Fishy stuff from prometheus97 Beware!

So me and prometheus97 come to a deal i buy his Mighty flea for twenty dollars shipped. He agrees to the deal. I send Him my address and say as soon as I get the item I will send money. Now this is perfectly reasonable sense I have 19 feedback all positive and he has 0. Not to mention He created his account yesterday…
He responds with this:

I proceed to tell him I have 19 positive trades to his 0. And that It is forum policy/Rule that those with lower feedback, especially those with 0 feedback, ship first. I then said I’d send money through paypal after the item gets here.

He proceeds with this:

So I just wanted to let everyone know that if you deal with this guy be ready to take a risk and ship first.

He’s not asking you to “ship” first. He’s asking you to pay, through PayPal. That’s perfectly normal. PayPal offers protection to the buyer as long as you don’t send the money as a gift.

Yeah that was after the fact I was gonna send money through the mail because I don’t like using my parents paypal. I told him I’d send through paypal after I got a tracking number. Would paypal protect me if the item came damaged? if it was stripped or dinged? How would I prove to them that it wasn’t me who did it?

paypal only protects you if the object did not come or is totally different then what you ordered from an established business.

If you ask me, he is just a younger kid trying to protect himself from scammers. Tell him you will send the money if he promises to have a tracking number for you no later than the next day.

Alright so Vegabomb, don’t you think it is reasonable for me to want to inspect the item first. If he had even 2 positive feedback I’d have no problem but there is 0.

I have proven myself trustworthy ask any of the people I traded with. I never scammed anyone before why would I now?

Obviously you two haven’t really come to an agreement here. If the deal doesn’t feel right for you, let it go at that.

Yes, you have proven yourself and I would trust you. But, as you said, this guy created his account yesterday, so what you’ve done here is completely unknown to him.

There was a deal:

I sent my address then he said I have to pay first or no deal…

true but its not that hard to read about it. as seen in skitrz Post about using the BST for the first time.

You’re missing jhb’s point-- it doesn’t matter if you’re in the right or not. It doesn’t matter how correct your perspective is compared to his. It is not going to be a smooth and friendly transaction so you’re better off just not bothering to complete it.

Yes, I get that you want the Flea for that price (they’re hard enough to find and usually go for another $10 or more!) but it’s just not worth it.

ohh yeah I did miss his point haha… thanks for clearing that up. and I totally agree with that. I am no longer going to buy it.

Ok, seriously? You’re ruining someone’s rep without any evidence or reasonable suspicion that he could be a scammer. There is nothing fishy about wanting to have a deal over PayPal or not wanting to ship first because he is receiving money in the mail. I wouldn’t be comfortable with sending any item out and receiving money through the mail. PayPal I would be much more comfortable with. If you can’t meet his terms, just drop the deal.

I did accommodate him I said I would use paypal as soon as I got a tracking number.

IMO there is no reason for him to ship something first then you pay via Paypal. With Paypal’s protection there is just not a need for that. I wouldn’t ship something to someone who told me to ship it and they would pay me with paypal after. No offense, but what you are asking him to do seems more fishy. Not saying you are trying to pull something off, just how I would take it if we were trying to come to a deal.

I agree with this. Also, you were just in the middle of negotiating a deal. If you could not agree on the method of payment, and when you would make that payment, the deal was not finalized. I would agree that the deal was made, if you at least discussed and agreed upon:

  1. What was to be sold;
  2. At what price;
  3. How the payment transaction would be made.

If you didn’t even discuss if he would accept a cash payment, or if he would accept a payment after shipment, you were not really done negotiating the deal. The post seems a bit premature to call him out.

@TotalArtist

I did not realize you had a money safe guarantee with pay pal until further research. I do not own one and only use my dads in rare cases. Having known this I would’ve been totally fine sending payment first. My mistake. Sorry for calling out so quickly I just didn’t want anyone to get scammed but it looks like I’m the one who looked like the scammer. Sorry again my mistake.