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Strange Ebay Situation

Well after a long run of great razor scores back in late June-July I committed to a personal driven sabbatical to save my wallet and bank account.

Well last week just browsing for fun I seen a razor I've lost out on many times on an international Ebay site I asked the seller if he would ship internationally, he said sure no problem. I put in a low snipe bid thinking there's no way it will go cheap but it did and I won and was in shock to be honest.

I go to pay and that's where I notice in the payments section Paypal isn't listed and there is no buyer protection but I go ok whatever credit card is fine I should still be covered, well when I went to checkout it will only allow me to pay with the card over the phone or in person which isn't possible. I said to myself no way am I giving out my credit card info to him over the phone.

So I contact the seller and ask if he can invoice me with a direct secure online credit card link or Paypal just this one sale as I am not located in the same continent as him and he replied back send me your Paypal email address and I will invoice you through them.

Am I just paranoid or is this way more complicated than it has to be? Also isn't against Ebay policy? I've never run into a situation like this in all my years of buying on Ebay.

I'm not sure what to do.
 
That is strange. I’ve never heard of this. It’s against Ebay practices here...maybe overseas is different? I would call the Ebay support number before doing anything else. Maybe they can shed some light on the situation and advise/moderate the completion of the sale.


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That is a little strange, but I’m not sure what he can do with just your email address. I could be missing something though so you might want to wait on some more responses. You could always ask ebay about it. Does the seller have any reviews,
 

Flintstone65

Imagining solutions for imaginary problems
He/she likely wants to circumvent eBay. I've had a similar situation happen before (internationally), seller claimed that he couldn't figure out how to invoice on eBay or alter the closed listing to take my payment, whether that was true or not, he ended up having me pay him directly with PayPal and he canceled the sale on eBay. Depending on your moral dilemma of cutting out eBay and how much you'd like to have the razor, I would probably send him the PayPal address and go from there. I find international to be a hassle at least 25% of the time, especially if I don't opt for the seller who has 1,000+ sales/reviews with many of them being to the U.S. Keep us posted.
 

nemo

Lunatic Fringe
Staff member
Many sellers on ebay.de don't use or like Paypal, it isn't a requirement there so one must be careful when bidding, I found out the hard way. Unless you have a way to use Überweisung (wire transfer) you're sort of stuck. I've run into trouble before as well, luckily I found a person in Europe that could help pay for the item -- big hassle.

I hope it works out OK for you. The selling price is often much lower on non-Paypal listings though!
 
Go Paypal, It is safe IMO. I have given my email for a Paypal invoice. Paypal is the safest way to pay for anything online.
Vendors pay to use a paypal service for selling and if they are ripping people off they will revoke their privilege's costing them future business and limiting their ability to collect money.
If there is an issue you can correct it through Paypal as well.
 
Definitely strange. He may not be able to do anything with your email address but he sure can do something with your credit card info. The reason for using a service like Paypal is to take the seller out of the equation in terms of controlling the money. You send money to paypal and paypal sends the money to the seller. Period. The seller never gets your credit card info. You can certainly trust paypal, for the most part, but you don't know this guy and for all you know he's just putting the listing out there to get your credit card info and you'll never see any product from them. I'd tell the guy to jump in a lake.
 
As far as I understand PP, sending him your address will allow him to send you an invoice. Then you pay him through PP. He doesn't get to see your CC info. You pay as goods and services and you are protected under PP.
I wouldn't give him my CC info over the phone but honestly can't see what the big deal is sending him your PP address.
 
Ok guys. Instead of me giving my info to him, I've asked him to give me his that way like stone and strop & alex1921 said I can pay via goods and services to be protected. I will let everyone know how it goes.
 
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Ok guys. Instead of me giving my info to him, I've asked him to give me his that way like stone and strop & alex1921 said I can pay via goods and services to be protected. I will let everyone know how it goes.


You are still protected giving him yours.
He will send a money request, any transaction is revocable for a limited amount of time with Paypal.
 
I actually sent a $20 bill across the pond. It was going to work or it wasn't. A first and last time doing that. I will say however, it was shipped seriously fast.
 
Update: He replied back he's an older gentleman nearing 80 and not tech savy which makes sense now and puts me at ease it wasn't some sort of scam. Gave me his info and I sent payment as goods and services through Paypal so I should be covered.
 
I actually sent a $20 bill across the pond. It was going to work or it wasn't. A first and last time doing that. I will say however, it was shipped seriously fast.
When I was a kid I had an Aunt who would send money in the mail, always got to me.
 

Flintstone65

Imagining solutions for imaginary problems
Update: He replied back he's an older gentleman nearing 80 and not tech savy which makes sense now and puts me at ease it wasn't some sort of scam. Gave me his info and I sent payment as goods and services through Paypal so I should be covered.
Excellent. Glad the story has a good ending!!!
 
I don’t want to be the naysayer here, but just because someone tells you over the internet that they’re 80 years old and not tech savvy, doesn’t mean they are... but if you paid G&S you’ll have protection regardless, I’m glad you were able to pay him that way and definitely rooting for you to have a good transaction.
 
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