Is this a scam?

I just found a car I've been hunting at a very good price on EBay.

The seller has ZERO feedback, just became a member yesterday, and listed the car 22 times. Same car, same listing, 22 times.

It's close enough to where I live for me to get serious.

Why the EBay weirdness?

Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt to email the guy and set up a meeting since he's close to you. It seems shady, though.

yeah id definitely meet the guy before you bid or before the bidding is over if you are close enough.

How does he list 1 car 22 times in 1 day?

It's not an auction. It's a classified ad.

The listings were within minutes of each other.

All right, I'm probably out.

21 of the listings disappeared. The only one remaining is half way across the country. Maybe they were all different locations (I didn't notice).

Sounds like a CL scam.

Unfortunately, he's got my contact info...

SVreX wrote: Unfortunately, he's got my contact info...

Probably won't do much with it if you don't answer his emails, though. At least that seems to be the case with Craigslist scammers.

Zero feedback is such a red flag for me. I HATE when someone with zero feedback bids on stuff I'm selling on ebay. I don't know why they bid when they have no intention of paying, but they do.

I'd run, as others have said.

Or he just could be a complete newbie who didn't see his car listed immediately, so kept doing it again and again and again...

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

Even so, smells a tad scammy.

1988RedT2 wrote: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity. Even so, smells a tad scammy.

Never attribute stupidity to that which is adequately explained by malice.

Hi, I'm RX Reven and I know I've got huge trust issues.

I find that I deal with stupid people far more often than I deal with malicious ones

1988RedT2 wrote: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

Occam's Safety Razor?

gamby wrote: Zero feedback is such a red flag for me. I HATE when someone with zero feedback bids on stuff I'm selling on ebay. I don't know why they bid when they have no intention of paying, but they do. I'd run, as others have said.

So.... how is someone with 0 feedback supposed to get any feedback if no one will accept 0 feedback bids?

mndsm wrote:

gamby wrote: Zero feedback is such a red flag for me. I HATE when someone with zero feedback bids on stuff I'm selling on ebay. I don't know why they bid when they have no intention of paying, but they do. I'd run, as others have said.

So.... how is someone with 0 feedback supposed to get any feedback if no one will accept 0 feedback bids?

You could do what I did many years ago when I first started selling on ebay: sell cheap little stuff that people won't mind taking a chance on.

Well he contacted me. Offline from Ebay.

Said he'd like more info from me (name, address, etc) and that the car is in Pittsburgh (the 4th city I've seen it was allegedly in in various parts of the country). Proceeded to describe how we would both be protected through Ebay's buyer protection plan (even though he pulled the ad and contacted me directly).

I reported him to the authorities.

Too bad too... It would have been nice.

The next step is to say how awesome that is that the car is in Pittsburgh because you frequently travel between your home in GA and the Central Office in Pittsburgh researching online fraud for the FBI. When could he meet you?

I was nowhere near as creative... or nice.