I have become an EBay addict. I've decided to put my whole life up for sale on EBay and start over. Actually I've decided to get rid of crap that I have that I never use. Ok it's not really crap it's just that I have tons of books, DVDs's, small little things I've bought and used once. I mean DVD's, they are like so yesterday. Now I just download movies to my Tivo from Amazon or my laptop and watch them on my iphone or here on the computer. So I really have no need for DVD's anymore. Actually, I don't even have a dvd player in my room. Now that my desktop computer broke I don't even have a computer that will play dvd's. I digress.
So two weeks ago I decided that I wanted to upgrade my old iphone to the new version. I even thought I'd try to recycle even so I bought a refurbished version of the new iphone 3g. Can you believe there is all ready a refurbished version? Amazing. It was fifty bucks cheaper and comes with a Best Buy warranty. I also decided that I would have to sell my old iphone to see if I could at least get some money back. Hence the whole EBay part of this long dragged out story.
I opened an account and store on EBay and started putting things on sell, including the iphone. I got an email from a perspective buyer saying that he needed my paypal account email address and he would send me $950 immediately to purchase the iphone. I was floored. I asked my mother, an EBay expert I thought about it, she told me that I shouldn't do it because it sounded strange. I wrote him back and told him he would have to bid on the item. Then I got an email from another perspective buyer asking if I would send the iphone to the Philippines because it was his brother's birthday. I thought about it and emailed him back saying I would. The Iphone sold for $360 and I was very happy that I would pay for the new iphone I bought and more. I got another email from him asking me to send the phone as soon as possible and could I please lessen the amount of the package to $100 so that his brother wouldn't have to pay taxes on it. I got the package out to him as soon as I got the money put in my pay pal account, also sent an email with the tracking number.
That Saturday I got home from a few minutes at work and looked at an email from Paypal on my new Iphone 3g. It said that there was something wrong with my transaction and the funds have been put on hold. Then twenty minutes later I got an email saying that the funds had been reversed and they had given this guy his money back! I called them to ask what the heck was going on. They said that because I didn't ship to the paypal confirmed address on the credit card they couldn't protect me. So basically I was out $360 and my iphone was on it's way to the Philippines. I was furious, didn't know what to do. So I called the USPS to see if maybe I could get the package back. They were very apologetic and told me that because the package was out of the country there was nothing that could be done. Hence, why this crook wanted the tracking number.
By the end of the day I realized that I had screwed up but I was still pissed. I noticed on this guys account that someone else had left him feedback. I clicked and found out that my buyer had bought an iphone from that guy. So I emailed him and ask him not to send his item out. We ended up talking on the phone and it was the same exact story. Then I went on to Ebay and did an advanced search and found out that he had bid and won 14 different iphones in the past three days! That totals well over $4,000. This person was calculating. I called EBay numerous times and they told me that it was under investigation. They wouldn't tell me anymore but I'm sure I won't get my poor phone back, it hurts me to think it's been stolen.
So the lesson of the day. If it's too good to be true, well you know the rest. Also, learn all the rules of EBay before you sign up and start selling things. That has been my only real bad experience. I've had a few great experiences so far as well. It's horrible that there was so many bad people out there in this world!
