Many of the "scammer's" accounts are new ones from a different country than a seller's. Any seller is probably reluctant to deal with you because you are a new buyer with (0) feedback. The question now is how we extricate ourselves from this situation. The original item itself is protected under eBay's guarantee. I've already suggested the seller cancel the sale, refund my money, and then re-list the item separately with international shipping so I can buy that, but didn't get a response to that. I also don't see how this would be possible without contravening eBay's rules on trading outside their system. However, he has now stated that he will ship the item to me in the UK, has asked for my address, and will let me know if shipping ends up beyond what I've seen as being likely.īut while I was willing to take a chance on the mail forwarding, I'm dubious about committing more money beyond my initial expenditure. The seller seemed friendly enough, but was initially still suspicious. I realised from this that the seller perhaps feared I was a scammer, so I got in touch via eBay messaging to explain I was genuine, apologise for any concern I'd caused, and to offer to request to cancel the order.
My item didn't ship, and the seller (with a good trading rating) then altered the listings for the remaining stock in the listing, increasing the number available back to what it was and stating they would only ship to home addresses. The seller wasn't shipping outside the US, but I'd learned of mail forwarding companies and opened an account - giving that as the address where the item should go. I'm a UK bidder who recently bought an item being sold in the US under a 'buy it now' option.