Seller confused or being consciously dishonest?

[venomous_abyss]

I sent an email off to a seller in the US enquiring whether they would be willing to ship an item I am interested in to Australia, and received a response that didn't mention that they are unwilling to do so, but simply that they are sorry the item is now sold. However, I check the item listing and realise it hasn't sold, but has been relisted. I respect the seller's right to refuse to ship to Australia, but why would they lie about it being sold? The seller has limited feedback, so I am unsure of their intentions. The reason I ask is because I was contemplating asking one of my friends from the US to buy on my behalf, but wonder now whether the seller is simply confused because they may have thought they had sold the item through a BIN offer, or whether they are scamming? Not being an ebay seller myself I am unsure of how easy it would be to confuse the situation - opinions please?

[davewil1964]

Maybe they have an automatic response to questions they consider timewasting?

[venomous_abyss]

That makes no logical sense considering that "I am sorry I am unable to ship to Australia" would have sufficed, no?

[zelly888]

If there is no indication in the listing that the seller doesn't ship to Australia then how is it wasting the sellers time asking them this question?

[lyndal1838]

If you really want the item and have someone in the USA who can purchase for you it really does not matter much whether the seller posts to Australia.  Just ask your friend to purchase and forward the item to you.  You are happy and the seller is happy.

It is quite possible/probable that telling you the item was sold was just a nice way of saying he did not want to post to Australia.

I can not see how you could be scammed in this situation.

[digital*ghost]

If they are a newbie seller, they might have thought telling you it sold would end any and all hopes of you trying to negotiate postage, and if that's the case, while not really the right way to go about it, they might have thought it was the easiest way to end the discussion, probably figuring you wouldn't check back if your hopes were dashed.

Alternatively, they may have more than one (depends on whether it was a unique item how likely that is), or they may have had the sale fall through.

If you want to know for sure (in as much as possible) you could always say 'hey, I see you have another one - would it be possible to buy this one and have it shipped to Australia?"

[venomous_abyss]

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@lyndal1838 wrote:

If you really want the item and have someone in the USA who can purchase for you it really does not matter much whether the seller posts to Australia.  Just ask your friend to purchase and forward the item to you.  You are happy and the seller is happy.

It is quite possible/probable that telling you the item was sold was just a nice way of saying he did not want to post to Australia.

I can not see how you could be scammed in this situation.

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Well, I asked because I would rather purchase the item directly rather than have friends go out of their way for me on a regular basis. I wanted the item and was willing to pay full asking price for it, so I directed the question at the seller.  As I said, I take no issue with an honest answer of "no, I am unable to ship to Australia". The fact that someone would lie over such a trivial matter does make me wonder about their capacity to be trusted. The items I buy could easily be listed on other sites and sold, hence me wondering whether they were doing something dodgy.

[venomous_abyss]

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@digital*ghost wrote:

If you want to know for sure (in as much as possible) you could always say 'hey, I see you have another one - would it be possible to buy this one and have it shipped to Australia?"

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It's an antique photograph, so it's definitely a one off.

[digital*ghost]

Ah, ok. In that case the seller's response is pretty dismissive, and if there isn't a legit explanation for their answer, it's at the very least indicitave that they are prepared to tell a fib to make things easier, so that would pretty much kill my interest in the item.

Just out of curiosity, does it show as sold in their completed listings or that it ended without selling?

[venomous_abyss]

Whoops, neither. I had actually assumed the item had been relisted, but looking at it now it never ended and it is still the original listing that ends on the 25th of January. Just the three offers made on the item have all expired. One was pending when I sent my message.