BST Forum Safe?

General Yo-Yo
1

I am interested in purchasing a yoyo on the BST Forum. After asking my dad, he told me it was unsafe. Note that I would be buying from a well respected user with 84 trades and 100% positive feedback. After telling my dad this, he said he could have created those accounts and faked it -_- help?

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2

Your dad is correct. But from what ive seen around here people with that many trades are known and have been around a while. Check on who your buying from. see if they are active on the forum. and you can look at their trade history. Its always a risk. but if someone is ripping people off on here everybody would find out about it and their account wouldnt be around for long.

3

It’s a valid concern.

If you are purchasing as you said (not trading) simply buy using PayPal and send the money as “for goods and services.” Selecting that option will give you buyer protection and you’ll be able to file a claim and be fully refunded if you don’t receive your purchase or if it’s materially misrepresented.

4

IMO the BST on the forums are for the most part safe the moderators keep track of it well.

5

This. Paypal sides with the buyer 99.9% of the time so even if you do get scammed, paypal has your back.

6

This is a pretty small community. If someone is ripping people off it’ll get around quick and their selling/trading days will be over. So if it’s a well respected member here, lots of feedback you’ll be good. You can even make a post asking for others experience with that person so that you feel better about the deal.

And as was already mentioned, pay via Paypal and don’t send it as a gift and you’ll be covered.

7

Pretty much been covered. Check when the feedback was left also. I’ve seen people come back to accounts they don’t use to scam since they aren’t in the game anymore.

HOWEVER
I haven’t seen that happen here. Most people on the BST are great people to deal with.
There are some kids that want to start BSTing and don’t have reliable transportation (i.e. can’t take themselves places) and whose parents are part of the problem (think sending a yoyo is not important, even though someone paid for it/is trading for it, encourages scamming, etc…), but they get rooted out pretty quickly, as has been said.

tl;dr
use paypal goods and services, check feedback dates, check feedback amount, and you are good 99% of the time

8

I’ve bought all my yoyos but one for bst(10 total) and have had zero issue. as stated above, use PayPal goods and services, view feedback and ask questions from the seller. Even if you do find a bad seller, PayPals got your back.

9

I think the BST is as safe as you want it to be. If you’re researching feedback, posts, asking for details and photos, and sending payment for items by a safe method, it can be safe. If you don’t look for feedback, posts, don’t ask specifics, get no photos, and don’t use a safe payment method, it can be a disaster. You can do all of it right, or just do some of it right, but the BST is like anything else. You get out of it the effort you put into it.

Another thing about feedback, is that it’s only as good as the people who give it. Yeah, people can make up fake accounts. But, if you get a feedback from a person who has 0, and you get feedback from a person with 100, it holds different weight with me. The person who has 0 might be a fake, but the person who has 100 is probably not. So, if you see 3 positive feedback, all from people with 0 feedback themselves, it’s okay to disregard that 3 feedback altogether. Do your homework.

In my opinion, buying by a safe method of payment, and selling, are safer than trading. But, if your dad does not like the idea of the BST, he knows best.

10

Just don’t pay the money as a gift. If you use the gift option you are NOT COVERED AT ALL.

Gifting gives you Zero protection.

Zero…

Realize that the reality is simply understood.

When you ‘gift’ you are generally 'giving money to a friend or relative. You are not paying for a service or an ‘item’. You are giving money to somebody.

So… If you gift a guy some money and a month later you still have nothing coming in the mail, you can’t call PayPal. How can you be an unhappy camper when you were giving money away? Lol.

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