Thursday 17 April 2014

Making money from NOT selling the same thing 3 times

I didn't know that you could NOT sell something three times and make a profit.  But I have seen it first-hand, and it is possible, apparently.

I sell on a website called Fishpond, which is a small Aussie wannabe of Amazon.  I send a box of books/DVDs every few months and they store them and sell them for me.     I don't have to lift a finger.



This sale was for a used DVD that I got for free from a family member who was moving house.

It first sold on 3rd March.   The buyer paid, money (after fees) from the 1st sale was transferred to my account.  

Then the same DVD sold again on 25th of March.  I was surprised and assumed that they had accidentally listed the same DVD twice.  They would figure out the problem.

The buyer paid, and the money (after fees) from the 2nd sale was transferred to my account.

I was intrigued as to where this second DVD had come from and looked back at the first sale.
It now came up as "Buyer Cancelled This Item".  So they must have paid, and then pulled out of the sale.  Fishpond automatically transfers money after payment so it went through to my account.   So Fishpond paid me for the sale that never happened.

I thought it was nice of them to cover the non-sale.  

THEN, on 9th April, I got a 3rd sale notification for the same DVD.

What the F***?  The proceeds for the (3rd) sale went into my account 2 days later. 

I went back to the previous (2nd) sale, and saw that the buyer had cancelled the item on that one too.   So Fishpond had paid me again for a sale that never went through.  They were being awfully nice about this covering all bases again.  I was embarrassed and hoped it didn't happen again for their sake.   

Then yesterday, I poked my nose in to see if there was any new sales.  And sitting at the top of the list, was the 3rd sale of this (obviously possessed) DVD, now showing as Buyer Cancelled Item.

 

Oh boy.  I sure hope they don't think that I am colluding with a third person on this!!!   Is this the same looney buying this DVD three times, or did random people suddenly feel the burning to buy and then not buy the same DVD?   

Either way, I have been paid $13.86 x 3 = $41.58 for this DVD.

I've checked and they haven't re-listed it again, so hopefully it's power has waned now, along with that of the full red moon.