Buying off ebay/paypal need advice

L

LiNK666

Well-known member
Forum Sponsor
Hey guys,

I found a phone I liked and wanted to buy it off ebay. The seller said he'll give it to me at a lower price, but for that lower price he will only do it do via paypal invoice. He's in US.

Is paypal invoice safe? Would I be protected if things go south?

Thanks!
 
Lol.. yes, Paypal invoice is the ONLY way to do it. Paypal is pretty safe.

Basically, he'll send you an invoice through Paypal with the new price. You click the link, send him funds and he'll ship you the item. I'm sure he has to do it this way because he's giving it to you at a lower cost than the actual auction price. The other way for him to do it is put up another auction just for you so you can buy it through ebay and pay through Paypal. That might cost him whatever fees Ebay takes for placing an auction. I've had a seller do this for me in the past and it's worked out great.

I like the latter method because you can leave feedback as well, whereas with the invoice, there's no feedback. It's just a transaction.

Side note: Always always always pay with your credit card through Paypal. Credit card companies have insurance and if a deal ever falls through, you can call and report it to your credit card issuer and they will get you a refund. Takes about 90 days but you'll get it.
 
LiNK666 said:
Hey guys,

I found a phone I liked and wanted to buy it off ebay. The seller said he'll give it to me at a lower price, but for that lower price he will only do it do via paypal invoice. He's in US.

Is paypal invoice safe? Would I be protected if things go south?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

paypal has protection against thing going wrong, but it is a long and invloved process.
ebay has protection against this kind of thing too.
it is all on their website.

i used ebay and paypal for all kinds of stuff and havent had a problem yet.

proceed with caution, but you should be ok.
 
What's paypal invoice? Paypal is pretty safe although there are ways to game the system. Only one complaint can be filed on a transaction, so if the seller gets your money and then files a complaint, you can't file a complaint for them not shipping. To get an actual person to look at the file costs you money.

Why would using paypal be cheaper? They charge a pretty hefty service fee? As I said, I haven't dealt with paypal invoice before, but something seems a little off.
 
ebay owns paypal. Its safe
 
jay-d said:
Lol.. yes, Paypal invoice is the ONLY way to do it. Paypal is pretty safe.

Basically, he'll send you an invoice through Paypal with the new price. You click the link, send him funds and he'll ship you the item. I'm sure he has to do it this way because he's giving it to you at a lower cost than the actual auction price. The other way for him to do it is put up another auction just for you so you can buy it through ebay and pay through Paypal. That might cost him whatever fees Ebay takes for placing an auction. I've had a seller do this for me in the past and it's worked out great.

I like the latter method because you can leave feedback as well, whereas with the invoice, there's no feedback. It's just a transaction.

Side note: Always always always pay with your credit card through Paypal. Credit card companies have insurance and if a deal ever falls through, you can call and report it to your credit card issuer and they will get you a refund. Takes about 90 days but you'll get it.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. He has an option on there to "make an offer" which I assume will let him sell it via ebay at the lower cost. Maybe it's because he wants to sell off other phones without putting them on.

Thanks everyone for the input. I'll use my credit card.
 
He probably doesn't want to pay eBay fees so he will invoice you the amount and you will pay it and he will just cancel the auction. This is against eBay policy and also reduces your protection somewhat.

In my experience if you don't buy it on eBay, PayPal won't help you much (if at all). Also, even your credit card doesn't protect you all that much. Visa told me as long as the person ships me something there is nothing they can do. As an example they told me someone could ship me a box of rocks or even an empty box and as long as they can produce a tracking number to prove they shipped me something, I'm SOL. This was because I bought a "mint condition used rim" which was actually not even usable. I never got any money back from either PayPal or the credit card company.
 
unL33T said:
He probably doesn't want to pay eBay fees so he will invoice you the amount and you will pay it and he will just cancel the auction. This is against eBay policy and also reduces your protection somewhat.

In my experience if you don't buy it on eBay, PayPal won't help you much (if at all). Also, even your credit card doesn't protect you all that much. Visa told me as long as the person ships me something there is nothing they can do. As an example they told me someone could ship me a box of rocks or even an empty box and as long as they can produce a tracking number to prove they shipped me something, I'm SOL. This was because I bought a "mint condition used rim" which was actually not even usable. I never got any money back from either PayPal or the credit card company.
Click to expand...

That's what I'm worried about. Since I'm buying from US I lose all civil recourse.
 
i'm dealing with a bastard ebayer right now through paypal. I bought a brand new power supply and the ****er shipped me some beat up/old/broken/ready for garbage thing.

i disputed with paypal and showed them pictures...its still being processed but its looking good. The sellers first offer was to paypal me 30% of what i paid, i told him to GTFO!

EDIT: the moral of that story was that i should have double checked his ebay rep. I usually do, but for some reason this time i didnt. He has TONS of negative feedback. Look at your sellers ebay history. See how much stuff hes sold before and if there were any issues. Read between the lines. A "positive" feedback is not enough cuz nowadays its almost impossible to leave negative feedback. Read what they say. A lot of times it would show positive but the sentence is negative.

ebay is getting ridiculous priced so i can see why he would try to circumnavigate ebay. After they are done gouging you XX% plus the paypal fee, u end up loosing, as a seller, anywhere between 80 and 75 percent of the price.
 
Last edited:
Red_Liner740 said:
i'm dealing with a bastard ebayer right now through paypal. I bought a brand new power supply and the ****er shipped me some beat up/old/broken/ready for garbage thing.

i disputed with paypal and showed them pictures...its still being processed but its looking good. The sellers first offer was to paypal me 30% of what i paid, i told him to GTFO!

EDIT: the moral of that story was that i should have double checked his ebay rep. I usually do, but for some reason this time i didnt. He has TONS of negative feedback. Look at your sellers ebay history. See how much stuff hes sold before and if there were any issues. Read between the lines. A "positive" feedback is not enough cuz nowadays its almost impossible to leave negative feedback. Read what they say. A lot of times it would show positive but the sentence is negative.

ebay is getting ridiculous priced so i can see why he would try to circumnavigate ebay. After they are done gouging you XX% plus the paypal fee, u end up loosing, as a seller, anywhere between 80 and 75 percent of the price.
Click to expand...

Did you do paypal invoice etc...?
 
Not this time, but i have done invoicing in the past through other forums.

when paying i just make sure i specify exactly what i paid for and how much. example

This payment is for a brand new, blah blah blah, to be shipped to "my name" etc etc.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom