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Best Practice when Buying & Selling -- Advise Please



 
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richardwy
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Joined: 13 Feb 2006
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Location: Casper, WY - The Gotham of the Prarie

PostPosted: Tue May 23, 2017 3:10 am    Post subject: Best Practice when Buying & Selling -- Advise Please Reply with quote

Will be selling some equipment. It has been about a decade since I last did so using our Marketplace. All transactions were happy ones.

No doubt it is more dangerous now.

Took a peek at a site review of Escrow.com. Ugh! Will have to delve.

What is your preferred method to assure the result of a happy buyer and seller when it comes to payment?

Thanks
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mm55
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PostPosted: Tue May 23, 2017 4:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I accept only US Postal Money Orders when selling to a US buyer. That's also my preferred payment. If a seller cashes the money order and fails to deliver, then it's a federal crime, but I've never had to bring in a postal inspector for mail fraud.

The other thing that's very important is to have a conversation, by email or telephone, to asses the other party. If they aren't interested in an exchange, then I won't deal. I just move on.
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WxJeff
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PostPosted: Tue May 23, 2017 5:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

mm55 wrote:
The other thing that's very important is to have a conversation, by email or telephone, to asses the other party. If they aren't interested in an exchange, then I won't deal. I just move on.


Agree. Agree. Agree. I continue to have very pleasant transactions with my TH friends, but have found that you can quickly get a sense for the person on the other end by the quality and responsiveness of their emails and texts. When in doubt, don't.

I continue to use PayPal without any issues and while I've never specifically requested it, most sellers on TH send a tracking number. Just bought a book and the seller communicated he would be using Media Mail. Incredibly slow, but I was in no hurry and was happy to have him save a couple dollars.

Are you cutting back on your playing, Richard?
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Craig Swartz
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PostPosted: Tue May 23, 2017 5:57 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I also use USPS Money Orders and always have at least 2 phone conversations with potential buyers, with at least one of the calls one that I've initiated. I've sold and bought quite a few instruments, accessories and music here and have never encountered a problem. I always include shipping to the buyer in the price and send after I've received the MO. I allow returns with full refund if buyer is not satisfied if they pay return shipping. (This has never happened.) So long as I've done my research I still trust people here for the most part. They may have some crazy ideas concerning playing or free speech but for most part, IME, are about as honest as trumpet players can be...
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TKSop
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PostPosted: Tue May 23, 2017 6:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I know this is tangential (I'm not commenting on payments - I've only ever used paypal for buying and selling over the marketplace, but that's for nothing more pricey than mouthpieces)....

But if you're coming at this for the first time in 10 years - one thing that will have changed quite a lot is the quality of images you're able to supply, even a modern smartphone will give you good quality images.

I'm perhaps a little sore about this particular issue having bought (and had to return) something via Ebay because I was too trusting of someone who hadn't produced decent quality imagines and had described the goods as in good condition when there was quite significant damage...

It's much easier to highlight those little blemishes, dents/scratches and so on these days - the last thing you want is someone unhappy with something you could've shown, and you'll probably both be out of a certain amount for postage if that happens.


At any rate, best of luck
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Craig Swartz
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PostPosted: Tue May 23, 2017 12:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

As per TKSop: As a buyer, insist on an inspection/return period. As a seller, offer one. I'd always rather both parties are happy than to have someone out there trashing me later.
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Dale Proctor
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PostPosted: Tue May 23, 2017 12:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi Richard. I used to accept (and use) USPS money orders, but now I use Paypal exclusively. They ding you a small percentage when you sell something, and charge a buck or so to cut you a check if you don't want to leave the money "on account", but it's worth it to me for a safe transaction.
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richardwy
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PostPosted: Wed May 24, 2017 4:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks guys

Either I or my daughter will be selling the horns. If it be she, she'll identify herself. If it be I, they will show up in the market place soon.

I intended to do it myself. However, I became skittish at the prospect of bad packaging from the UPS store (which has never happened), and decided to forego the sale for now -- at least sort of.

Two horns won't have cases, and packing those do not worry me. But my the best of the bunch (all are good) comes with a snazzy double case, and I was fretting that one good drop or toss by a UPS loader might damage it. When I received it back some 7 years ago, it came in the case, and was packaged simply as I recall with little or no cushion around it.

So maybe, I'm fretting over nothing.

As to why I'm selling, health problems abound.

All the Best,

Richard
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WxJeff
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Joined: 10 Dec 2002
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PostPosted: Wed May 24, 2017 5:13 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

richardwy wrote:
As to why I'm selling, health problems abound.


ahhh.... this was my fear. I am so sorry, my friend. Prayers lifted.

I will add that I have taken the advice given here and packaged cases separate from the well-wrapped horn. Same box, bigger box, more costly but gives you the piece of mind that the horn is not only being protected by the case itself. Several helpful threads here on this over the years.

I know you have a couple very nice horns. I will throw this out for feedback from the group: what about listing those on Denver/Laramie craigslist for local pickup? Perhaps the serious student/professional wouldn't mind making the drive (four hours from Denver?) and ensuring safe exchange.
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kehaulani
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PostPosted: Wed May 24, 2017 1:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Regarding packing a horn and case separately, I can see why some would not trust a sender with proper packing, but going the other way, I can't see that one doesn't trust oneself with properly packing them both together. Your prerogative but self-packing's not rocket science.
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richardwy
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PostPosted: Thu May 25, 2017 8:13 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Jeff, thanks for the tip. Will do so.
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Brad361
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Joined: 16 Dec 2007
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PostPosted: Fri May 26, 2017 5:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Maybe I've just been lucky, but so far I've had zero problems selling or buying from people here. It might in part be because I shy away from people who make the minimum five posts (especially if they're inane), then throw stuff up on the marketplace.
As far as packing a horn, I would NEVER trust a UPS or Fedex store to do that. I did buy a horn from a guy on ebay once who did that, it showed up rattling around in a Fedex box with very minimal bubble wrap. Luckily it was ok, no thanks to the ebay seller (who misrepresented things in the horn descriptions).
Regarding packing a horn, Doctor Valve has some great instructions:
http://www.doctorvalve.com/Shipping.html

Brad
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richardwy
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Joined: 13 Feb 2006
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Location: Casper, WY - The Gotham of the Prarie

PostPosted: Tue May 30, 2017 5:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Brad, thanks for the tip from Doctor Valve.

Have any of you used Google Wallet? Is there a reason that one should not use such an application for payment?

Thanks, guys. I really appreciate it.
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WxJeff
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Joined: 10 Dec 2002
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Location: Atlanta GA

PostPosted: Tue May 30, 2017 9:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

My son encouraged me to get a Google Wallet account/app so he could occasionally send me money towards the family cell phone bill. Worked great, I used it in other settings, never had a single problem.

They did away with the associated plastic debit card (kinda liked using that for an added layer of security for online purchases) and my son got his own cell phone account so for me it ceased to be useful.
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