oldspackrat

A company I recently bought a product from on ebay sent me an email asking if I wanted to sell my username. They like my feedback, almost 1900, no negative, & want to start their company off with a good track record.

I've never heard of this. Is it a scam? I don't want to sell my user name, but am curious as to what they would pay for a pretty good feedback.

I'd bet they have made offers to other sellers, so maybe they are looking to lowball someone?
Any thoughts?

cutlassgal

I've never heard of that before! Be careful!

Rickman48

Sounds like someone with a 'bad rep' wants to burn some more people, to me!
If they're willing to pay what's a lot to you, I'd think about it! Money's money!
Then e-mail everyone you've done business with, and give them the buyers info, explaining you sold it - CYA!!
Don't want it to come back and bite ya!

bulldog

I've never heard of this,although it could be true. I say let them build their own reputation unless they want to pay large for yours.

kpl70sx

At first glance that sounds like a good deal - you get paid for not really doing anything. On the other hand, rather than earning a good reputation, they're looking to simply buy yours. Then I come along as a buyer and rely on their solid (1900+) reputation, so I do business with them. There's no way for you to alert potential customers of theirs that they bought your reputation, nor are they going announce this.
This sounds like a real unethical way to do business. Every time they screw someone, they can just go out and buy a new reputation?!? It may or may not be legal, but I'd be willing to bet that ebay would do more than just frown on this practice.

TripDeuces

First thing I thought of is what kpl70sx said. Whole thing sounds fishy. You have a moral question to decide my friend, good luck.

rocketraider

I would run, not walk, away from that. If that username could be traced back to you at any time, you may be opening yourself up to liability if their business practices are, shall we say, less than ethical.

Your reputation and integrity is worth more to you than theirs.

Kidcutty

I would say sell it if you dont need the feedback.Before you sell it though,ask for all their contact information for you to hand it over,kind of like a release of liability on a vehicle.When you hand it over it will be in their name and info,but your password and they will change it unless they want you to access their account.Once your info has been erased and their info registered theres no way of anyone blaming you for any of their future transactions.

Higgins

It could be looked at as any other business selling ownership to someone new, nothing wrong with that. Whenever someone buys a business they are inheriting the previous owners reputation. However, something doesn't seem right about selling just your reputation. Personally, I don't think I would do it.

oldspackrat

Just got another email. They are offering me $350.00. For that small amount of money, I think I'll just keep things the way they are. A steller reputation is worth more than a few hundred bucks. If it was SUBSTANTIALLY more money, I'd think about it, as I've moved a lot of business to craigs list & word of mouth.

gearheads78

I would have emailed them back with a link to a bunch of people laughing. It would take a zero added to that and doubled before I would even get it a second thought. $350.00 rotflmao!!!!

lshlsh2

I think my rep. would require several more 0's. This sounds bad and I would walk away.
Larry

auto_editor

I guess the first question is why you? Does this "company" have an apparent "need" for your name in particular (i.e. your eBay ID is "walmart")? If not, I can't see a way this ISN'T using your good name for nefarious purposes.

Secondly, I don't know if this is POSSIBLE. Ebay is set up in such a way that a user name has to be "verified" in a variety of ways including YOUR personal and financial information.

Extricating yourself from your ID seems impossible, as you would somehow have to "swap-in" the new person's info to replace yours (i.e. THEIR credit card info, THEIR physical location, etc.). And even if you could, eBay is not set up to "hide" the earlier info--as they assume it's still YOU post-"change"--so there's no guarantee that the new user can't see everything eBay knows about you.

I had an early eBay ID I created for my wife to sell baby clothes (which I didn't want "cluttering up" my account) but I mistakenly used my name instead of hers. Ebay would NOT accept a "new" name, even though the rest of the info was the same as it was a "primary item of identification." Instead, they basically told me to abandon the ID and start over (with a new ID, naturally, unless I wanted to wait 90 days for it to come up as "available" again).

You also might want to consider the fact that your PayPal account (practically mandatory these days) is wedded to your eBay ID, so that's another instance of when your "old" info is probably going to screw things up for you the second someone else gets access.

But maybe eBay has changed its policies and user swaps are no big deal. Check the "help" FAQ to see if it's got a nice big section about exactly how to do it. If not, this IS a big deal, and therefore you'll probably find a warning against it in the FAQ instead. Also, call eBay and ask. I'm sure there's a toll-free help line you can use to "talk it over."

There'd have to be four or five zeros on the end of their offer for me to even CONSIDER doing this. I signed up the first week the site was open for business and have worked damn hard to keep my 100% positive rating going. I buy and sell stuff all the time, so I know other users and they know me, making transactions hassle-free for both of us.

SO, unless the ID is dead to you, the $$ is right and you have a guarantee that your private info will stay that way, I have to agree with earlier respondents: Run. Away. Period.

442much

Put it on ebay and let them bid for it, with a reserve of course.

crzyjef

Report em to eBay

wmachine

Anyone that would sell their good reputation doesn't really have one. Doesn't matter what the price is.

Kidcutty

I say ask for $500 and call it a day and here are the reasons why:
1.they can change the user name when ever they want,on ebay there will be a little logo indicating the change to let people know.
2.You say all your business is done on CL so you dont need it.
3.a buyer doesnt need to see hundreds of +feedback for them to buy from a seller.Even a hundred or less would do.
4.Its money!,if you are not using the account take run,but after you get the money.
5.Ebay charges a big percent of what ever you sell so you migh as well get some money back per say.

bulldog

Everybody has a reputation, be it good or bad.

Higgins

Winston Churchill was setting next to a woman at a dinner, whom he knew disliked him. So he asked her if she would sleep with him for one million pounds. She answered, "for a million pounds of course". He then asked her if she would for one shilling. She answered "what type of women do you think I am"? He retorted "madam, we have already established that, now we are setting the price".

jensenracing77

i did not read through everyone's posts but the first thing that i thought of, could they buy tons of stuff and you get stuck with the bill? i would never do it.

317Cutty

Not worth it.... I wouldnt know who to tell people to contact on ebay for parts anymore.

doc

Sounds shady & for $350, not worth the worry.

MDchanic

The "businessman" wouldn't happen to be a Nigerian government minister, would he?

I hear those guys sometimes give away millions!

- Eric

OLD SKL 69

x2

oldspackrat

Thanks to all for the input. I had never heard of anyone doing this, or wanting to do this & just wanted some opinions. It's taken me 8 or 9 years to build up a good reputation & I think there are too many potential headaches to even consider selling my username.

redoldsman

Would you sell your good credit rating to somebody else so they could buy a car. This is no different. One word applied here - ETHICS.

gearheads78

I would think of it as more like selling a business but the offer for 8-9 years is a complete joke.

Aceshigh

Yes, it totally does sound like that to me as well.
That's gotta be illegal somehow......

I would get more details on who they are and give it to Ebay.

See, I have to disagree.
Every buyer has different qualifications to make a purchase.
I look for large feedback counts with + reviews to lower my guard.

If they are under 100 feedback, I typically don't buy from them unless it's a very small purchase (lower risk)