I am trying to sell my Martin 00015 as listed here and on a few sale sites and I have been contacted by a buyer through gumtree who wants the guitar shipped to Italy. I’ve requested payment using PayPal gift, have warned that once the guitar is out of my hands that it’ll no longer be my responsibility and he has agreed to all of this. Why am I suspicious? One word...Gumtree. Oh and he suggested all mahogany guitars don’t come up often in Italy (which I was surprised by -someone here may be able to confirm or dispute).
I’ve wracked my brains for chargeback scams and all sorts and can’t see a flaw. Seems too good to be true, I even suggested we complete through reverb.com for buyer/seller security and he has agreed.
Am I missing something fretboarders or being unnecessarily paranoid?
(Hint: come on, someone make my life easier and let’s sell this one closer to home).
Comments
I don't know how common it is actually done, but I have seen it mentioned frequently enough to be very wary.
Anyone got any experience of seller protection if I make him go through reverb.com?
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Its like you've said to him "Don't rip me off" and he agreed.
So let's just lay it out plain:
YOU HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO PROTECTION ON THIS DEAL!
Now. Ask yourself. Do you feel lucky?
When I ignored him as I didn’t want the hassle and didn’t like his tone he went on a rant about Brexit, calling me an f’ing ignorant Brit and saying this is why everyone hates us! I even blocked his username and he sent me another message through another username and said he would keep doing it until I answered him! I ended up selling the pedals offline and removed the listings.
Funny isn’t it though, we pass money and guitars round this forum all the time; deal with the outside world however and someone saying ‘I really want to buy your guitar’ sets alarm bells off.
Gut feeling: You stick with it, you walk away. Sure, you may think I had a sale there. Consolation is that you haven't lost anything and you can wait for the next safe sale.
No brainer IMO - gut feeling every time for me.