Samsung 16-45 on eBay

Which is why I always pay for a large ebay purchase through Paypal by credit card.

As for Caveat Emptor, what a crock.
Why should the buyer have to take the chance when buying through Ebay, I can understand to some extent when doing a face to face purchase but why should Ebay make all that money and then just be able to walk away if things go wrong.

Oh, that's interesting. I didn't know you could do that unless the seller had enabled it (as they charge the seller even more for credit cards transactions).

Is there a way around that?

I have never had a payment refused when using my credit card through Paypal and I have made well over a thousand purchases in my time.
I used to buy and sell mobile phones on there.

Nice thing was the card company used to give me 1% cashback as well although that stopped pretty sharpish after the first year when they had to give me the maximum amount (they looked into it and realised I was using it for "business purposes").

Actually I paid someone £300 today for a lens and that was using my card.

That's not how it works now. The amount in dispute is frozen and if the seller doesn't have funds to cover that in the PayPal account then it has to be topped up before anything can be spent out of the account.

Of course the final adjuducation might well be something else, if it came to that.

That's encouraging, thanks for the new information John. I've just reluctantly had to start a dispute process due to the non-arrival of an ME Super and a couple of lenses, so it'll be interesting to see if I'm fully covered

This is worth a read, ebay's Paypal tips.
link

Looks like Bella's PayPal tips to me...

It finally went for £160 ... sat at £102 until midday, then £104, and in the last 30 seconds up to £160.

Was it anyone from here?

And have they got a reasonable deal?

Is it back again? - link

My gut feeling - given his location, all positive feedback and keeping auctions private is that he works for Samsung and buys "used" or reconditioned items in the staff shop and sells them here. Maybe with a "friend (hence private auctions) who bids just over the cost price to make sure they don't sell below cost.

And I have bid on it too ... £0.01 !

Actually I would say from the new auction that whoever won the lens last time wanted to pay by some other means than Paypal (due to the fact he now has Payment by Paypal only in big bold red wording plastered all over the description).

...That may well be right, though bidding from a "friend" is not needed for popular items that are bound to get more than cost.

The auctions may be private because the seller might be doing something against his terms of employment, or evading tax, etc.

Mike-P The same comments are on the original auction too and I doubt that it would have been dealt with in 10 minutes. Also, if that was a problem then it would be a relisting - due to non-payment and thus saving fees. The seller has just copied the first auction text for the second.

iceblinker - against terms of employment or tax evasion? probably neither as his own user name and final prices are still displayed. I could understand if he was selling "worn underwear" and buyers would not want to be identified - but standard hight street items - something is being hidden. But look at everything he has on sale ... all Samsung except the SD and microSD (COMPATABLE WITH MANY CAMERA'S, ALL SAMSUNGS) cards.

The seller is in Kingston-upon-Thames rather close to Samsung Electronics in Chertsey.

Well that will teach me to read the first listing before making a comment .

As for a relisting after a bad auction, I never bothered waiting .. relisting costs peanuts on a auction with no BIN or reserve price, as long as you get the seller fees back thats the main thing.
It takes approx 2 weeks to get the relisting and seller fees back so if you want a reasonable turnover there is no point waiting.

Of course he could be purely legit and all the comments here mean diddly squat.

Mike-P

Yes he could be legitimate - but why would a private seller have two of those lenses? Or all of the other cameras?

And why hide bidder identities?

There is just something odd ...