eBay seller protection - offer from a guy with zero feedback

[Whiternoise]

I'm selling a lens on eBay at the moment and i've got an offer from a guy with no feedback. I declined his first offer and put a note at the bottom of the listing saying that only bidders with 10+ feedback will be considered.

Now, the current offer is quite attractive by the same guy (he made a second offer anyway) - do i take the risk?

If he pays (via paypal only), then is the money "mine" and all i need worry about is sending the item?

I guess if he doesn't pay then i've lost however much the listing fee was, but i think you can moan to eBay about it.

Do i accept?

[Stringent]

Does he live in Nigeria?

[Funkstar]

To put it in perspective, your first purchase on eBay was with zero feedback....

[handscombmp]

Whare are you selling and at how much

[Agent]

Please don't do it, there is just too much risk with Paypal these days.

Paypal have been known to simply take the money back out your account if it turns out to be fraudulent. There are endless horror stories about this online.

Play it safe mate

[kalniel]

To put it in perspective, your first purchase on eBay was with zero feedback....

But wasn't that for a 1p auction? Same for the first 3000 of the powersellers'

[Hicks12]

Get him to pay differently if ebay still allow this, then you get the money and can send .

[jim]

A guy bought a hard drive off me, paid and asked when it would be available to post. I told him I would post it the next morning, but didn't make it to the post office so I had to delay. He retracted his payment at midday, and Paypal did nothing except cancel the whole transaction about a month later.

If I'd have sent it, it would have been curtains because I had no intention of sending it recorded. It's not worth it.

[Whiternoise]

Well the lens should go for about £150-200, so i'm being wary. I understand everyone is in this position at some point or another, but there are plenty of other auctions to go for - and it's fairly easy to build up a good rep buying a few cheaper things. Mind you, i think if it was actually a scam, surely he'd just go for buy it now and have done with it? FWIW, he's from London, postcode is an address in Harringey (Google Street View to the rescue) which doesn't tell me much.

Anyway, i've got some other offers tonight (seems that sitting on one offer attracts more competition ) and one looks promising from a guy with 350 odd, 100%.