How to Sell Safely on RFF (or elsewhere online--but NOT ebay or craigslist)

[jljohn]

I recently posted a high ticket item for sale, and I have been thinking about the perils of selling online. Getting scammed on a $50 item is one thing, but losing thousands of dollars on a scam would be a huge problem. So, how do you sell safely via RFF?

CL is easy--restrict it to cash in person. But I am finding it hard to know how to handle some RFF inquiries. For example, if someone contacts me from my CL add and asks for a paypal transaction shipped to Florida, I know to avoid it. But how is any random person (either without an RFF account or with an account and 0 posts) asking to buy via paypal and have me ship to Florida any different? Are there certain minimal requirements you impose on your RFF sales, like have a certain number of posts or some amount of positive feedback?

Are there better services than paypal that a buyer would agree to use? (I know a wire transfer is safe for me, but no reasonable buyer would use one.)

I appreciate your thoughts!

Jeremy

 

[japancamerahunter]

I recently posted a high ticket item for sale, and I have been thinking about the perils of selling online. Getting scammed on a $50 item is one thing, but losing thousands of dollars on a scam would be a huge problem. So, how do you sell safely via RFF?

CL is easy--restrict it to cash in person. But I am finding it hard to know how to handle some RFF inquiries. For example, if someone contacts me from my CL add and asks for a paypal transaction shipped to Florida, I know to avoid it. But how is any random person (either without an RFF account or with an account and 0 posts) asking to buy via paypal and have me ship to Florida any different? Are there certain minimal requirements you impose on your RFF sales, like have a certain number of posts or some amount of positive feedback?

Are there better services than paypal that a buyer would agree to use? (I know a wire transfer is safe for me, but no reasonable buyer would use one.)

I appreciate your thoughts!

Jeremy

I sell a lot online, as it is my business, and I use paypal almost exclusively.
I always make sure that the seller is verified and then I wait a few days before shipping, just in case the payment is flagged. I have never had an issue yet.
Communication with your customers is vital. If they cannot talk to you about what they want or they are rude then you don't need to deal with them anyway😛
The good people of RFF have never caused me any problems:angel:

 

[colyn]

If someone wants you to ship out of state ask for a postal money order. Never accept a cashiers check though..

Paypal contrary to popular belief is a safe way to do business. If the buyer wants a refund he/she is first required to return ship the item before getting a refund..

I've used it many times for off eBay sales with no issues..

 

[jljohn]

I sell a lot online, as it is my business, and I use paypal almost exclusively.
I always make sure that the seller is verified and then I wait a few days before shipping, just in case the payment is flagged. I have never had an issue yet.
Communication with your customers is vital. If they cannot talk to you about what they want or they are rude then you don't need to deal with them anyway😛
The good people of RFF have never caused me any problems:angel:

Thanks for the tips! Do you find that there is a safe number of days to wait in which most problematic paypal payments will get flagged? 3 days? A week?

I've never had any trouble here either, but all my large items have been sold to folks who are well known here with a lot of positive feedback, and everything I've sold to 'unknown' people were smallish.

 

[Katie]

Get a phone number!

I just bought from someone here who had 0posts and he was amazing. Communication was great and he even included an extra item!

It was $1100!

He had a website and gave me his phone number and eBay id. I used PayPal and he shipped insured.

 

[Sparrow]

... I can never bring myself to sell anything ... so I'm pretty safe

 

[Steve M.]

If it were me, I'd sell expensive items on eBay because of Paypal's protection. I've never had a good answer from them whether or not they'd offer that outside of the auction site, so to be safe that's what I'd do. Or I'd sell to someone here that's established. As others have said, good communication is vital, and a phone number would be great to chat w/ the buyer, but it's not a deal breaker for me.

Of course, there's no guarantee to any of this, and just because a Paypal transaction has cleared doesn't mean there can't be a charge back, even at a much later date. I actually do buy on CL sometimes and ask that things be sent to Florida (I live there). You can tell when a real photographer has something listed from the response you get from inquiries, and I've been able to ferret out the crooks from the honest people pretty well. Making sure that things only ship to someone's verified Paypal address is something I require.

 

[Teuthida]

I would NOT sell a high priced, used camera on Ebay. Given Ebay and Paypal's obvious bias towards 'protecting' buyers at seller's expense, you run the risk of describing the item correctly but having a claim made by an unscrupulous/stupid/demanding buyer who expects his 50 year old Leica to be like new and either demands a 'partial' refund or insists on shipping it back because it doesnt meet with his approval. The buyer has 30 days to contest the sale, which means he can use your item, abuse it, drop it, mishandle it, misuse it etc, with impugnity, and then send it back to you for a full refund, all at your expense, as you'll be eating shipping costs BOTH ways.

 

[Waterman100]

Get a phone number!

I agree with that.

As a buyer, I often get a phone number when buying high price items, both as an extra assurance that the item actually exists, as well as to sense if anything is amiss when the seller talks about the camera.

 

[Gumby]

... I can never bring myself to sell anything ... so I'm pretty safe

Anyone who is worried about getting screwed using a "proven" system like Paypal might want to emulate your approach!

 

[Beemermark]

Paypal offers little or no protection if you get scammed outside of eBay. I lost $500 with Paypal and got no more than "thats too bad" from them.

Before the internet, Shutterbug (which was a monthly newspaper tabloid) was the major medium to buy and sell used cameras. Payment was the good 'ole USPS MO. Dirt cheap, and you could redeem it for cash at any post office. The Post Office has it's own investigation dept. and they take theft and fraud extemely seriously. It's a Federal Felony. Today you can go online and verify the MO is good before you ship the package.

Today everyone want's to use Paypal. It's rare I can get someone to send me a money order. Have no clue why buyers can't go to the PO and get one.

 

[Beemermark]

As a buyer, I often get a phone number when buying high price items, both as an extra assurance that the item actually exists, as well as to sense if anything is amiss when the seller talks about the camera.

Getting harder to do but I like getting a phone number that is to an address (as opposed to a cell phone).

 

[celluloidprop]

I've been lucky - numerous computers and cameras, a 35 Lux ASPH, never any problems, except on a cheap camera that I detailed here at one point.

Shipping out of state vs in-state is kind of irrelevant - you're at risk either way. Your safest method is to restrict payments to USPS MOs - but as a buyer, I'd likely not purchase from you as it's a hassle to go wait in line at the Post Office, then wait for the money to get to you, have it be deposited, and wait for the item to reach me.

 

[wjlapier]

I won't sell a high ticket item if I don't know the person, or they don't have lots references. Ask for references like ebay, getdpi, fredmiranda, and of course here.

Oh, yes. Have a phone conversation too about the sale. I've done this many times and it really gives me piece of mind.