I've purchased plenty of items over eBay with some degree of comfort (since
eBay protects against fraud to some extent). However I'm very interested in
buying some rather expensive items I found in online used audio gear
classifieds and I'm wondering what's a safe (if any) way to go about it?

Any tips or tried and true methods?

Thanks,

Dave

David Grant wrote:
I've purchased plenty of items over eBay with some degree of comfort (since
eBay protects against fraud to some extent). However I'm very interested in
buying some rather expensive items I found in online used audio gear
classifieds and I'm wondering what's a safe (if any) way to go about it?

Any tips or tried and true methods?

Thanks,

Dave

One thing I have done- when you find out what city the item is in, find
a local music store that will escrow it for you. You will have to pay a
fee, which is usually negotiable with the store owner or manager.But if
its a reputable store, there is a certain amount of safety in the
escrow.

In article writes:

I'm very interested in
buying some rather expensive items I found in online used audio gear
classifieds and I'm wondering what's a safe (if any) way to go about it?

"Rather expensive" is relative. If you're talking about a $20,000
console, take a trip and bring your checkbook. Even if it costs you
$1,000 to travel to the seller and look it (and the seller) over, it's
only 5% of the cost and well worth it even if you decide not to make
the purchase. If you're taking about a $20,000 microphone that's far
away from home, your best bet is to try to find a trusted third party,
perhaps an equipment broker or dealer, to handle the deal for you. It
will probalby cost you a commission of 10-15%.

On the other hand, if "rather expensive" is a $300 microphone, get a
phone number, talk on the phone, get all the contact information you
can from the seller, and take a chance if you feel good about it.
There are no real guarantees.

--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me he double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

there are things called "escrow services".
1) you deposit the funds in an escrow account. that way the buyer
knows you're good for the money
2) the buyer ships you the stuff
3) after you approve it's condition, you authorize the escrow company
to give the funds to the seller

the escrow service charges a fee to do this. it's how a lot of big
purchases get done, particularly houses.

On Jul 6, 2005, David Grant commented:

Any tips or tried and true methods?
------------------------------snip------------------------------

Yeah, the one time I did a purchase over $1000, buying some audio gear from a
guy on the Digidesign User Conference (DUC), I used this company:

http://www.escrow.com

Escrow.com basically charges you about 3% of the total price, then they hold
your money while the dealer sends you the item. Once you have a chance to
open the package and verify that it's good, they send the seller the money.
If the item is bad, you ship it back to the seller, and escrow.com refunds
your money.

I wouldn't hesitate to use them if I had to deal with a total stranger who
didn't have any references I could check out. My experience is that 99% of
the people I've dealt with in Internet buying/selling/trading have been OK.
The few who have been jerks and flakes were generally those who had low
ratings on eBay.

--MFW

"David Grant" wrote in message
news
I've purchased plenty of items over eBay with some degree of comfort
(since
eBay protects against fraud to some extent). However I'm very interested
in
buying some rather expensive items I found in online used audio gear
classifieds and I'm wondering what's a safe (if any) way to go about it?

Any tips or tried and true methods?

Thanks,

Dave

I bought an $800 sequencer from a guy in Georgia (I'm in Toronto, Canada).
We spoke on the phone several times, I verified all of his information
(phone number, address etc.), had him send photos of the unit (and i did a
long google images search to make sure he didn't download the pictures).

I paid with paypal, which offers a tiny bit of security.

I've bought and sold a number of items under a couple of hundred bucks -
never once had a problem.

MOST people are honest - the problem is that the crooks sound like honest
people....

Good luck!
Paul