tmh657

I am looking at an item on the bay that is local to me, like 10 miles away. I figure why not save a $60 shipping charge and bid higher. The seller says no local pick up.
Has anyone ever run across this? I haven't and it seems odd, as if the seller would be afraid when the buyer sees the item in person there would be an immediate problem with it. What is the consensus on this please.

jebensch

I think it's pretty understandable. Possibly doesn't want to deal with scheduling according to someone else's availability. And not that it's necessarily a POS upon close inspection, but seller might not want to go through the awkwardness of meeting the buyer and standing there while they inspect the item.

himespau 

Or he's afraid of being robbed at the drop off.

repechage

I have encountered this. My experience was that the seller had good reason not to want to look the buyer in the eye.
Alternately, if it is very close their may be some small profit in the pack/ship/handling transaction beyond the fee that ebay collects.

tmh657

That is a very good explanation and I just had not thought about it in that way. I suppose my immediate reaction was because it's a repainted frame. I asked the seller this, "Could you tell me who/where the repaint was done please?"

His response, "The frame was painted by a frien of mine that is a retired motorcicle painter." The photos look good and decals seems to all be present but I don't think I will bid big $$$ on this one.

repechage

any chance the ebay handle has an 811 or 911 as part of the moniker?

tmh657

Nope. I wouldn't be starting a thread about it but I wanted some input before bidding $500+ on a repainted frame.

Chicago Al 

I would regard this as a yellow light, at least, on the transaction.

Packing a bike to ship (safely) is a PITA, especially if you have to go find a box, and it's not like you can mark up the shipping $50 to compensate yourself. There are plenty of ways to do a safe handoff: in a neutral location, with someone else present, etc. And the seller could (potentially) get paid in cash, thereby saving the PP fees. The reasons to NOT want an in-person handoff, by comparison, strike me as weak.

20grit

Could be they have some profit built into the shipping?

zandoval 

So how much to drop it off???

NCbiker

He could be running a meth lab and not want any visitors.

Schwinnsta

Having just sold a bike on eBay, I had a buyer ask me about local pickup. I told him sure, but the item was already boxed, which it was. His was not the winning bid.

Rabid Koala

In my occasional ebay listings, I say that local pickup is encouraged. Much easier than packing and going to the Post Office.

repechage

Reason I asked was that I purchased one from a Southern California seller that I was able to pick up... as long as I paid cash... but he was really hoping I would back out of the deal... (greener pastures elsewhere?)
I won another a year later that he would not allow local pickup... and there was a good reason, the bike was crashed and the damage artfully imaged around.
Took a while to unwind that. Probably only because I knew where he lived.

tmh657

One could read a lot into why the seller doesn't want a pick up and it may be paranoia on my part. I mean if I was to buy the frame, he ships it and it's not as described I would still have some recourse. The guy has 100% feedback and a page full of bike items for sale.

It could be as simple as Schwinnsta said, it's already packed and it's not going to get unpacked for the buyer to inspect it. Or the repaint could SUCK.

009jim

I've seen this before and my understanding is that the seller doesn't want to give you their address because if there is any dispute you could settle in person, rather than having to rely on ebay's system which from my experience vastly favors the seller. Hence, this is a reason to be suspicious of this seller. There's no point in checking their "feedback" score because that is meaningless. A seller can never get negative feedback because a seller never leaves feedback until the buyer leaves feedback. Most buyers don't want negative feedback so they give the seller positive feedback (or like me, no feedback). It should be compulsory for the seller to leave feedback as soon as they receive payment.

JesusBananas

While there are certainly legitimate reasons for not wanting to meet a buyer in person, this response makes me suspect the honesty of the seller just a little bit.

+1

While the denial of local pick-up is not a dealbreaker for me, I would definitely be suspicious of whether the seller is trying to hide something. I wouldn't bid too much on the listing.

Tycho Brahe 

That's what I'm thinking. No local pickup is a red flag for me. Understandable not to meet at a person's residence, but not even in a public location? I wouldn't bid.

Chicago Al 

Sorry Jim, but the eBay system greatly favors the buyer, not the seller. If the buyer is unhappy with a purchase eBay may and often does intervene on their behalf and give them a refund, taking money from the seller's Paypal account to do so. The latest eBay policy, in effect this month, requires sellers to guarantee the funds to do so, even if they intend to sell with a 'no returns' policy. (What eBay is doing is taking the ability to set those policies away from sellers.) And sellers cannot leave negative feedback for buyers, not for some years now.

And has been pointed out several times, the seller doesn't have to give his address to the buyer, but could arrange to meet in another location.

Aside from that, excellent post.

(It is of course possible that eBay.au has different policies that are more evenly balanced between buyer and seller.)

(Also...REALLY not trying to start another eBay thread.)

rootboy 

Maybe he's an unsightly fellow.

JesusBananas

It is probably worth noting that I assumed you told the seller you would bring cash, so that the seller can make even more by not paying both ebay and paypal fees.

I would guess that any sort of profit built-in to the shipping cost would be much less than the amount of additional profit from not paying fees, so I definitely suspect that the seller is trying to hide something.

If he has a very large amount of positive feedback (e.g. 99% or more), then I would be more inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt.

tmh657

That's the ticket!! A troll like individual that sells from under a bridge.

I got a response from the seller and to paraphrase, he doesn't have time to meet buyers at their convenience.
I also did a little research. The frame had sold previously. The buyer must have backed out. It sold the first time for over $700. Chances are the folks that bid the first time will be back.

thinktubes 

I would not see this as a red or yellow flag. I've gone through a few nightmare-ish pickup experiences where I had to endure multiple reschedules from buyers who simply didn't have their act together. One of the major reasons I sell on ebay vs. craigslist is amount of time spent waiting for now-shows, weirdos, and deadbeats. Beyond this, there are a host of reasons for not wanting to invite stranger over to your property.

What stopped you from asking if local pickup was available before bidding? No reason to vilify the seller for not offering this option.

Metacortex

Got a link to the auction?

Tel0004

I don't think fear of robery is a great reason to not meet locally. I offered to meet at a police station parking lot one time. I would assume nobody is stupid enough to rob somebody there.