How to contact a potential buyer

[fhlangan]

I'm a bit stuck here and could do with some help please!

I had a question from a potential buyer in the USA asking why I was not selling an item internationally. I explained because it was so heavy it would be prohibitively expensive. He said that was OK, he was prepared to pay and wanted to buy it so I answered his second correspondence saying I would take it off sale for the moment (he has to set up a PayPal account) and find out the price of postage and come back to him with that, and assuming all OK, to find what would be a suitable time for him to put it on BuyNow (just in case someone else got in there first).

I can't find any way of sending him a message with the details!? Clicking on his name just brings me to his main page and I can't find out how to get the profile page up in the forum as I thought this might be a way......but he only joined ebid yesterday so he has probably not even visited the forums yet. Is there a magic way to contact him that I have missed please? Or do I have to wait until he gets impatient with me for not coming back to him and asks me another question (I hope not to seem tardy about this).? I daren't put it up for sale in case someone else buys it (He sounds nice so I don't want to do that ).

PS I have found the tab saying 'Private Messages' but am still doubtful that someone who doesn't visit the forum or their own page much would get this? Does it come into their email box?

[raindropsies]

I may have read things wrong, but seems you are trying to sell off site.

As you have taken it off sale, the auction number is no longer valid for the trick to reply again.

[fhlangan]

NO, No, No Sarah, I am most certainly not trying to do this!!?? I am deeply hurt at the suggestion! I would hardly post on the forum with that in mind, would I?

I have merely taken it off sale while he sorts his PayPal account out and I find out the postage costs and then I am putting it back on exactly as it stands for him to buy through ebid. I thought I had explained that properly.....

[luvintage]

Wow, you are really an accommodating seller! (:

I've sold a lot of things internationally and the buyer always emails and asks how much it will cost but I've never removed the item from the site while they set up their payment arrangements and wait to decide if the item is too expensive to mail.

Something about this bothers me and it just may be that I'm old and suspicious! But, is this a rare or unique item that can't be found in the U.S.(where it could be shipped more cheaply)?

This type of selling venue has been around for years and I think people usually get their "ducks in a row" (ie payment methods, etc. set up) before they even bid. You may not be trying to sell offline but is he trying to get you to sell offline? I'm curious to see if he gets back to you.

I have a lot more questions about it but it all sounds like paranoia! It's just a red flag to me that he would try to buy something and not be in a position to do so. Sorry if I'm wrong (but, I hope I am).

[Armstrongs]

I'm a bit stuck here and could do with some help please!

I had a question from a potential buyer in the USA asking why I was not selling an item internationally. I explained because it was so heavy it would be prohibitively expensive. He said that was OK, he was prepared to pay and wanted to buy it so I answered his second correspondence saying I would take it off sale for the moment (he has to set up a PayPal account) and find out the price of postage and come back to him with that, and assuming all OK, to find what would be a suitable time for him to put it on BuyNow (just in case someone else got in there first).

I can't find any way of sending him a message with the details!? Clicking on his name just brings me to his main page and I can't find out how to get the profile page up in the forum as I thought this might be a way......but he only joined ebid yesterday so he has probably not even visited the forums yet. Is there a magic way to contact him that I have missed please? Or do I have to wait until he gets impatient with me for not coming back to him and asks me another question (I hope not to seem tardy about this).? I daren't put it up for sale in case someone else buys it (He sounds nice so I don't want to do that ).

PS I have found the tab saying 'Private Messages' but am still doubtful that someone who doesn't visit the forum or their own page much would get this? Does it come into their email box?

By closing the auction....you've lost the only means to answer your "buyer's" questions a second time.
(you can use "the reply box" in the email from eBid, more than once).

Not much else you can do now, i'd re-list the auction - with all the necessary postages etc.
Then hope for the best that your "buyer" will find you again.

Yvonne x

[fhlangan]

No, luvintage, I am not suspicious at all (and I am old as well!). This is something that is pretty unique and you won't fall across it anywhere easily. I don't doubt the buyer for an instant. This person is not trying to buy off ebid or has even asked me to 'save' it for him. He says he has been meaning to get going with PayPal but has resisted (do you blame him!?). I have said I can only take PayPal from abroad. I am not in this for huge profits or trying to make my livelihood but at the same time, I am not selling things cheaply. I am just selling accumulations of years (and late parents' possessions) and I love to find someone who will love my stuff for what it is - nearly everything I find hard to part with so it helps that it is going to a good home although some things I have bought 'by accident' in that they were in saleroom job lots and I had to buy them to get what I wanted, so it is quite nice to sell something I don't like (my mother in law's pottery for example....)

So, do I gather that I have to put this back on sale in order to communicate with the buyer about it and the only way I can stop someone else buying it meanwhile is to put all my things on holiday?

Thanks, Vonz, will relist briefly and see if another possibility to reply comes up....

[luvintage]

Good, I'm glad that I was wrong. Just been around the block too many times and guess I'm a little overly cautious. Sorry I didn't have faith in your judgement. I hope that I didn't offend you. I think you are a super seller for being so considerate of your buyers.

[raindropsies]

NO, No, No Sarah, I am most certainly not trying to do this!!?? I am deeply hurt at the suggestion! I would hardly post on the forum with that in mind, would I?

I have merely taken it off sale while he sorts his PayPal account out and I find out the postage costs and then I am putting it back on exactly as it stands for him to buy through ebid. I thought I had explained that properly.....

Did not mean to hurt you. I said

I may have read things wrong, but seems you are trying to sell off site.

Obviously I was reading it wrong

[fhlangan]

That's OK, Sarah. I did read your qualification. I was just (over)reacting to the suggestion being made!

[fhlangan]

Just thought I would come back to tell you all (especially luvintage who has been round the block ) that the buyer contacted me by applying to be my 'friend' through the forum when he couldn't find another way, i having messed up correspondence by temporarily removing the listing.

He sorted his PayPal, I put the item up for sale again and he bought it. His first purchase on ebid!! I must ask him if that was as a result of googling which would be interesting to know. Currently, item is winging its way across the Atlantic to, I hope, one happy buyer!