Selling stuff and shipping.

[sc00ter]

So I have a bike for sale. The 2 interested people have "just" joined the site, no prior involvement at all. One wants me to ship the bike across the country and the other is down south. At the price of the bike it's not worth my time to break it down, get a box, pack it up, haul it to the shipper and hope nothing happens during shipment. What is your breaking point with shipping stuff? And how do you prefer the payment? I can't be the only person who prefers local cash sales of larger, higher priced and/or fragile items.

I know to never do Friends and Family, but I no longer do PayPal. I refuse to do any crypto voodoo transactions. My request have always been cash or USPS Money Orders. Luckily I have no horror stories about getting taken!

 

[fooferdoggie]

shipping is a big giveaway that's it may be a scam. a money order can be faked. the cash app may work but if they use a stolen credit card then that would be bad.

 

[Roamers]

Danger Will Robinson!

 

[Gionnirocket]

So I have a bike for sale. The 2 interested people have "just" joined the site, no prior involvement at all. One wants me to ship the bike across the country and the other is down south. At the price of the bike it's not worth my time to break it down, get a box, pack it up, haul it to the shipper and hope nothing happens during shipment. What is your breaking point with shipping stuff? And how do you prefer the payment? I can't be the only person who prefers local cash sales of larger, higher priced and/or fragile items.

I know to never do Friends and Family, but I no longer do PayPal. I refuse to do any crypto voodoo transactions. My request have always been cash or USPS Money Orders. Luckily I have no horror stories about getting taken!

Money sent via Zelle can not be retracted and requires them to have a bank account. You can link an email address to your bank for the transaction which is the only information that you need to provide to the buyer and even create a new one just for this purpose alone.
I do this with new or onetime customers

 

[sc00ter]

I hate the Zelle commercials but that's not a reason to not use them. It's a modern world and I don't want to open new accounts constantly to keep up with the changes. I remember when PayPal was okay to deal with.

 

[rcdanner]

So I have a bike for sale. The 2 interested people have "just" joined the site, no prior involvement at all. One wants me to ship the bike across the country and the other is down south. At the price of the bike it's not worth my time to break it down, get a box, pack it up, haul it to the shipper and hope nothing happens during shipment. What is your breaking point with shipping stuff? And how do you prefer the payment? I can't be the only person who prefers local cash sales of larger, higher priced and/or fragile items.

I know to never do Friends and Family, but I no longer do PayPal. I refuse to do any crypto voodoo transactions. My request have always been cash or USPS Money Orders. Luckily I have no horror stories about getting taken!

I too hate packing and shipping used ebike. I use Craigslist. Sold a dozen ebikes over the years. Easy to do and once sold, it’s gone and youve got the cash.

 

[Alaskan]

I have sold four ebike on Craigslist and offer to deliver within 100 miles of where I live. . Any further, the buyer pays extra for the shipping box and shipping. I use shipbikes.com Its all transparent. For remote sales I accept personal checks and ship after the check has cleared. I will also accept a bank wire if the buyer pays the bank wire fee, usually $30. This worked well earlier in the year when I sold a Riese & Muller Homage HS Rohloff E14. I am in Bellingham, WA but the buyer was in Chicago and found the bike on Craigslist. I did the dismantling and boxing myself. Their bike shipping boxes come with excellent instructions. Box pickup is my house to the buyers arranged through shipbikes. The total cost of shipping box plus shipping was $403 half of which was the extra large 2 ply shipping box they shipped to me.

 

[tomjasz]

. I remember when PayPal was okay to deal with.

Sadly those days are gone. I’ve got lots of battery building supplies and cases and to often asshats file a complaint and send back stuff they fucked up. Now unsellable. Sucks!

 

[tomjasz]

I hate the Zelle commercials but that's not a reason to not use them.

If I quit buying based on commercials I quit my stroke meds, not drink milk, and buy a shitty car.

 

[tomjasz]

I use Craigslist.

But the nutters that show up had me never meet at my home, EVER again. I just vetted a guy, caught smuggling meth into the local jail on work release. I made excuses and never completed the sale.

 

[sc00ter]

I'm half tempted to try Craigslist and Offer Up. I've sold a few motor scooters on both of those sites in the past with good results. A bunch of tire kickers, low ball offers and no shows but all eventually sold. I may try a local bicycle shop for a consignment as well. It's not that I need it gone asap, I just rarely use the bike and its just sitting there looking sad.

But I know taking the bike apart and shipping it is out of my wheel house of time, skill and patience. But I do appreciate all the advice given.

 

[Alaskan]

I'm half tempted to try Craigslist and Offer Up. I've sold a few motor scooters on both of those sites in the past with good results. A bunch of tire kickers, low ball offers and no shows but all eventually sold. I may try a local bicycle shop for a consignment as well. It's not that I need it gone asap, I just rarely use the bike and its just sitting there looking sad.

But I know taking the bike apart and shipping it is out of my wheel house of time, skill and patience. But I do appreciate all the advice given.

If you get any emails off CL offering full price with credit card payment, no inspections or test ride, just delete the email and do not respond to it. Also very important to meet up at a busy public location not your home. If they want to test ride, you hold their car keys until they return. Face to face transactions should be cash only. Remote transactions, you should get a 50% deposit to hold the bike until their check clears (check with your bank as to how many days after the deposit till the transaction cannot be reversed). Then ship upon receipt and bank clearance of the balance. If they don't like it they can go find another bike. Stay in control and don't be too eager to close the deal that you open yourself up to a scam.

 

[sc00ter]

Oh, I know what you speak of Alaskan! Last motor scooter sale was weird though. I had a Yamaha Zuma, the fun 2-stroke one, that I rebuilt. Had all the right Stage 1 mods making it hit 48mph and stay reliable. So I'm at work buying tater tots and I tell a coworker that I'm going to list it for $850 on Clist and Offer, but I'd take $450 from a friend. Next thing I know our works lunch lady hands me $450! Someone was eavesdropping! She purchased it for her grandson.

 

[rich c]

Shipping hazardous material (battery pack) makes that a deal breaker for me.

 

[sc00ter]

I didn't think of shipping the battery. That would have been a nice surprise!

 

[PedalUma]

I only deal face-to-face. With two or three meetings. Locals only. Established in the known community. I have used CL a few times and have not sold that way in over a year. I have purchased some there. We can meet in the lobby of my building or somewhere public like a bike shop where I am known. I have them look up my credentials.

 

[chunk]

For me, PayPal, goods and services only, and if it's worthwhile to the buyer, they pay all shipping and boxing fees. If that makes the good deal, not so good, then sell on your local CL as pick up only. I use CL to buy and sell motorcycles, I advertise that I won't ship and use the CL email server at first to filter out the kooks and weirdos. Then a phone number for some more filtering. If they still are "performing" in a proper way, and I have a good feeling about them, I'll send them my address to take a look and / or complete the purchase. I can tell in short order if I'm being flim flammed when it come to motorcycles by the way the conversation goes and if it feels wrong, next, and block that guy from my email. CL is a giant PIA, but it's still a good way to sell big ticket items, and is usually worth the effort.

 

[AHicks]

I've learned my lesson the hard way on e-bay. I'll do some buying there, but never a seller. I sell some hard to find refurbished Honda outboards every spring (a real niche/hobby/source of mad money). These can get pretty expensive. I deal cash only, and no shipping available. Having strangers meet you at your house sounds a little scary, but I've met some pretty terrific people this way. The fact I only have 3-5 sales a year I think, helps a bunch. That and the fact it's my customers coming here with large amounts of cash sort of puts the shoe on the other foot from a danger standpoint. This is not the sort of transaction you're going to take to a police station parking lot. Quite often I'll find I'm dealing with buyers from several states away that find my adds through places like searchtempest, which is based on craigslist but allows more focused searches on a much larger area. If you have something worthwhile with a fair price on it, people will find you....

Facebook marketplace is another option.

 

[sc00ter]

I just dropped my price to blowout sale BUT local pick-up and cash only. Time is money and I've been super busy lately. Plus the bike won't fit in my Fit with the front basket installed.

 

[sc00ter]

I sold the bike finally, and to the same guy who originally wanted it. The bike is going back to the greater L.A. area. Turns out when I dropped the price and dropped delivery options, he found a co-worker located a few miles from my house to handle everything! I think the bike will work out great for him. I'm just lazy and didn't want to drive it anywhere, plus the cash transaction appealed to me.