A lot of us are or will be selling our Hot Rod stuff. Selling is fairly easy with good stuff and a fair price. Not getting ripped off when being paid can be an issue. Selling locally (swap meets, cl***ified, ect.) cash is king as long as it's not counterfeit. All other selling has a greater risk in getting paid. Having collected Hot Rod stuff for 50+ years and now wanting to sell it Nation wide I would like to avoid getting ripped off. By talking about the options of getting paid, maybe we can come up with do's and don'ts for h***le free selling.
what are you selling? best policy for things under $1000.00 is a POSTAL money order only, cash it at the post office or bank, do not just deposit it. same goes for personal checks, cash the check at the bank it was issued from... i do that with my paychecks and deposit cash into my account. no parts leave your possession until checks have been cleared and cash is in your hands.
Excellent advice for sellers Plan9. My 2 cents... Personal checks, take 'em to the bank they are written from. Cash 'em right away. Postal money orders, take 'em to the post office not your bank. The post office scans each one and can tell you if the are good. Your bank may not find out for days or even weeks later, then your on the hook for the ammount. PayPal can be a ***** 'cos if the buyer says they never got the part they can post a complaint and get refunded - yer screwed. What about buyers? What sort of steps can buyers take to protect themselves? How do you pretect yourself when you send a check, money order or what have you from getting ripped off? Anyone got advice on that one?
i have found the best thing is a wire transfer to your account,even certified bank checks can take 7 to 10 days to clear.
I've had much more problems buying then selling. Make sure they know the good and the bad of everything your selling so there's no complaints, make sure the check clears and usally no problems. Unfortunatly there are a lot of rip off artist selling and you are at their mercy. Bought some 54 Buick sidetrim the other day, advertised as mint off of a 2 dr hardtop, hard to find so I paid a lot for it. 6 weeks later finally it shows up after many nasty grams and gee, mint off of a 4 dr sedan. Guy won't respond to e-mails. Anyone need mint 4 dr trim? Soon as your check clears I'll send it!
I was just reading yesterday someone got ripped because he thought the check had cleared. I (knock on wood ) have yet to get screwed by strangers,it seems my so called friends beat them to it. Here is how I do it.I take donuts to the bank about once a month . It's just like Cheers ,everybody knows your name.When I then get a cashiers check they are happy to check it for a watermark and call the issuer and reserve the money till the check makes it there. I only take personal checks if I keep the merchandise till the check clears and the bank calls before sending it thru and reserves the money. See a pattern here. If you plan to take a check to the issuing bank personaly and think the guy may have put a stop payment on it ,make the payee cash instead of your name . I am told that you can't stop payment on a check made out for cash. I do not buy anything from anyone on Ebay that has a bad record,period. I know there are messups and two sides to astory ,ect . PAYPAL, hummm if you actually read the statement that you agreed to when you signed up you wouldn't ever do business with them. Everyone I have asked just clicked ( I AGREE ) and didn't think of spending the time reading the details. On anything over $100 (buying or selling ) I get the phone # and talk personally ,I think I can judge a person a lot better on the phone than on a keyboard. I will not save any items (till payday ,income tax,food stamps ect) I sell to whomever shows up with the money. Anyway maybe I'm just lucky but when it comes to money I am very picky.
Before you ship, get your money. If you want to avoid tire kicking, use Immediate Paypal or a legit time frame of say, 7 days. If the buyer wants it, he will send it next day. Checks are okay, but dont send the parts unitl it clears. M/o are guaranteed cash, I have never had any problems with them. As a seller, I might want to suggest you have plenty of boxes and packing material. (ghost turds, news paper, styra-foam balls, bubble wrap) Wrap them good and tape up the box well. I always get parts that have been "packed" or rather shoved in a box w/ paper and when they arrive, its bouncing around and the boxes are ripped up. Oh, sending carbs in cereal boxes...just dont cut it. Broken parts lead to bad transactions. Oh, as a shipping saver to the buyer, USPS has a nice size box for flat rate Priority Mail shipping at $8.10, you can put quite a bit in them. No matter what shipping company you use, they abuse the boxes, so pack accordingly. Either way, cant wait to see the parts your unloading. Good Luck.
With Priority mail you can get a list from the Post Office with weights and priority cost for that weight. You can get a notice sign by the buyer when its delivered, this way they can't say they didn't get the package. The notice costs about 2 to 3 dollars, charge this to the buyer. If using paypal get paid first and transfer it right away to your bank account from paypal, then mail out the package. Cruiser 49
when I sell I wont take checks, when I buy I will not send cash , money order or what ever. I will only use a third person like paypal. My credit card protect me. It be nice to only deal with honest people, but 75% of america is dishonest to some level.
Using a wirer transfer you need to give the bank routing number to the other end. Not a good idea. They can miss use your infomation and wipe out your bank account. Cruiser 49
Guys, for what is worth: 1. For really big ticket items, over 10k wire transfers are a good way to go. The routing number is the same as what is at the bottom of every check you mail, so I wouldn't sweat giving that out. It is IMPOSSIBLE for someone to steal from you just because you wired them money. 2. For stuff under 10k, you should accept personal checks, just don't ship until the check clears. Money orders are a pain, and I'm generally suspect when people are adamant about them. If you wait for the check to clear, there are no problems.
If I'm worried about sending a large payment, I get signature confirmation, available through the Post Office. Then I know dude got my money. When he ships the item, I get a tracking # from him so I and he can see that it was shipped and I got it. If he uses the Post Office, typically they do not have tracking #'s, so delivery confirmation for a few bucks more will get you one. If you are worried about damage, require insurance as a seller, and ask for it as a buyer. I use US Postal Money orders only, that way they can be cashed right away at the post office. Screw Paypal.
When I used paypal I set up an account at a bank seperate from my main one that was down the street. it was a pain in the *** sometimes to have to stop in and deposit $ for an auction but I had the piece of mind that if it was hacked I wasnt out much more than a few hundred and there was no links to my other accounts.
PO money orders. Cash them at PO. Never let anything out of your hands till the money is in them. Try to use the PO to ship. Get confirmation for delivery. Oh, and here is something nobody's touched on. Wait a reasonable amount of time to recieve payment. Not everybody lives in a Po friendly area. At my address, if the weather is bad, the mail doesn't show. As the Postmaster here once told me "If you want it there overnight, you better go to a different Post office, 'cuz it ain't gonna happen from this one."
Hey sell em on the HAMB never got ripped for anything here I sell on EBAY still no problem only time I ever got screwed was on EBAY buying I think all the advice here is good take your chances good pictures good description be available for emails etc dont try to rip people off etc basic good business always works if ya screw some one with dishonest description or oversell your gonna get bit ==honesty Integrity and do what you say you are going to do, you should have no problems==good stuff sells it's self plain n simple go for it Ken
I don't have much to add to what has already been said, which has all been pretty good advice. I don't always follow all these safety tips, but still have never had a bad selling or buying experience on the internet. I've been on ebay for over 10 years, buying and selling occ***ionally. Never a bad deal. I've been selling a few things here on the HAMB over the past few months, and so far all deals have gone well. I guess my point is that buying and selling is not nearly as bad on the internet as some would have you believe. You do have to be wary and use some common sense, though. But, I've found most (well all so far) to be honest.
As an add on ,anything over 10 k needs to be paid in two checks. The financial ins***utions are required by law to notify the IRS on any transactions over 10k. Unless of course you were planning on paying capital gains on that sale!! POPCORN makes a great packing stuffer. You do know I meant already popped.
now i've had a problem buyinh lately with paypal the option to use a credit card is gone the only choice is echeck. has any onelse had this problem?
I'm sorry but you are wrong about 75% of America being dishonest. It is the proliferation of s***bags in every venue of merchandising that gives you this impression. Remember, s***bags are at work on eBay, and your local want ads, Thrifty Nickle, etc. because "that's where the money is". Unscrupulous car dealers advertise thrown together junk as individual sellers which is funny because there are many indiividuals throwing junk together as well. Unsuspecting and unknowing newbies to the old car scene are skinned and have no idea what happened to them until they have problems or go to a car show and see people's reactions to their newly acquired goodie! The vast majority of old car lovers are straight up about their business but since the old car business has become a mainstream one the usual suspects are pouring in to take advantage of a long tradition of honest dealings. Back in the 70s-80s the people in the old car parts business (that being pre 49) were rarely victims of bad check artists, fraud and so on, but the those in the business of selling parts for 50s-60s cars and trucks were being victimised in droves. We thought that gave us a good picture of what kind of folks were involved in the later cars and stayed out of it.
plan9's advice works pretty well. I personally don't accept checks if unless you haven't ripped me off before IE we've already done business and you're jam up in my eyes. Nothin' wrong with waiting for the for your money before you ship. If I'm buying from you and you wait until my check clears to ship my parts than i'm good with that. On the other hand I'm still waiting on some parts that I will never receive, both of the dudes are onto at least one other car if not the second car since our transaction so once the check or money order clears you should ship ricky tic. I never sell anything to anyone without a post count. It helps me to avoid the scam artists that cruise around the internet looking for someone to rip off. so if your reading this and see an ad of mine, your post count is zero don't even bother. Oh that is advice for selling on the HAMB, I don't do much dealing anywhere wlse unless its local.
What Porkn****** said. If the guy or girl is low on the post count and not active on a board. I wouldnt deal with them unless your close to them to see it in person or someone knows them on the board well enough to say they are a stand up person but even then I would not want to risk a deal of any great value.
If you are concerned..... US Postal Money Order is good as cash. Keep the amounts low to avoid being noticed. http://www.usps.com/money/sendingmoney/moneyorders/welcome.htm
Wiring money from bank to bank is best..I like money orders too, it takes cash to buya money order and checks can bounce or be bogus..the Nigerian scammers mostly use bogus cashiers checks..I've sent the 7.00 tracer on a money order to prove that customer did get item and money because tracer showed they cashed it..I did that to a Judge one time when they tried to hammer me for not recieving money to pay for a traffic ticket, tracer showed they had..I sued them for costs,time,postage,mental anguish still waiting to hear from that one....
I kind-of disagree . The quan***y of someones posts has nothing to do with the integrity of the actual person. It all depends on the professionalism of the person during the sale. Most people can tell right away if they are getting scammed or lied to. Shady people act shady and youll know it when you see it. <O Maybe they can start a members Buy/Sell feedback section attached to the public profile Kind of like eBays rating system. <O As for me, I would rather post a for sale item here first, before going to something like eBay.
...so, on average , how many days does it take for a check to clear. How can you find out if and when a check clears?
The post count thing is sound advice. If someone has been active on a board for a number of years then chances are you will not get screwed. It might sound hokey, but most people don't want to look bad in the "community" they are part of - even if they are semi-anonymous. The last thing they would want to see is their good name (or forum handle) tarnished in a forum they had participated in for years. </o></o>
I had a new member (0 posts) buy some parts from me here. He sent the money order, he got his parts. I had my ideas that he wouldnt pay, but I've had less favorable results from guys that have been on the board longer.
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