Urgent eBay help - should I accept this transaction?

I won a bid for an old MacBook and paid an extra £10 for postage. The seller contacted me to say he noticed we live in the same city so it would be easier for me to collect it. He has offered to meet me in the city centre with the laptop, and he said as I'm collecting it he'll reverse the paypal transaction and I can pay him in cash with a discount (ie no postage fee).

I know ebay rules are to not accept external transactions to avoid fraud / getting around the eBay money back guarantee.
But I'm not sure what the eBay rules are about winning a bid and then paying in person with cash instead - can anyone shed some light on this matter? The seller would like to meet tomorrow so I need to make a decision soonish.

I feel like there might be something fishy going on.

I won a bid for an old MacBook and paid an extra £10 for postage. The seller contacted me to say he noticed we live in the same city so it would be easier for me to collect it. He has offered to meet me in the city centre with the laptop, and he said as I'm collecting it he'll reverse the paypal transaction and I can pay him in cash with a discount (ie no postage fee).

I know ebay rules are to not accept external transactions to avoid fraud / getting around the eBay money back guarantee.
But I'm not sure what the eBay rules are about winning a bid and then paying in person with cash instead - can anyone shed some light on this matter? The seller would like to meet tomorrow so I need to make a decision soonish.

I feel like there might be something fishy going on.

Never pay in cash for something you won on eBay. Once you hand over that money any record of that transaction is gone.

Pay for it online through PayPal - then you are protected if there is a problem with the laptop you can easily get a refund. Whereas if you pay for it in person and find the laptop to be faulty or not as you described then you will find it incredibly difficult to get your money back.

You are well within your right as an eBay user to request that you pay through PayPal and have the item posted for your own protection (even if they do live in the same city - if they are a genuine seller they will understand this).

Cash on collection is something that you can put as a payment method, however, this wouldn't prevent the selling having to pay final value fees, they'd only save the fee on PayPal.

He put in the description that it can be picked up, however the payment method section of the listing said paypal only.

I spoke to eBay customer service and they told me to tell him to post it. I did pay an extra £10 postage, but he said "postage is too expensive" so that's why I was a bit suspicious - he should've charged more for postage if he couldn't afford it...

I'm going with eBay's advice and I've sent him a firm message asking him to either post it or give me a refund, as I've already paid.

He's probably trying to do you a favour, to be perfectly honest, whilst not paying all the extortionate fees. eBay final value fees are bad enough without PayPal fees too.

What's his feedback like? If he's got some decent feedback as a seller, I wouldn't be too hesitant.

Can you not just collect it and then he gives you the £10 back for postage rather than you paying cash for it?

Yeah I've sold a laptop on there before and they took like 30 quid off me in fees. But it definitely didn't cost more than £10 to post it... he's got good feedback, that's why I feel a bit bad, but to be honest I feel a bit unsafe going to meet him and paying in cash as I almost got scammed by someone else on eBay in the past

Never pay in cash for something you won on eBay. Once you hand over that money any record of that transaction is gone.

Pay for it online through PayPal - then you are protected if there is a problem with the laptop you can easily get a refund. Whereas if you pay for it in person and find the laptop to be faulty or not as you described then you will find it incredibly difficult to get your money back.

You are well within your right as an eBay user to request that you pay through PayPal and have the item posted for your own protection (even if they do live in the same city - if they are a genuine seller they will understand this).

Cash on collection is something that you can put as a payment method, however, this wouldn't prevent the selling having to pay final value fees, they'd only save the fee on PayPal.

It's almost been a week since I paid for the laptop and the seller hasn't dispatched it, and he also didn't reply to my message a few hours ago asking him if we can stick to the original plan and have it posted. The listing did say the estimated date of delivery would be Tuesday 5th September - I need a laptop quite urgently as I've just started third year of uni.

I told him to give me a response by tomorrow morning if he can post the laptop or not, and if not then i will request a refund and buy one somewhere else. Is this fair?

Yep, it is.