Scam or real deal, opinions?

I'm currently unemployed and looking for ways to earn extra cash on the side. Anyway I answered an ad on Craigslist about selling items for someone on commission. Here's the email I received:


Hi XXX,

I feel glad you are interested in my job.

Let me tell you more about it...

I own a pawn shop and I need someone who can post my items ( watches, electronics, etc. ) on eBay.
I will provide the photos and details of the items that need to be advertised. Your job is just to post the ads, I will talk with the peoples who are interested.

I will pay you when the auction ends. There are 2 possibilities:

1. If the item is sold:
    YOU RECEIVE $100 + eBay POSTING FEES + 5% OF THE SELLING PRICE

2. If the item doesn't sell:
    YOU RECEIVE $100 + eBay POSTING FEES (I'm sure that the item will sell )

Maybe you wonder, why not sell my products myself? I wanted to start an eBay account but I read on one of ebay's community pages that sellers with 0 feedback have not the same success as the others sellers with feedback.

I can pay you via PayPal or Bank Transfer every 4-5 days. Let me know if you have an ebay id and when you can start listing.
I need you to post 2-3 auctions every week...


If you agree with everything I explained here, notify me, and I will send you the items so you can post them (item description + pictures + all details)!

Waiting for you

Regards !

I feel pretty confident this is a scam, but I replied back to him asking for his Pawnshops address just in case. Anyone have a clue how such a scam would work? If I were to sell a non-existence item on Ebay using his photo's and description, I would get paid, Not him. I don't think he understands how Ebay works. It's no longer possible to be paid directly with a check or money order, everything's via Paypal.

OK so I get paid, he would want the money from me minus commissions, but if no item exists, the buyer would never receive the item and I would be on the hook for the refund. But if I don't transfer the money to this guy until I received verification the buyer received the item they won in the auction, what's my down side here? At worse I'd have to issue a refund, get negative feedback and have to pay the listing fees.

The only way I could think of this would be to the advantage of a seller would be to avoid taxes. Say if you have 1 million dollars worth of stock to sell. If you sell in to Ebay, your on the hook for around 13% from Ebay transaction fees and then you have to pay taxes on top of that, say 20%. But if you where to have 50 or so people sell the stock for you, each could sell less then 20k of stock and be under Ebay's the threshold for reporting income to the IRS, you could them offer each seller 10% or so commission and pocket the other 10% you would have had to pay taxes on other wise.       
   

Sounds to good to be true. $100 comission whether it sells or not? I would love that opportunity, but just like I would never use a dropshipper, I wouldn't deal with him unless i could see the product firsthand. My hard earned eBay seller reputation would be on the line. Only would take a few bad deals and screw up your eBay feedback royally. I would personaly forgedda aboudit.

You sell, you collect money.  You send him money minus $100 and fees.  He never sends item.  Your on the hook.

You could be several items deep before you start to get complaints.

I'd say scam. 

You get paid 100, whether it sells or not?  Even with high end watches and electronics, that business model isn't going to pencil out for long. 

He owns a pawn shop?  The pawn guys I know are not stupid, and they would just hire a guy to post the stuff for them at their store and have total control of the process, not pay excessive fees to some random online guy. 

Also, I have found that any message I have ever received that says "regards" at the end, is a total scam! 


Having said that, I have a couple of ebay people I use that work for me on a commission basis.  I give them boxes of stuff and they take the pictures, post it up, answer any questions, and ship it when it sells.  I pay the ebay and paypal fees, and they get one third or the net (after shipping, ebay, paypal) for commission.  It works well for me, but it is not for everyone and it takes a while before you can find someone you can trust and that will actually work at it and bring in a consistent income. 

definitely a scam.

scamwarners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=70145&p=160903

I'm currently unemployed and looking for ways to earn extra cash on the side. Anyway I answered an ad on Craigslist about selling items for someone on commission. Here's the email I received:



   

Hey Gromit.....if this deal sounds legit to you how about this?  Way better!   I was down in Columbia last week and forgot my bag!  It's really important to me.  I'll pay all expenses +$500 if you go down and get it.  Won't be much trouble to bring back.  It only weighs one kilo...       

can you post the email address of the scammer ? Also two telling ways I've noticed aside from being too good to be true

There are several more scams involving the same words where they claim they're pawn shops or something else.

Also their grammar seems to break apart the more you talk to them.

can you post the email address of the scammer ?

They're usually throw away Yahoo or Hotmail email address. Knowing them will get you nowhere in tracking down the sender.

Is this pawnshop located in Nigeria? 

This definitely sounds too good to be true.  I would focus your efforts on other avenues for income!