It's Not That Easy... eBay

I'm sure everyone has seen the videos circulating of someone buying a canvas and a bunch of paint, slapping it on and throwing it up on eBay for auction. 24-48 hours later, it's sold to the highest bidder for hundreds, perhaps even thousands of dollars, and overnight they go from rags to riches. In reality, what they don't talk about is the signup process, eBay's seller restrictions, and the sheer volume of scammers that bid.

The signup process for eBay is pretty standard when it comes to selling sites. It gives you the option to create an account by using an email address and creating a password, by signing up via Facebook or a Google account, or even with an Apple account. From there, in order to become a seller, you have to confirm your shipping address and a phone number. Note: this pretty much means that anyone can signup for eBay, creating as many accounts as they want, permitting they create new email addresses to do so.

Moving on to the seller restrictions. While you can sell nearly anything on eBay, and it's a free service to use, there are some barriers to how much a new seller can list monthly. I, for instance, signed up to sell some of my original artwork, and I'm only allowed to offer 5 listings up to $500. This doesn't apparently impact bids higher than the listed price of the item, but it does put a halt for new sellers who may have more than $500 worth of items they'd like to list.

That brings me to the scammers. Within hours of listing my first item, a hand painted piece of artwork, I received my first bids. Having had no experience with selling on eBay, I was excited to see traffic so soon after listing my art. That excitement soon fizzled out when I realized that these first bids were from scammers. "I'm interested, kindly accept offer and text me at [insert phone number]" or "I'm prepared to pay right now and include extra for the cost of shipping. I have questions, text me at [insert phone number]". Because it was my first experience and I didn't want to automatically assume it was a scam, (but just to be sure), I downloaded a free app to create a "burner" phone number and I texted the first bidder. Immediately they requested I send the order to their "cousin" in Georgia because it was a birthday gift, but also requested that I include a $400 eBay gift card. They insisted they would also pay me $80 for gas and the cost of shipping, all they needed was my email address to send the PayPal payment.

This is where I knew for sure it was a scam, and before all of the other scammers started spamming my listings with the same requests to text them. No buyer is going to request information for payment when eBay provides that the buyer can pay directly through the platform, accepting payments from PayPal as well as all four major card services. The reason why this scammer wanted me to text them instead of using the eBay messaging platform is so that they can bring the communication "offline", meaning eBay can't track the communication and therefore can't protect me from the scam. Next, the scammer was asking for the email address associated with my PayPal so that they can send me a fake email "confirming" a payment to me, trying to trick me into marking the listing as paid and even shipping the item, leaving me scammed into losing money and my art all in one shot.

This unfortunately is a scam most people see all too often, and it can be difficult to tell at first. Some of these scammers even create multiple fake accounts just to leave reviews to trick potential sellers into falling for it. But the reviews all say the same thing: "Trusted buyer, valued customer" and so on. Some are even copied and pasted from other reviews. It's all a ploy to get the unsuspecting seller to give up the goods. Some of these scammers will even send a message through messaging service within the site to garner trust, but still requesting the seller text them outside of the platform.

All in all, it's not that easy to sell art on eBay, at least not right away like the internet makes it seem. While I am an artist with some pieces I'd like to send to good homes, I've got a mass of scam "buyers" flooding my listings, and I'm seriously considering packing it up and calling it quits. As a first-time seller, it may not be worth the hassle. Some suggestions though, for anyone reading this who may want to try their hand at selling art on eBay (or any other platform):

1. Know your worth. Set your prices to what your time is worth as an artist, and don't under-sell. Your art and your time IS worth it.

2. If someone bids on your listing and they ask you to take the communication outside of the platform, just decline the offer. Don't even waste your breath replying.

3. Some scammers will bid high on a listing and then if you don't respond right away, they will send a message through the messaging service in the platform offering an even higher bid and requesting you text them or reach out offline. Don't fall for it. You can either respond stating to keep communication on the platform or decline the offer.

4. Lastly, if a potential buyer asks you to buy gift cards or other items and include them in the package to be shipped, stop communication and decline the offer if that is not a service you are providing. This potentially falls under gift card fraud, which is illegal. You don't want to accidently be an accomplice to a crime when you were just trying to sell some artwork.

Above all, stay safe out there, and happy selling.