Before you send anything to that buyer, you might want to get to
know them, especially if you're selling them a high-ticket item
that you couldn't afford to lose. Even if the buyer has paid,
the PayPal transaction could still end up being reversed,
leaving you out of pocket. So how do you figure out if you can
trust your buyer?
Look at their feedback for others. Go to their feedback page and
click 'Left for Others'. If they leave a lot of negatives for
their sellers, then you should try to get away from them as fast
as you can - if you do deal with them, make sure not to leave
your feedback first. You should consider a negative someone has
left to be just as bad as a negative left for them.
Look at feedback from sellers. Click 'From Sellers'. You might
find that they have more complaints from sellers than from
buyers - or, on the other hand, it might be the other way
around. Some people really are just better at selling than
buying, or vice versa.
Pay attention to bid retractions. If they have a high number of
bid retractions, you should regard this as a red flag that
something might be wrong.
See what else they've bought. When someone goes from buying
items worth $1 to suddenly buying something worth $1,000, you
might want to be a little suspicious of them.
See what they're bidding on now. If they've never shown any
interest in your kind of item before, and now suddenly they're
bidding on lots of them, then that's cause for concern. You
should also be suspicious of someone who seems to be spending a
lot of money all at once - few buyers have thousands at a time
to blow on eBay.
Check their ID history. People who've changed their ID are often
trying to get away from someone who's trying to find them. This
is another warning sign - be especially wary of someone who
changed their ID very recently.
Be nice to new buyers. Genuine new buyers will probably have a
name ending in a number and a feedback score of 0 - don't always
think these people are fraudsters. Somewhat counter-intuitively,
people trying to commit fraud will almost never do it when they
have a feedback score of 0 - they'll think it's too obvious. New
buyers often have problems with being inexperienced on eBay,
however, and you might have to guide them through things like
opening a PayPal account.
Email them! If you want to get to know your eBay buyer, why not
have a little chat with them about the item, what they plan to
do with it? Say that how you know they're going to love it, and
ask if there's anything else you can do for them. Few buyers who
seem chatty and nice will turn out not to be in the end.
If you keep having trouble with buyers you don't want winning
your high-value auctions at the last second, you might want to
use eBay's 'pre-approved buyer' function. The next email will
show you how.
About the author:
Kirsten Hawkins is an Ebay and internet auction enthusiast from
Nashville, TN. Visit
http://www.auctionseller411.com/ for more
great tips on how to make the most from Ebay and other online
auctions.
