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Am I about to somehow get scammed on eBay / Paypal by a wierd buyer?

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quarterback:
This is really strange.   I just put up a 7-day auction for a pda with accessories.  There are many similar PDAs for sale, some with much lower starting bids.  There are some extra accessories with mine, but I wouldn't say it looks that much different than others.  I put a high starting bid (over $100) and a BIN over $200 that I figured I wouldn't ever get.

Within 10 minutes of my auction going up, it gets purchased with the BIN and the money shows up in my PayPal account.

The first odd thing is that it got purchased so quickly, particularly with other very similar auctions.
The second odd thing is the email I get from the buyer.   It's ALL IN CAPS.   When I got the email, I almost threw it away, thinking it had nothing to do with my actual auction and figuring it was just some more ebay spam.  But it came in right next to the "your item has sold" emails, so I took a 2nd look.

The third odd thing (that goes in line with the ALL CAPS) is this:

ADDRESS IT TO (ATTN: NAME REMOVED) SO IT CAN BE DROPPED ON MY DESK INCLUDE
THE PAYPAL OR EBAY PRINT INSERT WHEN SENDING FOR ?I?LL BE TRAVELLING ABROAD
AND CUSTOMS SOMETIMES  NEEDS SOME KIND OF PROOF OF VALUE DUTY.

I'm not even sure what that means, but at this point I'm already trying to figure out how I'm going to get scammed here.

I go to look at the winner's ebay profile and his feedback is "private".   Again that makes me slightly nervous. But he's been a member since 2005, has ALL positive feeback with 200 in the last year and with 31 in the last month.

The address to send it to is a "Confirmed" PayPal address.

So what does all this mean?   There are elements that look odd about this, but I can't exactly figure out how I'm going to get ripped off.  The only thing I can figure is if I send it to "ATTN: HIS NAME" then he will somehow claim it didn't get to him... or something... I don't know. Looking for advice.
Thanks

quarterback:
Okay, here's some more info.

I googled up the "ATTN: name removed" name, and I find a person under that name listed on an .edu website in the same vicinity as the shipping address, so apparantly this person actually exists.

I also google-mapped the address and even though I can't tell what kind of building it is, it has a large parking lot and would be someplace where somebody would have a desk that the item could be dropped on.    (I was worried the whole idea that it would be put onto his desk was an attempt to set up a reason that the person could say "It never got here".  I was also worried that the address might be a residence, which would also make me nervous)

The PayPal reciept came with an organization's name and phone # on it, so I googled that as well.  It only had one hit, and that was on an eBay "about me" page.  The "about me" page is not for this particular buyer, but another buyer with "private" feedback and that buyer happens to be a African charity.   I will now reveal that the "name removed" has a definite african sound to it which, when coupled with the ALL CAPS, made the whole email look more like a Nigerian email scam than anything else.

somunny:
If the address is confirmed and you send it with some form of tracking or delivery confirmation, you should be protected under Paypal's seller protection policy.  I'd insure it as well, if I were you.

quarterback:

--- Quote from: somunny on January 12, 2008, 10:28:52 pm ---If the address is confirmed and you send it with some form of tracking or delivery confirmation, you should be protected under Paypal's seller protection policy.
--- End quote ---

That's what I figured, but combined with all the gut-reaction I had to seeing the ALL CAPS from africa email saying things like "THANKS FOR THE DEAL--NEEDED URGENTLY", the request to send it "ATTN TO" made me wonder if I was going to somehow screw myself out of that protection.    Again, that was the only loophole I could think of that might cause me to get scammed.


The only other information I've turned up is that a search shows that this ebay buyer has bought a couple other PDAs on ebay for less than mine, but with fewer extras, so my guess is that they're an organization who really is taking a bunch of PDAs etc over to Africa. 

Thanks for the reply, somunny.

shmokes:
Damn . . . I have a couple PDAs I need to sell.  I should get on Ebay while this guy is still in the market!

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