Modern Comic Scams on Ebay

[ComicCollectorx19]

So I have recently being doing some research and ave become quite concerned.

 

What is to prevent you from becoming the victim of "Empty Box Scam"

 

Example:

 

Your the seller and list a $100 dollar comic.

Buyer then buys the comic for 100 on ebay, he receives the item, and then claims its not as described, Ebay of course sides with the buyer as they always do, the seller then send your back the package with NO comic inside with delivery conformation. Ebay refunds the buyers payment and you now have an empty box, and the buyer has the comic and their $100 bucks.

 

Any way to prevent this from happening?

 

 

[aszumilo]

Open it in front of a Post Office Employee.

[ComicCollectorx19]

What if its delivered to the my house?

 

Is there a way to have it sent to the post office for pick up?

[Sereol]

i had a similar situation happen several years ago when selling off some of my magic cards. The buyer bought around $250 in cards from me. Filed the item not as described suit. Then mailed me back a stack of commons. They refunded him the money and i had to fight with paypal to even get half of it back. They had me jump through a bunch of hoops getting the stack of junk appraised to prove that the value was different.

 

It's a loophole that they still havent fixed apparently.

[ComicCollectorx19]

Did you manage to get half your money back?

[I like pie]

Video tape opening it up?

[Garf]

There's little you can do.

 

If the item and profit margin is of sufficiently high enough value you could use an escrow service.

 

Errr to lessen the chances of this happening you could put terms of sale into your ebay listing. i.e. stipulate a minimum amount of feedback for buyers.

 

You could avoid selling to international bidders where it could be difficult to contact the buyer.

 

The only sure way would be to avoid using ebay and paypal

[Sereol]

It ended up making my paypal balance negative and i told 3 different managers from paypal that they wouldnt get a dime of business from me ever again if they didnt refund my money. They set the balance back to zero netting me half of my money back as a compromise.

[ComicCollectorx19]

Video tape opening it up?

 

Can claim you opened it removed item, then resealed then video taped the second opening, thanks tho!

[ComicCollectorx19]

There's little you can do.

 

If the item and profit margin is of sufficiently high enough value you could use an escrow service.

 

Errr to lessen the chances of this happening you could put terms of sale into your ebay listing. i.e. stipulate a minimum amount of feedback for buyers.

 

You could avoid selling to international bidders where it could be difficult to contact the buyer.

 

The only sure way would be to avoid using ebay and paypal

 

I think credit cards have any anti fraud but still it be hard to prove I Think.

[Richard The Man]

Video is your friend.

I just had a huge $1,400 paypal/ebay problem get resolved and I wish I had take video from the beginning.

 

From now on if I sell anything over $200 I video tape me putting it into the box and the UPS/USPS sticker on the outside of it after I seal the box.

 

If I buy anything over $250 I tape myself opening it.

 

.

 

Hope this helps

[I like pie]

Wouldn't this encourage sellers to buy insurance on the items and then instead of taking it back, ask the buyers to agree it was damaged during shipment?

[Shaven Kev-migration]

I had a guy return a burned up processor after buying a processor from me (way back in the pentium days!). He also kept the heat sink among other things in the box. I had to file a police report and fax it to paypal in order to get my money back. The police thought I was crazy because they could not do anything to the guy because it was online. The fact that he kept all the extras and the box he mailed back was significantly lighter than the box I mailed him probably helped. It did take lots of hateful emails and faxes to get them to do the right thing even after I sent in the police report.

[ComicCollectorx19]

Video is your friend.

I just had a huge $1,400 paypal/ebay problem get resolved and I wish I had take video from the beginning.

 

From now on if I sell anything over $200 I video tape me putting it into the box and the UPS/USPS sticker on the outside of it after I seal the box.

 

If I buy anything over $250 I tape myself opening it.

 

.

 

Hope this helps

 

The whole sticker thing to ensure that they know the item was inside at the time the box was sealed?

[ComicCollectorx19]

Wouldn't this encourage sellers to buy insurance on the items and then instead of taking it back, ask the buyers to agree it was damaged during shipment?

 

The buyer is then the one that needs to cooperate with the seller and wait possibly weeks for the case to be closed its much easier for a buyer to send the item back and claim it was a as not described and get there money back within days as opposed to wait for weeks.

[fastballspecial]

I like the video advice that is pretty sound. Over $200 some sellers on here will tell you its the cost of doing business, but I think the video both ways should cover you well

 

I did something similiar to Shaven kev's method several years ago. Sent a guy a money order of $60 I think for some very nice ASM early bronze issues. Never heard from the dude again.(This was the early paypal days.) Called the guy told he was going thru a divorce and he would mail the books. This was a rural area of Georgia if memory serves me. My local police told me I was screwed and to forget about it.

 

I got pissed so I had the day off and I started calling local law enforcement down there. Got a hold of a judge who told me it was theft by deception and talk to the local sheriff. Called them up chatted them up a bit and ending up faxing all my records and his emails.(Told them I was pissed and he was ripping me off and there was nothing I could do.) Seems it was a slow day so they went out and visited the guy. Called me back the next day telling me my money would be returned. THAT afternoon I got a really shaky phone call from the guy telling me my money was on its way back. I got it in a few days. Called the deputies up and asked them what they did and they said just a little Southern law enforcement hospitality. Dont care what they did sent them some nice Christmas cookies and stuff cuz it was near the holidays. Moral of this story is you catch more flies with honey.

 

[999ghosts]

You could avoid selling to international bidders where it could be difficult to contact the buyer.

 

There you go, It's our fault again

[Garf]

You could avoid selling to international bidders where it could be difficult to contact the buyer.

 

There you go, It's our fault again

 

I don't live in the US so it's bad for me if people on ebay.com are doing this but realistically it is harder for them to get their item back from across the pond.