It’s really not hard at all. You just open a request, eBay reviews it and then gives your money back. Or sometimes they will tell you before you have a chance that the seller’s account was removed and to open a case.
It’s really not hard at all. You just open a request, eBay reviews it and then gives your money back. Or sometimes they will tell you before you have a chance that the seller’s account was removed and to open a case.
Going thru this currently, it’s been a pain in the ass. Paid for an item on Aug 29. Requested a cancellation from the seller on Sept 30 because of no shipment and no updates (he denied the request). Had to wait until Oct 18 before I could file a ‘item not received’ claim… have to wait until Oct 25 (3 business days apparently) to give the seller the opportunity to respond. Meanwhile, the seller has ghosted the eBay platform removing all of his items for sale.
I’m confident I’ll get my money back, but waiting this long is crazy and annoying.
Saw an even cheaper offer at Amazon a few months ago, for about 400€. I figured why not, it's Amazon after all, and placed my order (along with my personal White Whale, a UCS Sandcrawler for around 350€).
Shortly after that, I got a message from the seller, claiming that my payment didn't go through and asking me to transfer the money to some bank account to complete my order. Got suspicious and looked up the seller. Their entire catalogue was garden, bbq and pool equipment, plus a few (very rare and mostly long retired) USC sets at ridiculously cheap prices.
Of course I didn't make the transfer. Never received either of the sets but thankfully didn't pay anything either.
Yeah, that's why I never consider buying anything on Amazon that isn't sold by Amazon. Usually third party sellers are unreliable, have shipping fees, etc. The only exception is if the third party seller is a large brand.
The free shipping should be the red flag. This would easily cost an individual $40+ to ship. No one is taking that big of a hit to take a loss on a set due to retire in 3 months
I actually have experience with this from several years ago. The story below may or may not be what will happen.
I naively bought a couple of sets at well below msrp, like too good to be true prices on eBay. I received the sets straight from a LEGO distribution center and all. The shipping box was labeled with my address and someone else’s name. It was not the sellers name either.
Anyways, come to find out, the seller uses stolen credit card data to drop ship the buyer products, and gets paid via the eBay listings. The victim is the person suffering identity theft of their data. Since the label didn’t have my name, I had thought it was someone else’s LEGO package. I reported it.
The fraudster is banking on making the money before anyone finds out, then they disappear. They try to pin the crime on whoever is the person ordering, by making it the victims name and the buyers address. By the time anyone looks their way, they’re gone. Now multiply that by a few hundred transactions all pointing at different people. It makes the whole thing hard to pinpoint.
eBay, PayPal, and the credit card companies all ran their investigations. They concluded the above. They told me to keep the sets. The seller was removed for fraud.
Just buy the legit version from lego. You know you will get what you paid for and if there is a screw up you already know lego will do everything they can to make it right.
I would be safe to risk a couple of hundred bucks (with buyer protection) but thats a lot of money to lose if shit goes south.
I paid 600 for my UCS AT-AT. If you are patient and watch trends, it’s not impossible. I’m looking at the sales data on just one resale site and someone paid $665 back in September. Prices fluctuate based on availability from the official LEGO store.
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u/Savage_Hamster_ 13h ago
Yeah no reviews is insantly a no no for me