Paypal question and your thoughts

Stratman68

Stratman68

Axe-Master
So, I have been using paypal for decades. Mainly t pay for items. I have sold about 10 items over the years and never had an issue.

So now I am selling an acoustic guitar-somewhat hi end and expensive.
Do you guys feel comfortable about this? I have read about different scams. So?

Thanks folks
Frank
 
Like you I have been a paypal user for a long time..I sold a few things,with the most expensive being a thousand bucks..For higher dollar stuff, (for me) it would have to be face to face....PayPal is great for the consumer, not so great for the seller because of the ways the seller can be scammed by a consumer who complains...Which isnt a bad thing, but have been taken advantaged off...You've seen the scams...Verify with telephone calls....
 
I have bought and sold many things using PayPal including high end guitars. I have never had issues with PayPal themselves. If the item you are selling is a high value item spend some time verifying that the person is real before shipping.
 
I have sold expensive items no problem. It's not that easy to get PayPal to return money. I had a guy write a CNC program for me, had to have it by a certain date, had an email him promising that date, missed the date($350 Paid him in advance by the way) He sends it the day after. I filed a complaint PayPal says nope u got the product, it was useless we did the program ourselves the day before. Long story, sorry.
 
Black Barrell said:
I have sold expensive items no problem. It's not that easy to get PayPal to return money. I had a guy write a CNC program for me, had to have it by a certain date, had an email him promising that date, missed the date($350 Paid him in advance by the way) He sends it the day after. I filed a complaint PayPal says nope u got the product, it was useless we did the program ourselves the day before. Long story, sorry.
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While I empathize.. it's unclear as to how the supplier missing the date has anything to do with Paypal - other than being the payment conduit... ?
 
I have done many hundreds of transactions buying and selling using paypal/ebay and more recently reverb. A couple of transactions were in the $25k range. I've only had two issues; once I bought a little practice amp on ebay/paypal and the seller went bankrupt before sending. I guess Ebay/Paypal couldn't get any funds back from him and they sent me a dear john letter so no money back. The second issue the item was destroyed in shipping and I couldn't get any response from UPS so I refunded the money to the buyer. Lesson: pack your stuff really good!

As a seller if you're going directly through paypal, I wouldn't worry just don't do that gifting stuff to try to avoid fees, and if the buyer is acting goofy and trying to change things, just cancel the order and move on.

I switched to Reverb years ago because the fees were less than ebay/paypal. But I think they may be inline with paypal only(?) You may want to check that out. The good thing about Reverb is the users can setup accounts and be "verified" so you can have a little faith that when they tell you the money is there, it's there, and you are shipping to someone who has some kind of reputation. Although I recently cancelled a sale because of a flaky weirdo buyer.
 
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s0c9 said:
While I empathize.. it's unclear as to how the supplier missing the date has anything to do with Paypal - other than being the payment conduit... ?
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Well I can see his point; if getting the product by a certain date was part of the transaction, and the seller failed to meet this condition, they should't be paid. But paypal didn't honor this part of the transaction.
 
Stratman68 said:
So, I have been using paypal for decades. Mainly t pay for items. I have sold about 10 items over the years and never had an issue.

So now I am selling an acoustic guitar-somewhat hi end and expensive.
Do you guys feel comfortable about this? I have read about different scams. So?

Thanks folks
Frank
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It's distressingly easy these days for buyers to scam the seller, and buyers are taking advantage of this more and more often. Paypal almost always sides with the buyer, so as a seller you generally have no recourse. There are escrow services, but they don't help much with the most common forms of scams. It's just a really bad time to sell something expensive on line.

You don't mention how you would sell it, but on ebay there's the additional problem of feedback. A buyer may be a complete deadbeat, but it's nearly impossible for a seller who has a bad experience to provide feedback to warn future sellers this buyer is bad, which makes it difficult to learn if the buyer is reputable or not.

It may work out, but you're taking a risk. The only advice I can offer is to attempt to sell locally first before selling on line.
 
1st, Thanks so much for all the info and advice.

Actually have the item on Craigslist. The buyer is from new york. new york zip code. It's a Made in USA Larrivee L-03E. Great guitar but of course most (especially younger folks) only buy Taylors, Martins and Gibsons.

I have had this guitar , like new, minty. Could pass for new, on CL for 14 months and NOT one person has even asked to see\play the guitar? I am only asking $995 with amazingly built Larrivee case. I started at $1,400 and have dropped a bit each 2 or 3 months. I have 2 other acoustics so I was hoping this would pay for my FM3 when it comes available. I can still buy the FM3, which I will. But I really don't need the guitar.
 
Life is so weird. So I didn't email the guy back yesterday, but did 2X the day before. I rec'd this from the guy with a video of him learning to play? Wow is all I can say! Here is his reply today:

"OK I’m going to insert foot in mouth right now and say what the F is going on you’re the second 🎺🏣🎉consecutive seller of the Larrivee D3 to go silent any one thing I can think of is that it’s because I just am just starting to play That somehow that’s less of a good thing somehow
You both are Knuckleheads not interested anymore"

Does not sound like a person I want to deal.......BTW. my guitar is NOT a D3.
 
Put it on reverb and end your worries. You have a good case, so go to any local guitar store and ask if you can have a shipping box. Then you just need a little packing material and tape. You'll get more than a local craigslist ad.

Reverb will get you a little discount on the shipping too. It'll be about $35 to $50 to just about anywhere on the mainland. Piece of cake.
 
Randy4Guitars said:
Put it on reverb and end your worries. You have a good case, so go to any local guitar store and ask if you can have a shipping box. Then you just need a little packing material and tape. You'll get more than a local craigslist ad.

Reverb will get you a little discount on the shipping too. It'll be about $35 to $50 to just about anywhere on the mainland. Piece of cake.
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Hey Randy
I have a few guitar boxes including the one the Larrivee came in. I save everything. I imagine this will sound ridiculous to most but Reverb wants access to my paypal account and that ain't gonna happen in this lifetime. It's a beautiful guitar so if I keep it, so be it.

Thanks though
 
Randy4Guitars said:
Well I can see his point; if getting the product by a certain date was part of the transaction, and the seller failed to meet this condition, they should't be paid. But paypal didn't honor this part of the transaction.
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Understood, but my point was that paypal (in this scenario) was merely the funding conduit, and probably had no other part in the contract. If the product was delivered and not paid for, then OK. But I believe the product WAS paid for and delivered ONLY a day late. And it was software.. which IMHO is far different than buying/selling something on evil bay or reverb. With the latter there are goods, [generally] pix showing condition of said goods, shipping/tracking info and so on. You know when it arrives and how it looks, etc. If "brown" delivers it a day late, are you calling Payal for a refund?
And software? Is ANY piece of software delivered on time, as requested, fully functional and bug free? :rolleyes:
 
Stratman68 said:
Hey Randy
I have a few guitar boxes including the one the Larrivee came in. I save everything. I imagine this will sound ridiculous to most but Reverb wants access to my paypal account and that ain't gonna happen in this lifetime. It's a beautiful guitar so if I keep it, so be it.

Thanks though
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You can get paid through Reverb directly (they take a slightly lower rate than PP) so you can avoid using PP all together, but then of course you need to give Reverb access to your bank account information, which I'm sure would probably keep you up at night with cold sweats out of worry lol, so maybe just the local sale route ?

Cash deal, no worries about refunds, buyer saying not as described etc. If you look at TGP threads, seemingly 50% of guitars people are selling these days has the buyer coming back saying something isn't perfect and wanting money off, full refund with both ways shipping paid etc.

Larger market, thus more money, but price it right on FB Marketplace or Craigslist and people will buy, often even driving a ways to get it. Less money, but less worry, which is maybe worth more than the extra money Ebay, Reverb et al can bring in ?
 
Stratman68 said:
I imagine this will sound ridiculous to most but Reverb wants access to my paypal account and that ain't gonna happen in this lifetime. I
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They asked for your paypal password so they could access your account? That can't possibly be right, there must have been a misunderstanding. I'm sure they just wanted you to authorize a recurring payment.
 
s0c9 said:
Understood, but my point was that paypal (in this scenario) was merely the funding conduit, and probably had no other part in the contract. If the product was delivered and not paid for, then OK. But I believe the product WAS paid for and delivered ONLY a day late. And it was software.. which IMHO is far different than buying/selling something on evil bay or reverb. With the latter there are goods, [generally] pix showing condition of said goods, shipping/tracking info and so on. You know when it arrives and how it looks, etc. If "brown" delivers it a day late, are you calling Payal for a refund?
And software? Is ANY piece of software delivered on time, as requested, fully functional and bug free? :rolleyes:
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Yeah agreed. In this case they are just sending the money, not interpreting the terms of the contract. Your comment on "brown" made me laugh as I have an issue right now with fedex crushing a pc. lol
 
As someone mentioned above, I just hooked Reverb directly into my checking account and they take and send money when I do transactions. I only keep a little money in that account so I'm not too worried about it.

It's been awhile but I recall switching to Reverb as the fees were way less than the old ebay/paypal. I only deal with Reverb and they have been great. All the ppl have been good except one guy that wanted me to ship to Peru.

I've also sold stuff local on craigslist, and it's always been cash in hand. I try to meet ppl at a store down the street as I feel kind of funny having ppl from Craigslist at my house.
 
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