AP Scam or overprotective PayPal?

[Covello]

Not sure if this was the beginnings of a scam or a scam blocked but here is what happened ...

I had been looking for an Audemars Piguet Day Date moonphase all year. After hearing about eBay authenticity guarantee it gave me a bit more confidence, (now I know they aren’t great but that’s not a factor in this story).

I found a gorgeous example on a listing that had been live since June. They were asking $36.7k I asked a few questions, and then offered $35k and seller accepted.

I tried to pay via PayPal in the eBay cart and it would sign me in and then kick me out and then grey out PayPal as a pay option. I would then try paying with my Amex (I have the purchase power) and eBay wouldn’t even attempt to charge the card, say it could not be processed and it would tell me to pay another way (tho PayPal would be greyed out) ...

Talked to the seller, seemed like nice guy, not very much activity online 1-2 sales on eBay in the past year feedback of about 180, has 6-7 watches currently listed on Ebay. A bit of a red flag when he had ZERO presence on here or watchuseek. Nothing when I googled the name.

At the suggestion of eBay support I asked for him to send me an invoice directly through PayPal. Again tried the credit card, was not processed eBay, they didn’t even try to charge my card. I then changed my PayPal account to be funded by my bank. Tried to pay the PayPal invoice with a bank transfer, and STILL could not send the seller 35k.

At this point seller tried to get me to send a wire, said he’s a trusted seller / watch dealer and listed govberg jewelers as a ref (a watch store which makes no sense) and some random watch site I had never heard of -- watchprosite.com. He also said he was active on Chrono24 but did not send me any listings or his profile when I asked. I told him without verifiable references I would not send a wire.


PayPal on customer service instant message said there were no blocks or limits on my account, and credit card company said all was fine, eBay said all was fine with my account. Strange.

After 4 days of trying, I finally got PayPal on the phone, after getting down to it PayPal told me “this transaction specifically is blocked due to a security issue” they would not tell me what the issue was, though they confirmed there were no issues with my account, no strikes and my account was in good standing and I could in theory send anyone 35k but not this seller for this transaction. I asked if it was an block on the sellers end, while the rep could not confirm he said it was “possible”

Was this an elaborate scam to try to get me to send a wire? Or is PayPal being over protective? Is something shady going on or is there an error? I ended up not getting the watch simply because I could not pay for it and was not willing to send a wire!

Has anyone deal with jimidsnr on eBay? Couldn’t find much info on him. He just reposted the listing here:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Audemars-Pi....m46890.l49292

Thoughts?


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