Noob Q about buying from the marketplace

[Sirus7264]

So I'd like to share some stories on why I prefer selling at cost (melt + pp fee) and why I usually only sell to test mains and ONLY to those that are PayPal verified without exception.

Do unto others as you'd have for yourself.
I don't like spending money but I do have a spending problem... I love collecting... hence I have this ridiculous notion of having one of every ship so I feel accomplished for some insane reason. Having this spaceship collecting addiction, I don't feel like paying a large premium on general grey-market ships I missed out on before I got involved in late 2015. So since I don't like paying premiums, I do not charge others premiums. Having collected and melted, and realizing I could leverage my large amount of floating RSI credit (back when RSI credit could get you LTI ships) I bought and melted a ton of LTI ships for ORG mates. I had no intention of selling outside the ORG at first iirc. I then later tried the reddit marketplace. And to my horror read plenty of stories of people getting ripped off. So I refused to trade with anyone who had no reputation on the Reddit marketplace for our community. I also learned from buying from @makute (one of the first Testies I bought from) and Reddit that I should ONLY sell to those that are PayPal verified. It provides an extra level of protection for me as the seller against a fraudulent buyer.. which was alarmingly common on the subreddit.

Now.... that I had a good process to follow by 2017, I ran into some other issues.
So in spite of my generosity of selling at cost to other TESTies, there was a forum active affiliate who took advantage of us and sold the same ships he bought from us here on eBay at a very high premium within a couple of weeks after. I didn't discover this until a few months later. I found this an absolute disgusting abuse of trust. I didn't secure my buybacks for those that want to make a cash profit off of other backers as a bloody career/hobby/etc. I secured my buybacks for TESTies that really wanted the ships for themselves. Not to try to make real money off of by reselling to others at a premium. What irked me even more, I sold him one of my original Glaives before you could CCU to them. They were rare, and I found he later sold it on eBay as well as other ships he bought at cost from TESTies here and from people on the base SC website and elsewhere. He was in a different country and English was not his primary, but in my book, he was still a filthy bastard for doing what he was doing.

Those of us that have been here a while know stories similar to this or have our own experiences which is why TRUST is so important.
It's not like a physical in-person trade where it's nearly impossible to get an item back without actually breaking entry for theft.
With digital items through PayPal, the risk is very high for sellers (original owners), especially in the dollar amounts common for rare Star Citizen ships.
Hence, why many who have expensive rare ships and packages do not sell to brand new guys or affiliates in general.
Though I have made exceptions myself so long as the buyer is PayPal verified, which is why I traded with you @ColonelWolf

Hope this helps paint a more detailed picture for you.

This is exactly why most of us have that 3 month active policy it took a long time to build up my spread of ships for test members and i only have a limited amount of them to hand out i want them to go in the right hands.

 

[Nightlane]

Welcome @ColonelWolf !!!

I have sold a few things here, not many as I have to pay VAT, I guess people preffer to buy elsewhere, haha. I have purchased here 2 or 3 things as well (a pair of cool yellow jackets!)

In any case, one person contacted me to purchase something from me. I was going to agree but, just in time I saw he was a user with 0 posts in this forum, so clearly he was a reseller or something like that, and I cancelled the negotiation. It was for an item that had appear on ebay with almost 5 times the original price...

Bought the UEE Exploration 2948 Package from a trusted TESTie and got me the Mantis Special Aurora CCU yesterday! Well equipped for the moment, so many ships to fly and experience!! Thank you so much guys for helping me in the starting phase! o7

Cool!!!!

As well I have some ships and bikes if you want to try them. ^^

people getting ripped off. So I refused to trade with anyone who had no reputation on the Reddit marketplace for our community. I also learned from buying from @makute (one of the first Testies I bought from) and Reddit that I should ONLY sell to those that are PayPal verified. It provides an extra level of protection for me as the seller against a fraudulent buyer.. which was alarmingly common on the subreddit.

Oh, this is nice to know. But still, I do not feel safe!

Now.... that I had a good process to follow by 2017, I ran into some other issues.
So in spite of my generosity of selling at cost to other TESTies, there was a forum active affiliate who took advantage of us and sold the same ships he bought from us here on eBay at a very high premium within a couple of weeks after. I didn't discover this until a few months later. I found this an absolute disgusting abuse of trust.

OMG, how did you find out? Did he use the same nick???
Did you think about telling CIG that those gifts were fraudulent? . Anyway I doubt this would work this easy... and it is pretty ugly!

With digital items through PayPal, the risk is very high for sellers (original owners), especially in the dollar amounts common for rare Star Citizen ships.
Hence, why many who have expensive rare ships and packages do not sell to brand new guys or affiliates in general.
Though I have made exceptions myself so long as the buyer is PayPal verified, which is why I traded with you @ColonelWolf

Pretty risky for buyers as well! They can sell you something and, after 6 months and one day (so PayPal do not protect you anymore) they go and tell CIG it was a fraudulent gift and your ship disappear from your account, etc.