possible ebay scammer?

[yoel]

Hey folks got an eBay member named "card$shark$mania" (without the $'s)

He has bid on my items and gives a song and a dance about being from Russia but his mother lives in Texas and blah.. blah.. blah.  He just created his eBay account yesterday and bid a few of my items up very fast. 

Seems pretty shady just putting it out there.  I canceled all his bids and blocked him from bidding on my items.

[Don Boyer]

Hey folks got an eBay member named "cardsharkmania"

He has bid on my items and gives a song and a dance about being from Russia but his mother lives in Texas and blah.. blah.. blah.  He just created his eBay account yesterday and bid a few of my items up very fast. 

Seems pretty shady just putting it out there.  I canceled all his bids and blocked him from bidding on my items.

Let's say he did bid them up, and you were concerned about him being a scammer of some kind.  It's easy to deal with - insist on a shipping method that allows tracking all the way to wherever he wants it to go, be it Texas (Registered Mail) or Russia (Federal Express).

[yoel]

Ive made quite a few sales over the years and I have friends that do over $100k a year on ebay.  None of them ship internationally or deal with people with no feedback.  Here is his message to me.  Just sounds kinda shady..

Hello, thanks for your message. I can completely understand your reticence with respect to my being a newbie on ebay. the fact of the matter is that I live and work in St. Petersburg, Russia, but I am an American citizen from Austin, Texas. I am trying to start up a club here in western Russia focused on American card deck styles (I order often from Theory 11, they have some awesome decks). This is not for gambling per se, but rather towards appreciation of deck styles (I will be setting up a museum display) and to teach card games that are not familiar here.

That said, I return to the USA twice a year to visit with family and friends, and my BoA debit card there is what I use for payment from any purchases I make overseas (professional outlets mostly, but I leapt onto ebay once I started to search for these cards).

If all of this is okay with you, I would wish to reinstate my bid. If the auction is successful in my favor, the cards would be delivered to my Mother's house in Austin, Texas, and I would pick them up when I return in March. I have a PayPal account, but can also pay you directly through BoA. However, I do not wish to do a transaction outside of ebay (for obvious reasons).

I hope you understand my position; let me know if I might re-bid. I will pay top dollar for this, and if you have any other decks let me know!

I understand this all might sound a bit strange, but that's life for some of us.

Cheers, and please let me know.
Whitney

Plus he bid again without my permission.  Just saying for such an avid and enthusiastic card collector.  I find it had to believe he does not have an ebay account.  Maybe if he messages me on here I will apologize but i find it weird.

Also.. Lets say he bids them up because he has them for sale and wants his to sell over mine with the more attractive price.  Then he doesnt pay for mine. Then I just wasted my time on an auction and have to do a second chance offer.. Thats why its not worth dealing with crap that seems a little odd.

[Don Boyer]

I wasn't aware of the "shill bid the competition" strategy.  In that case, yeah, I'd do the same.

[mirciusx]

If you got the money through paypal/boa, everything it's just fine, just sent the cards with tracking number and everything will be fine (for you). Maybe it's a scam, but everybody begins from 0 on ebay.

I have a ebay user, all positive feedback, with over 300 things taken from ebay, and at the beginning was very hard to buy something for people, because I didn't have feedback at all...all they say it was that I need minimum 5 positive feedback. But, hey guys, I just started! But that was in 2006 or 2007
That's funny...I begun to collect and buy a lot of cards because someone on the ebay (the great lazarus) was a scambag, take the money and erase/close the user for an action with five rare decks (red artifice and ltd, gold and black artifice and a 1st ghost). I have a print screen to remember that day also. Some people change your life and your way (and money, lol) in bad or...good.
Sorry for offtopic and good luck!

[Paul.Middleton]

Ive made quite a few sales over the years and I have friends that do over $100k a year on ebay.  None of them ship internationally or deal with people with no feedback.  Here is his message to me.  Just sounds kinda shady..

Hello, thanks for your message. I can completely understand your reticence with respect to my being a newbie on ebay. the fact of the matter is that I live and work in St. Petersburg, Russia, but I am an American citizen from Austin, Texas. I am trying to start up a club here in western Russia focused on American card deck styles (I order often from Theory 11, they have some awesome decks). This is not for gambling per se, but rather towards appreciation of deck styles (I will be setting up a museum display) and to teach card games that are not familiar here.

That said, I return to the USA twice a year to visit with family and friends, and my BoA debit card there is what I use for payment from any purchases I make overseas (professional outlets mostly, but I leapt onto ebay once I started to search for these cards).

If all of this is okay with you, I would wish to reinstate my bid. If the auction is successful in my favor, the cards would be delivered to my Mother's house in Austin, Texas, and I would pick them up when I return in March. I have a PayPal account, but can also pay you directly through BoA. However, I do not wish to do a transaction outside of ebay (for obvious reasons).

I hope you understand my position; let me know if I might re-bid. I will pay top dollar for this, and if you have any other decks let me know!

I understand this all might sound a bit strange, but that's life for some of us.

Cheers, and please let me know.
Whitney

Plus he bid again without my permission.  Just saying for such an avid and enthusiastic card collector.  I find it had to believe he does not have an ebay account.  Maybe if he messages me on here I will apologize but i find it weird.

Also.. Lets say he bids them up because he has them for sale and wants his to sell over mine with the more attractive price.  Then he doesnt pay for mine. Then I just wasted my time on an auction and have to do a second chance offer.. Thats why its not worth dealing with crap that seems a little odd.

You're doing absolutely the right thing, on or off eBay you should definitely be wary - that story, even if true - is not worth the potential problems.

Also, if that's a different address to the one his PayPal account is registered with, you probably won't be covered. I'm not sure about US, but here are the UK PayPal rules:

Eligibility Requirements
You must obtain proof of delivery that can be tracked online.

Seller Protection covers physical items only. Check that the item is eligible in the 'Transaction Details' in your PayPal account and in your confirmation email.

Eligible transactions between buyers and sellers in the UK, US and Canada qualify for Seller Protection. If you're selling on eBay, you can post to buyers in any of the 190 countries where PayPal is accepted and still be covered.

Only post to the buyer's address provided in the 'Transaction Details' and only accept payments in full from a single PayPal account.

If you deliver an item in person or post it in any other way that can't be tracked, you won't be covered.

[Don Boyer]

If you deliver an item in person or post it in any other way that can't be tracked, you won't be covered.

...or send it to an address OTHER than the one the account is registered to.  I knew I might run into issues and insured that all my financial institutions that I deal with have my current mailing address as my address of record - even with that address being in a different city from my residence.  (I have a PO Box in one city and an apartment about a 30-minute drive away in another city.)

[Paul.Middleton]

If you deliver an item in person or post it in any other way that can't be tracked, you won't be covered.

...or send it to an address OTHER than the one the account is registered to.  I knew I might run into issues and insured that all my financial institutions that I deal with have my current mailing address as my address of record - even with that address being in a different city from my residence.  (I have a PO Box in one city and an apartment about a 30-minute drive away in another city.)

Yup, i've had a couple of US customers with PO boxes and have to be careful that the billing and delivery addresses are correct for both of us.