Ebay.de: paying by bank transfer

Darwin

Hi, I won an auction on ebay.de for a laptop and in my haste (to bid) did not see that the seller accepts bank transfer or cash on collection only. Obviously the latter is not an option for me, but my transaction is a couple of hundred euro and there is no buyer protection for paying by bank transfer. The seller looks ok on the face of it - ebay member since 2008, registered as a business seller, nearly 100% feedback, nearly 2000 transactions. However all of the transactions have been for low value gaming accessories in the region of 10 to 30 euro. Now the seller has lots of Apple laptops for sale, all the listings have stock photos none of the actual items. On the plus side, the listing itself looks plausible in that it describes the used condition of the items and he gives his own address and email contact on the listing. Also, why would he offer cash on collection if it was a scam? All his laptop sales so far have attracted lots of bids.
On the other hand the listings are completely out of character with his previous sales and it is not impossible a sellers account could have been hacked.

I could ask for a photograph of the actual item, along with his ebay name written on a piece of paper beside it, or maybe the sensible thing is to leave it? Any other ideas? Thanks

allthedoyles

Sensible thing - leave it

Germans don't like Paypal anyway .

There was a thread here lately where someone bought a Laptop in Allemagne and it had the Deutsch keyboard .

The high number of bids could be due to shill-bidding

jor el

Bank transfer is pretty standard for German sellers, so nothing really out of the ordinary about it. That doesn't mean there aren't scam sellers in Germany though, as I'm sure there, just like everywhere else. However, what you say about the description and feedback would indicate that this is a reliable seller. It's up to you though, either go for it or back out.

Check his feedback for laptop sales, and see if they are positive. That would indicate that he is now selling laptops, and that his account has not been hacked, and that you shouldn't worry about that much anyway.

Darwin

He has only just started selling IT equipment, so I will have to wait for someone to pay and leave feedback. The odd thing is he accepted paypal for the low value gaming accessories. I've sent a message asking for a photo and enquiring about paypal, so I'll sit tight in the meantime.

jor el

The fees on high value items would be more though, hence maybe not wanting to take money by Paypal.

uck51js9zml2yt

happened me once and i just contacted the seller and backed out.
got negative feedback on it but it was a small price to pay.