Uncovered a very interesting Amazon/eBay foreign buyer scheme

[IEC]

Screw eBay. I got a neg (despite no money changing hands) because I refused to sell an item to a scammer, and they decided they'd like to ruin my perfect feedback. eBay still hasn't removed the neg even after banning the asshole.

 

[halik]

I've had individuals on the forums (FS/FT) ask me to ship to a "international freight forwarder", that way there would be no customs or international shipping for me to deal with and they supposedly would get discounted shipping and customs rates.

Yeah, no.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtaUHMWQpiI

 

[monkeydelmagico]

Over the past month I've sold a couple items that have been sent onward. Doesn't seem to be a big deal. Hell, ebay just launched their own international ship. Send item to them and they deal with the overseas BS. I've been tempted to try it out. Alot of international buyers will pay a premium.

 

[RU482]

on the flipside, how the hell can I buy a $0.03 cable from Hong Kong with free shipping? who's picking up the tab for shipping on those deals? granted, I love them, but always has me wondering wtf

 

[slayer202]

on the flipside, how the hell can I buy a $0.03 cable from Hong Kong with free shipping? who's picking up the tab for shipping on those deals? granted, I love them, but always has me wondering wtf

they smuggle people entwined in cables inside of cargo containers. no way homeland security is gonna untangle all those wires

 

[AkumaX]

f*cking freight forwarders ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

http://barami.us/

that makes it 4 out of my 6 ebay trasactions!! WTFFFFFFFFF

 

[Raghu]

I buy things through a freight forwarder, (usually on ebay), much cheaper than buying locally and a lot more variety than I get locally.

http://www.shopandship.com/default.aspx

 

[rudder]

It wasn't a big deal. The buyers were Paypal verified with tons of purchases and no negs.

I've sold on eBay for just about 15 years and never, ever has an issue with a ripoff or an issue with Paypal.

Like any transaction...just do your homework. I've sold many things to forwarders. At first I was leery, but then their feedback was fine, PayPal had seller protection, and all the addresses matched. Whether it is breaking some U.S. Law, I don't know but all the items I have sold were sent to legit buyers who happened to forward the stuff overseas.

 

[jaedaliu]

f*cking freight forwarders ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

http://barami.us/

that makes it 4 out of my 6 ebay trasactions!! WTFFFFFFFFF

What are you selling that the foreigners want so badly?

 

[AkumaX]

What are you selling that the foreigners want so badly?

Computer stuff - CPU's, motherboards, RAM, etc...

I've sold clothes/accessories on eBay, and even those get targeted.

But I don't have to worry about the freight-forwarder ruining those kinds of things.

Typically the freight-forwarder will un-package the item from the shipping box, and then re-package it into the freight-forwardee's parcel box (which is fine for things like articles of clothes, purses, etc..) so that it'll maximize the shipping container's space before shipping it off to the destination country.

My issue is with electronics - I can't guarantee the safety of, say, a CPU that I packed neatly. It could take 4-6 weeks before it reaches it destination country/recipient. If the buyer gets it DOA, who's fault is to blame? What was the condition of it when they received it, since it was unpacked/repacked? What about shipping it for a return from another country? What about if they just do a chargeback on their PayPal?

Also, I sold a CPU that was targeted 3 times, and subsequently auto-cancelled 3 times because PayPal detected that the funds were 'fraudulent'. The issue is that it took me 2-3 weeks to sell that CPU because the funds were tied up in PayPal, and it took me forever to get back my FVF fee from eBay.