Ebay purchase/pickup

[Stang51d]

I reciently baught a gun barrel on ebay. It's in TN and I was going right thru there on my to AL right after the auction ended. I contacted the seller and asked if he could meet me so I could pick it up. Now I understand if he doesnt for some reason like, he's scared, or he's not home, or he is a recluse or something like that. Thats fine, its only like $9 to ship it. I just thought having cash, and not having to box it up would be good for him, and me getting it a little quicker and $9 less would be better for me. He tells me that he can't meet me because he has to work that evening. Ok, well, I will be coming back thru the next day. so when I get in his area on the way down, I message him again and say, "hey, we are close by and stopped to eat if you are available". A message comes right back and says he can't and he will be gone the next day. I ask for his address to send the money to, and its maybe 5 min from where Im eating. And at some point durrring all of this, he tells me that he works part time in the evening at a gun shop. WTF? This guy can't meet me FTF to sell me a gun barrel because he is at work, in a public place, selling gun related stuff, to the general public? How about I come to the shop and pick it up? Frakin crazy!!! Maybe he first message back to me should have been, "I am a very scared and insecure little man, I have trouble dealing with people". That would have been fine, ok, I'll just send it in the mail, but dont beat around the bush about it. anyone else ever have one of these?

 

[LowerSW]

As someone who sells on E-bay I will give my two cents worth.
First, the guy is selling a gun part and works in a gun store. Who knows how he "obtained" the part he was selling?
Not that I'm saying he stole it, but maybe someone walked in and he bought it before he told the gun store owner.
That might be looked down upon at the store.
Second, Ebay rules suck. They really, really try hard to make you take paypal. (which they own)
You also have to keep up your rating on E-bay if you want to keep selling there. Without proof of shipping the sellers are in a bind if any problems arise.
With all that said I would be leary if someone e-mailed me after a sale and just "happened" to be in the neighborhood.
I do have people E-mail me BEFORE the auction closes and ask if its OK to pick an item up.
With them I am fine. With the others it just depends on what is going on with me at the moment.
My biggest problem is that I have to give them some idea of when I will be home or not.
Or course you did offer to meet in a public location and any time that I do not have to pay Paypal fee's I'm happy.
It sounds like me that you were just not playing by the "rules" and went outside the box on this one.
Some people just don't know how to think for themselves and E-bay was not there to tell him what to do.
I would just send him the $9 shipping and let him live in his comfort zone.

 

[Wheezy50]

I don't do a lot of business on ebay, but I have bought and sold a couple items here and there. One reason the guy might have wanted to ship the item is b/c they make a few extra bucks on the shipping. It doesn't really sound like this is the case here, $9 seems pretty reasonable. If they know it's only going to cost them $5 to ship but they can charge $9, few extra bucks in his pocket.

Just a thought.

 

[Stang51d]

I don't recal any "rules" of the transaction. For whatever reason, he could have just told me the reason why he wouldn't do it. At Arby's, about 3 mi from his house, have cash, hell, I would have even gave him the 9 bucks. All he would have had to say is, "I'm sorry, I'm home soaking my socks in kerosene to keep the ants off of my candy a$$, and I'm too afraid to meet you in a public place". I think that's easy enough. Anyway, the money order went out when I got home. Oh yea, and if he was concerned about the fact that I just "happened" to be going that way, I would have faxed him a copy of my DL as well as the purchase agreement on the machinery I was picking up and he could have drawn a line between the two on a map.

 

[LowerSW]

I don't recal any "rules" of the transaction. For whatever reason, he could have just told me the reason why he wouldn't do it. At Arby's, about 3 mi from his house, have cash, hell, I would have even gave him the 9 bucks. All he would have had to say is, "I'm sorry, I'm home soaking my socks in kerosene to keep the ants off of my candy a$$, and I'm too afraid to meet you in a public place". I think that's easy enough. Anyway, the money order went out when I got home. Oh yea, and if he was concerned about the fact that I just "happened" to be going that way, I would have faxed him a copy of my DL as well as the purchase agreement on the machinery I was picking up and he could have drawn a line between the two on a map.

When I was talking about "rules" I meant the person's internal rules.
I'm sure that he was all happy that he sold something and was waiting for the money to come into paypal and you messed him up by suggesting something different.
Most people out there, they cannot handle different.
As I said, you did offer to meet him in public location and he could have saved himself the time and hassle of packing the item and taking it to the post office.
Me myself, I would have jumped at the chance. Cash in hand is always best.

 

[Stang51d]

I get ya.

 

[Stang51d]

So, the "k98 Mauser barrel in 8mm", turned out to be a 1909 argintine Mauser barrel in 30-06. Hmmmmm

 

[slimplmbr]

Good luck getting your money back. I think I see the reason he didn't want to meet up with you.

 

[mbills2223]

Disregarding your discovery, it would be pretty inappropriate for him to be doing personal business at a gun store that he is not the owner of. Just a thought.

 

[Stang51d]

The truckstop that is 2 miles away, that I was eating at would have been just fine. And getting my money back won't be an issue, I've dealt with this kind of thing before.

 

[mbills2223]

The truckstop that is 2 miles away, that I was eating at would have been just fine. And getting my money back won't be an issue, I've dealt with this kind of thing before.

Maybe he was on the clock? I'm not sticking up for the guy, just playing Devil's Advocate . Stinks that you didn't get whAt you wanted though!