E-Bay holding funds
 

For some reason I am not very much of a wheeler and dealer. I let old gear sit in my AV bone yard until it has little or no value. I do this to a fault. The good stuff like cameras I usually give away to family members or friends that will use them.

Last week I decided sell a very nice HD camera I had sitting around while it still had some value. I posted it all over Facebook market place with no luck. Then I posted it on Ebay far below what the dealers had it listed for. At the end of the auction period someone got a great deal by picking it off for the minimum bid, $1,000.00. They did well and I can live with $1,000.00 not depreciating further in a camera case.

All good right? I was notified it was sold and paid for and should be shipped. An hour later I get an e-mail from PayPal that E-Bay put a 22 day hold on the funds. The E-Bay FAQ says this is a routine safety process that may happen for several reasons. One of which is they do it to people that don't have a lot of history like me. I have purchased a lot of things over the years but only sold a few. Its a good thing I wasn't counting on the money. But it is still irritating to find out E Bay is holding the funds randomly for no declared reason. This is why I have a AV bone yard full of now useless gear.

The Buyer did his part so I immediately shipped the camera. Now I wait until someday when E Bay decides to release the funds. Is this common? Has it happened to you? All my previous feedback is excellent. Are they waiting for feedback from the buyer?

I know some of you guys are very good at cashing in on old gear as you upgrade to new systems. What is the best way to do that? Is E bay outdated now for the casual seller as it seems to have become a place primarily for E bay dealers?

Kind Regards,

Steve

Re: E-Bay holding funds
 

Never happened to me, but lots of selling practices can trigger safeguarding which while annoying protects the buyers from somebody having gained access to a rarely used selling account, sticking up some fictituous good deal kit, grabbing the funds and then doing a runner. Annoying but probably fare. They also read message transcripts going to and from buyers and sellers and warned me not to send goods in one case until instructed by PayPal, which took a few days, so they do it in reverse too when a buying warning also triggers the system. The warning was on the lines of do not dispatch the goods until instructed as Paypal protection will not be in place - I was thankful. The buyer wanted the goods delivered to a different address not the one Ebay and PayPal had, and him sending a message asking me to do this was obviously spotted.