Question regarding a hypothetical mail order problem for sellers and PayPal...

[drcy]

My technique is to include with the baseball card worth over $2,000 a tape of Fatal Attraction and a boiled rabbit so the buyer knows what type of person he's dealing with. No PayPal chargebacks yet, though I get few repeat customers.

Any card under $2000, it's just a mouse.

[barrysloate]

Hi Kevin,
You need to protect yourself first. Given your scenario where a buyer can simply say the box was empty and request a refund, you should not go through with it. You can always find somebody to buy a valuable baseball card, even for a little less. Would you rather have 9K for it and a successful transaction, or get scammed at 10K? It's a no-brainer. Ebay/Paypal's answer is simply unacceptable.

[glchen]

I once asked this question on the PSA forum: Link. The answer was:

"First rule in doing this is to Not, and mean Ever, accept payment through Paypal. I Only accept High Dollar payments outside of Paypal. There are several ways to do this with your Buyer. Usually on Hi Dollar items there has been contact with me before they ever drop the Hammer and I make it clear what my rules are ahead of time. I have never had a 2K plus Sale without some form of Pre Contact, usually to negotiate on price. When we do come to a deal I usually get a Cashiers check or some type of Certified funds and then still wait a few days and have my Banker contact the Financial clearing house for the transaction and do this even with Repeat Customers. I Never ship anything until I am assured of the item clearing. I have no issue with my Buyers being amiable to this, if it is a Legit Buyer of a Hi Dollar item they should have no problem with this and in fact other than a little anticipation on some of their parts, have never had no problem.
... Also, any and all High Dollar items are Shipped USPS Registered with an Additional Second Signature Delivery Confirmation. Have never had a problem this way. "

[drcy]

"Sage advice, David . . . I mean the first post."

But, seriously, an obvious technique is have the buyer pay with check or money order on expensive orders, use the UPS-type shipping method I described or come up with your own personal method of documenting what you shipped (witness, filming, other).

"In between your fits of idiocy, David, you sometimes say intelligent things."
"Thank you. I have my lucid moments . . . Actually, I have an BFA and it's called collage."
"You're not supposed to say 'actually.'"
"Whatever."

[Bugsy]

When a high dollar item has been returned because of it being not as described, I have heard of sellers actually opening the returned item at the postal counter in front of a post office employee, while getting the event on video. I suppose the same could be done when mailing an item. Even that isn't airtight, but it could certainly help you argue your case. I suppose you have to be paranoid if it is a high dollar item.

[Runscott]

Doesn't insurance cover you on this sort of thing? e.g-if the buyer claims he received 'junk wax' instead of the item, can't you file an insurance claim based on the fact that the item was stolen? Certainly that fits the definition of 'stolen'.

Let the insurance's fraud area go after the thief.

[packs]

Don't think that would work though. Insurance would say the same thing: how do we know you mailed the item you claim to have mailed?

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by packs

Don't think that would work though. Insurance would say the same thing: how do we know you mailed the item you are claim to have mailed?

If that's the case, then insurance is totally worthless and no one should ever purchase it. I believe that if you know their has been theft, and you report it to the police, you are covered.

[vintagetoppsguy]

Originally Posted by packs

Don't think that would work though. Insurance would say the same thing: how do we know you mailed the item you claim to have mailed?

Originally Posted by Runscott

If that's the case, then insurance is totally worthless and no one should ever purchase it. I believe that if you know their has been theft, and you report it to the police, you are covered.

Your not looking at it from the perpective of the USPS. If it were that easy, every scammer would be mailing an empty package to a 'friend', insuring it for $1000, the friend saying they recevied an empty package and then the scammer filing a claim with the USPS. Packs makes a good point - how does the USPS know you really mailed the item you claim to have mailed?

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by vintagetoppsguy

Your not looking at it from the perpective of the USPS. If it were that easy, every scammer would be mailing an empty package to a 'friend', insuring it for $1000, the friend saying they recevied an empty package and then the scammer filing a claim with the USPS. Packs makes a good point - how does the USPS know you really mailed the item you claim to have mailed?

So insurance is worthless when there is a theft, even if there is a police report?

Seems strange to me, but okay.