for the UCS AT-ST.  None of the technic pieces were there to build the legs.  I then began sorting pieces and realized the blue hoses for the MF weren't there.  Other sets were missing pieces.  

I sorted the whole thing onto the floor.  Took pictures to show what I had received.  I then copied the pics from his auction and used an art program to circle with red pen obviously missing pieces.  He offered to discount for 50% for me to keep it.  To be honest, all the LBG pieces were badly yellowed.  He claimed he sent everything, was very adamant about it.  I finally claimed "not as advertised" and sent it back for a full refund.  He promptly blocked me from all his future sales which I was fine with after he did what he did.

BTW, I weighed the box when I packed it all back up as he sent it to me and it weighed 10 lbs but the shipping label said 12 lbs.  2 lbs were clearly missing.

[stackables]

1 minute ago, fuzzy_bricks said:

Just out of curiosity which figures did they keep?  Does it seem like they pulled the highest value figures?

1 groot, the drax, a star lord, mantis, the figure in the lower left corner and probably more.

[stackables]

No reply yet.  In my experience if the seller doesn't respond within a day, they are probably looking to just take the L on the deal. It is unfortunate that it looks like I will have to open a SNAD case.

[CsabaLazlo]

I've just had a similar experience with a "100% complete" and "like new" Z-95. One of Pong Krell's arms are missing, a bunch of pieces from the ship are missing and some of the white pieces are manky. The cost of the missing and dirty pieces is minimal but, there's enough of them to ensure I have to make multiple Brick Link orders so I would end up spending more on postage than the pieces are worth.

Very annoying as it's a set and minifigs that I've wanted for a while.

[stackables]

     Here is an update:  Apparently after I sent an offer that was accepted, I asked the seller if they were authentic.  He said yes.  After all the lot was listing under "lego" and there was no mention of "lego compatible" but I wanted to make sure before paying.  Supposedly, after that he went through the lot and pulled out the fakes which he never told me.  Guess which ones were the fakes? Yep the ones I noticed were missing.  Here is a picture he sent of all the figs that were pulled out for being counterfeit. I assume he replaced them with a bunch of common batman and spider-man parts so the lot would weigh the same since there was a ton of those parts I didn't see in the pics.  I  already spent time sorting the lot and creating a missing part lists before knowing about the missing figs.  With that said, I have 2 options: full refund or partial.  If I went with the partial, what do you think I should ask for?  This is not a simple I will knock off $10 and call it even.  I paid $132 shipped for the lot.  How much should I ask for as a partial refund knowing that I believed most of the figures in the picture were supposed to be included (I didn't know about deadpool duck and one of the spider-men) and the time already spent sorting.  I also probably need to go through everything and make sure the pieces are authentic.  On first inspection, they looked to be good. The lot did have some decent figs (2 deadpools, Zoom, supergirl, she hulk, couple falcons etc.) and I am leaning towards keeping them over full refund.  What seems fair?  thanks

[CsabaLazlo]

Only you can answer that question. I would be tempted to go for a full refund out of principle but, if you think the figures you've got are worth whatever it comes to after a partial refund it would be worthwhile keeping them.

[stackables]

3 minutes ago, CsabaLazlo said:

Only you can answer that question. I would be tempted to go for a full refund out of principle but, if you think the figures you've got are worth whatever it comes to after a partial refund it would be worthwhile keeping them.

There is a good amount of decent figs.  I think it has a lot to do with the figs and time I have taken to sort and make a missing part list.  I already assembled the figs that I could and noted the missing parts. So me returning them is actually beneficial to the seller as he now has assembled figs.  Especially the pain in the butt Batmans with all their different cowls. I think I will ask for 50% and see what he says. 

[LegoWalker4]

Found on Facebook Marketplace.  Maybe the seller gets points for honesty and humor.

[KShine]

"Would you accept the retail price for this set?" 

[legorookie34]

40 minutes ago, KShine said:

"Would you accept the retail price for this set?" 

I had some dude offer me less that retail lol

[Gonkalin]

Last night I had 26 auction style Ebay listings end. Two of the listings ended and minutes after ending the buyers (2 different buyers) both asked to cancel the orders. So the auction goes on for a week and then they win the auction and immediately ask to cancel. There seems to be no recourse for buyers buying and then cancelling. I know I don't have to cancel. But with free shipping and free returns I don't want to eat the shipping costs there and back if the buyer wants to return. It just seems like the idea of auctions being a contract the buyer must follow through on is out the door. 

[c4dreams]

55 minutes ago, Gonkalin said:

Last night I had 26 auction style Ebay listings end. Two of the listings ended and minutes after ending the buyers (2 different buyers) both asked to cancel the orders. So the auction goes on for a week and then they win the auction and immediately ask to cancel. There seems to be no recourse for buyers buying and then cancelling. I know I don't have to cancel. But with free shipping and free returns I don't want to eat the shipping costs there and back if the buyer wants to return. It just seems like the idea of auctions being a contract the buyer must follow through on is out the door. 

Definitely just cancel the orders. Otherwise, it will be more of a headache when one of them tries to do a return. I don't like auctions anyway, and I'd bet that if you list both items as buy it now, you'll get a higher sale price then you got for the auctions

[ichiroll]

5 minutes ago, c4dreams said:

Definitely just cancel the orders. Otherwise, it will be more of a headache when one of them tries to do a return. I don't like auctions anyway, and I'd bet that if you list both items as buy it now, you'll get a higher sale price then you got for the auctions

I think more than 90% of eBay transactions are buy it now these days for this reason.