Risky Ebay Transactions

[Mother]

Well I have yet to burned buying off ebay but this one had me sweating...
It started a few weeks ago when I seen a new BIN listing for this:


1 Boxed Saturn with Import Adapter Cartridge

Domestics all Complete, scratch free, excellent shape

Shining Force III
Guardian Heroes
Street Fighter Collection
MegaMan 8 Anniversary edition
Marvel Super Heroes
Street Fighter Alpha
Night Warriors
Virtual On
Fighting Vipers
Virtua Fighter 2
Nights

Ok heres the Imports that were included All complete, excellent

Castlevania Dracula X
Grandia Memorial package
X-Men Vs. Street Fighter Box Set
Marvel Super Heroes VS Street Fighter
Pocket Fighter
Dark Savior
SEXY PARODIUS
Dragon Force
Rockman X4
Sega Rally
Macross Super Dimension Fortress
Toshinden URA
Street Fighter Zero 2
Dragon Ball Z Legends

All for 150.00 BIN

Ok being in Saturn collecting mode of late I immediately snagged it. I completed checkout and the seller and me contacted each other and set up terms. About three hours later I get an email from Ebay saying the Auction is NULL AND VOID for violating ebay policy and the listing was removed.

Of course this was because of the cartridge and imports but I was mad because we had already ended the auction. The seller (who had perfect feedback) and I decided to go ahead anyway with sell, no reason not too as he needed the money and I needed the games. I sent him the money immediately and then began almost 2 weeks of him not shipping.

His first excuse was he was moving into a new house and couldnt get to post office.
A couple of days later I emailed to confirm shipment he says and ice storm had shut everything down. He would ship asap.
A couple more days I email and he said he wrecked his car due to th ice on the way to ship

At this point I began to get worried.

A few more days he emailed and said he still hadnt shipped due to he couldnt find a large enough "container" to ship in. I was like WTF go across the street to a store and get a cardboard box for crying out loud. :argue:

After almost 2 weeks I had resigned myself to the fact there was little I could do if the guy didnt want to ship, he had my money I had a NULL and VOID transaction statement from ebay which I knew give me no fraud protection.

Then out the blue I recieve an email with tracking #s and an apology. Everything arrived today in great shape. I am very happy but it was not worth the stress.
>.<

Any of you guys ever have similar experiences like this one? Would you have gone through with the deal like I did? I know I wouldnt again. Unless the deal was so awesome that it was irresistable and for not much money.

[Ascending Wordsmith]

Oh yes. Like a complete moron, I used a BIN on an auction for DVD being sold by a seller that was actually a business. I used BIN in late December and just got the damn thing last week. Never again!

[bargora]

If you're worried about the fraud protection, I'd ask the seller to set up a private auction (minus the adapter cart, maybe with some nebulous "bonus" cart).

I've done a few transactions with ebay sellers outside ebay's system, each time because I forgot to bid and the auction ended without bids, but they were about $10 transactions in each case. The sellers were probably happy to do it because they (gasp) avoided the final value fee, and I haven't been burned yet. If it were a big transaction like yours, though, I'd think twice (or thrice) about doing it.

[buttasuperb]

Holy crap, that's one hell of a deal for all that saturn stuff. Glad you got everything ok.