Originally Posted by cecil98:
Dano, that's a good idea but, If Al uses eBay or intends to, bidding on and winning items and not actually paying for them can get you in trouble with eBay and diminish your reputation as a buyer and seller. I would contact eBay first and let them know what you're doing. They might, then, go along with it and not penalize you.
If you tell eBay, they may tell you NOT to bid on the item and let them handle it, but they aren't always as prompt as they should be. If Al otherwise has a good record, I don't think that one bad mark (with an explaination) will hurt him. If the seller gets kicked off or otherwise reprimanded, I'm sure eBay would remove it anyway.
If you read my next post (posted before I saw all these replies), I had a situation where I was trying to keep a seller from sending a stolen physical item from being sent to another buyer, and this process worked for me. I was able to jerk the seller around long enough to get the authorities to take action and get the item recovered and he never knew that I was the auction's winner. And, I never got the negative, either.