[Boatanchors] eBay scam?

[Howard Ritter]

Hello all—

I'm hoping to make use of the group’s experiences.

I have a National HRO-500 with VLF Preselector listed on eBay. I just received an inquiry from a person in Moscow claiming that he wants to buy the item at the Buy It Now price, which I would be very happy to get, and wants to know how much it would cost to ship it to Moscow. And no, he did not offer to go outside of eBay and send me a bank check for more than the purchase price and ask for the remainder in cash! There was no mention of anything irregular, just the inquiry about shipping costs.

I have no prior experience with selling on eBay. I do realize there are all sorts of scams run through the site, but I believe the situation has improved since they began requiring all payments to be made thru PayPal. My question is: It seems to me that if a seller ships only after receiving payment thru PayPal, he is insulated from being defrauded—but can PayPal claw back a payment to an eBay seller if the buyer’s payment turns out to be fraudulent? Does PayPal, which presumably vets the buyer’s form of payment and has his money securely in hand before paying the seller, assume the loss if later turns out that the buyer somehow defaulted or scammed PayPal? PayPay is presumably pretty sophisticated and worldly-wise—is it even possible to scam them?

Are there any other dangers involved in this type of transaction? For example, what would happen if Russian Customs refuses to allow entry of an item, or the buyer backs out when he finds the import duty excessive?

Thanks for your advice,

—howard n7exn