Ebay guitar, overseas buyer, PP etc - advice please

Corvus

I've got a couple of guitars on the bay, listed for collection due to lack of cases. But there's a guy in Slovenia who says he wants to buy one. He has 200ish positive feedback. He could pay for a case to be sent here, and I could ship it. This could be off-ebay where I send him a Paypal invoice. Or I re-list with a BIN and he buys it.

I suppose it shouldn't be any different to another sale but it's a fair amount of money (600), a semi-acoustic and I'm just uneasy ... any wise words? Better to sell via the bay or just stick to UK sale/collection? Ta.

xmrchi

If it was me, I would only send it if it was a solid body, im sure it would be fine, but if anything happens to it, you would have a returned damaged guitar, and lose the postage cost which won't be cheap, parcel force won't insure guitars, contrary to what the post office clerks say, so it would mean going via DHL etc, they are good but not cheap, if the case is not an exact tight Fit, it could def get damaged on its way, and not to mention temperature variation, acoustic in my opinion are to delicate to ship outside the UK.
But having said that many do get to their destination fine, but if it does not you have alot to lose, :-)

iseverynamegone

Easier to stick to collection but for all the horror stories you will normally be ok. Send in a case for sure with interparcel or someone who definatley includes guitars as insured. At least the loss and breakages are covered and all you need to worry about is if he is a crook using a stolen credit card which is unlikely, but possible. Gotta love paypal. GLWS.

thermionic

Language barrier, different country, no case, trying to buy it off ebay before the auction ends? Call me over-cautious but I'd walk away.

Richardj

I don't see the problem.  If the buyer is prepared to provide a case and clearly understands and accepts the risks a sale is a sale.  Definitely on Ebay though to maintain seller protection.

I am amazed when some people so severly limit their purchases and sales by excluding shipping. Do you want to sell it enough to have the extra little bit of effort packing and arranging shipping?  Yes accidents happen, but it is still the exception rather than the rule.  Tracking and insurance are your friends.

This is in no way a rant at the OP, just an observation from someone who has bought and sold gear all over Europe and the US with no real problems.

Gassage

So many things to go wrong. Don't.

fretfinder

I would get him to pay you into your bank account for the guitar and a case. You buy the case and pack the guitar up. Then get him to arrange a courier to collect, at his risk. He may walk away but if you want zero risk to your money...

Corvus

Thanks all. I'd like to be able to sell it to him/abroad but just feel a bit green about issues like payment reversal in paypal or whatever, scenarios like buyer says guitar never arrived, how does that play out (pun alert). All that. Have just found a PP page to read up some more. I'll talk to him tonight. Language is fine and a case can be sorted. Bank transfer sounds good, thanks.