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how to deal with selling something outside of ebay?
 

i get an email yesterday about someone who wants to buy a few items from me outside of paypal claiming that they dont have a paypal account. they want to purchase the items via money order or check

this buyer has a great feedback track and im considering however...

is this a good idea? i will be using my real information to do this deal.
is it worth a risk?

i can see this person being a bad apple and reporting me to ebay (worst case)
my option is to only ask him for his personal email and work the transaction through there.

you dont have to deal outside of eb pp to receive postal orders or checks!

dont risk doing biz outside of eb!

tell the customer you will accept a postal order or check but they have to buy via an eb auction or buy it now,

go with your gut instinct mate!

Up to you really - have to assess the risk. I have done biz with buyers with high feedback off of eb ay and pa yp al and they have been solid =)

My personal way of dealing with them is to get them on the phone and communicate.

I guess everyone does things differently, I do 50% of my sales off ebay from offers I post to them or they just asking me a question and I offer them something. Its a very niche category though so maybe that is why I get away with it. These items are pennies on the dollar compared to them buying them new so they all appreciate it. I am big with add ons. I also send a 1-2 page flyer with all customers with items similar to their purchased item. 30% or so respond to those with sale that match or above what they even bought on ebay.

eb DO NOT like been cut out of the deal

if your they read your messages and see you sealed a deal with a customer through eb and then dealt off eb they will spank your bottom!

ive done it before for a big deal,but if its for pennys your better dealing via eb,

just get a phone number like rsot said and dont reply in a eb message saying"yes lets do it outside of eb,fook em,they get enough anyway".

you just gotta be carefull

You need to communicate directly to the buyer's e-mail. I have asked for the e-mail before or sometimes the message has the buyer's e-mail.

I word emails in the ebay system very carefully but most are in my regular gmail email system. I have noticed in the past if you use certain words in your ebay emails, they dont even get the email. I keep dollar signs out as well as many other things.

wow,i didnt know that

yeah you gotta be carefull with your messages,its common sense

I personally keep dollar signs, I list say 45.00 simply 45 or something like that. NEVER use the word "fees" or anything like that or they might think you are saying "I will take less for it directly with a paypal invoice since the fees here are so high". I did that once and they said they never got the email. The best thing to do for any side transaction is to just email them through your regular email account for sure. You can sell all you want outside of ebay. They just dont like it. If I have multiple items I offer my own 2nd chance offers all the time directly to them. I also send personal emails via ebay to each 2nd chance offer to follow it up incase they dont get the 2nd chance email from the. Many people dont read the BS computer generated emails from ebay but if they see a personal email they open it. Then when they see I offered them the 2nc chance offer many of them just say "send me an invoice", When that happens its awesome, Fees avoided and no dsr worry about.

The more outside sales you get the less chance of low dsr's in my opinion. Not that I give them a reason but just lessens the chance.

for this guy, i was suspicious, but then i again im usually cautious with anything on ebay. especially a stealth account.

i replied to him via ebay email to give me his personal email address. no other question or comments untill i go his email. i got his email and we talked. wanted to do the transaction using ebay as a 'buy it now'.

i kindly decilned because the last thing i want to do is have an ebay transaction using a money order or check in my real name and address!!

so he went with it and will send me a check to my stealth address. my friend lives there. the check is slight variation of my name, but my bank will clear it.

i put all my defenses up, just in case he decides to rat me out to ebay using the info i gave him or anything, there is nothing linking me to my suspended accounts.