An online merchant wants to sell me an item and requests

Question

for me to simply send him the money via paypal if i don't go through ebay will i still be protected in case he doesn't ship the item?

Answer 1

Yes, you will still be protected by paypal.  He probably wants to do it not through ebay so that he will not have to pay the ebay fees.  If the item is expensive, see if you can get a discount for not going through ebay.  He'll save money and you will too.

Answer 2

Did you find this item through Ebay & they are wanting to sell it OFF the Ebay site? If so they are breaking Ebay rules. I'd contact Ebay and report them about this. Then tell the seller that you don't feel comfortable buying this off Ebay. Esp. if this item is still listed on Ebay.

I sell items on both Ebay & iOffer. Once a buyer wanted to buy something from me I had listed on Ebay, but later moved it to iOffer (cheaper listings). They wanted to buy the item but didn't feel safe buying off Ebay.

I understood this and went ahead and did it through Ebay.

A good seller will work with their customer as long as the person is kind & respectful. So I'd suggest contacting your seller telling them how you feel. Be kind, don't use all CAPS like you are YELLING AT THEM and be just honest.

Ebay strongly says that buyers are not to deal with sellers offsite. These are sellers they meet through Ebay.

Hope this makes sense

Answer 3

For some reason he's trying to duck the seller verification system. Don't buy from him yet and see if you can get the item elsewhere.