Buyer wants to negotiate the price down in order to resell the item for a higher profit | Members help members

justsomephotographer · 2026-01-22T21:15:46.980000Z

A few days ago, a buyer purchased a camera I had listed. Since I’m not familiar with this kind of camera and wasn’t able to test it properly as usual, I listed it as “untested,” with “possible issues” and “no guarantee of functionality.” However, I did list it as “used,” which may not have been ideal. In the photos of the camera, contamination on the lens itself was clearly visible even to a layperson at first glance, so no ill intent can be attributed to me here. I didn’t want to hide anything, and in my view I didn’t.When the buyer received the item, I got a message saying the camera was unusable because of contamination in the lens. I politely and objectively explained my point of view and offered to lower the price from €20 to €15. Instead, he insisted that the camera was worth no more than €5 and, even in working condition, should only cost €20-30.Now we come to the spicy part: from the username alone, it was already apparent that this was the operator of an online camera business. The recipient and shipping address also match the details in the website’s legal notice. There, he offers a largely identical model for €149.99. On eBay, he sells the same model with a different account for €129.99. Other comparable models are in the same price range.If you search online for reviews of his shop, you’ll find accusations that the shop operator scams users on eBay by later negotiating discounts and then reselling the item for many times the amount. The whole thing sounds very much like the case I’m currently experiencing with him. By now I’m even wondering whether he deliberately chose my listing, because he sensed an opportunity to drive down the price due to the problems visible in the photos but not explicitly mentioned in the description, in order to make a bigger profit. Especially for a camera seller, this issue could not possibly go unnoticed if he had even glanced at the close-up photo of the lens (the second picture in the listing).I’m now wondering how best to proceed. Personally, the money doesn’t matter much to me with such a small amount, but my sense of fairness tells me I shouldn’t just let this happen to me. I would have easily given a generous discount to a nice user who honestly asked for one, but since this buyer’s behavior apparently follows a pattern, I want to stand up for myself. Is there an effective way to report this case to eBay and have the user’s activity reviewed in detail, so that he can’t pull similar tricks on unsuspecting people in the future? Should I report the case to eBay directly and explain the problems in detail? Or should I wait with reporting, in case he offers the camera on eBay or on his website at a higher price? Or is all of this pointless, and does eBay let such clever scammers keep operating because they work in a gray area?Last but not least, I’d also like to protect myself from a negative review. I’ve only received a few reviews recently, and a negative one would certainly knock me down from my 100% positive rating into a rather unpleasant range and make selling in the future unnecessarily difficult.I’d appreciate any suggestions!

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Buyer wants to negotiate the price down in order to resell the item for a higher profit | Members help members | eBay Germany