Weary of new Ebay bidder on my cassette

[esp13]

This kind of a continuation of my earlier "thrift store kind" post, but dealing with actually selling my tapes and the current high bidder. I'm very weary of his bidding activity. Since I'm new to selling, I have't dealt with this. I decided to sell my TDK MA-R90 and TDK DS90 tapes.

The bidder with zero history, joined on the 16th of April and from Holland has placed consecutive bids every few seconds. I figure he is using some kind of automatic program to place the bids, but why would it increase by a dollar 5x in a row. There were no visible auto-bids. He has bid on both the MA-R and DS90. I figured if it turned out to be a scam, I can fall back to the second chance offers to the other bidders with a proven record. Still, it makes me think that people will be turned away thinking they are schill bids. Any info from anyone seeing this before.

I won't post the auction, but you can search for them if you wish.

 

[Fatdog]

That type of bidding is sometimes a tactic to scare off other bidders. It gives the impression that the bidder is a crazy mother****er and you best stay away. Sometimes it works - sometimes it attracts people who just place "play" bids to see how crazy that bidder is.

Good luck with the sale. I personally would have kept the MA-R90 though.

 

[Superduper]

I think you are a little unclear on the concept of shill bidding.

In any event, it's not unusual for new bidders to bid in lots of small increments. You don't really have the right to bypass a high bidder simply because you don't like him. If you are uncomfortable selling internationally you should change your settings to exclude those sales. There is definitely more risk since getting tracking for international shipments is not always possible and paypal does not offer seller protection on first class mail (cheapest option), and priority mail tracking isn't always effective, and there is limited affordable insurance options for international shipments. Just FYI.

 

[esp13]

]

I personally would have kept the MA-R90 though.

I thought about it, but I can't see myself getting into collecting too many boxes, much less cassettes. I'd rather have a few nice boxes and one grail and some tapes that I can put old school mixes on. I'm actually buying old bright colored cassette tapes (usually disney childrens tapes), swapping to a higher quality tape and slapping some graffiti labels on them.

I think you are a little unclear on the concept of shill bidding.

No, I know shill bidding is me pumping up my own auction with another account or through a friend. I'm just afraid other bidders will think that it is a shill bidder. I'm not trying to bypass this particular bidder either. As long as he uses Paypal and I ship Priority, I should be protected by Paypal, right? If it turns out to be shady, the next bidder is still at a better price than I expected.

Either way, thank you both for the info.

 

[Superduper]

Shipping priority means you are protected as a seller but only from fraudulent buyers. Not from product loss. I'm just telling you from experience that USPS tracking service performance is very spotty in foreign countries and if no delivery scan was captured, as far as ebay is concerned, you haven't delivered the item to your buyer so eBay protection does not kick in. You don't believe me -- just ask member stranj.

 

[Strānj-Bōōmbŏks]

Shipping priority means you are protected as a seller but only from fraudulent buyers. Not from product loss. I'm just telling you from experience that USPS tracking service performance is very spotty in foreign countries and if no delivery scan was captured, as far as ebay is concerned, you haven't delivered the item to your buyer so eBay protection does not kick in. You don't believe me -- just ask member stranj.

Yup, 100% true... I've sold (on 2 ocasions) brand new sealed blank cassettes on eBay before and since the buyer said he hadn't received the item eBay refunded him all the money and then gets the money from you... happened just recently.

 

[esp13]

Wow, good info to know. I know I've seen people who won't ship to certain countries, but I forgot which ones. It seems to be a consistant group. My two top bidders are from Holland and Greece... so, I guess I can just hope for the best. i did sell a Sony retro clock to some guy in South Korea and fortunately, it was delivered.

 

[Strānj-Bōōmbŏks]

Wow, good info to know. I know I've seen people who won't ship to certain countries, but I forgot which ones. It seems to be a consistant group. My two top bidders are from Holland and Greece... so, I guess I can just hope for the best. i did sell a Sony retro clock to some guy in South Korea and fortunately, it was delivered.

Well, I don't know exactly about the certain countries, but I've shipped to Austria (no problem), United Kingdom (no problem), Brasil (no problem), Saudi Arabia (no problem) BUT I shipped to Ukraine (problem) and New York (problem) so I guess it's as random as random can get!

 

[Reli]

Personally I wouldn't worry about it. Nobody is going to think he's a shill bidder.........Rapid bids in a row happen ALL the time. In fact you're probably the only person who has even looked at the bids. Other bidders don't care (unless they're geeks with too much time on their hands, or the item is worth several hundred dollars).

 

[Superduper]

........... In fact you're probably the only person who has even looked at the bids. Other bidders don't care (unless they're geeks with too much time on their hands, or the item is worth several hundred dollars).

Or unless the cassette tape has 56 bids like it does on his auction.

 

[restocat]

From what I've heard, a seller can cancel at any time, so you don't have to complete the listing and sell it internationally. So, as was said, you may consider a US/Canada only sale. Most likely you will get less $, but ebay buyer protection will be there.

I don't sell on ebay personally. Just speaking for myself of course, the worry isn't worth the funds I would receive. If I have boomboxes etc I need to get rid of, I just dump them off at superdupers house.

 

[Superduper]

Come over any time Phil. I'll get a bigger house if I have to.

 

[MasterBlaster84]

sometimes it attracts people who just place "play" bids to see how crazy that bidder is.:

That would be me, I've pushed people who play that game. In fact one time I pushed an auction where a bidder put in 100+ bids, turns out each bid was only 1 cent higher than the prior bid.

 

[MasterBlaster84]

From what I've heard, a seller can cancel at any time, so you don't have to complete the listing and sell it internationally. So, as was said, you may consider a US/Canada only sale. Most likely you will get less $, but ebay buyer protection will be there.

Yep and that's why all my auction are North America only and often USA only to avoid the shipping hassles to Canada. I've had a few unhappy Canadian buyers over the years because of the increased shipping cost and the VAT that they have to pay, it's not my fault at all but that doesn't change the fact that the buyer is unhappy with the transaction.