A Paypal Offer - Is This Secure?

I am still thinking about selling this guy my $5000 amplifier via paypal. It would be shipped to his paypal certified address. I would do all the necessary documentation. Paypal says that they process disputes within 10 days of registering a dispute. I would document with paperwork and pictures.

Muzicat - did you fight back against the claim? Did you have any opportunity to? If a buyer were trying to scam me, paypal would do no good, as he would have to send the item back, and it is a very big and heavy item. Not worth his time and effort for absolutely no profit. The only time I would get burned is via buyers remorse - and how would the buyer prove their false claim that the amplifier isn't working?

Thanks, Peter

The only time I would get burned is via buyers remorse - and how would the buyer prove their false claim that the amplifier isn't working?

Peter, while I'm not suggesting that it is likely to be a significant possibility in this particular situation, you should be aware that if you Google "paypal empty box scam" (without the quotes), you will find many reports of scams, generally involving eBay sales transacted via Paypal, in which either the buyer claims to have received an empty or weighted box, or claims that the item is significantly not as described and then returns an empty or weighted box.

See for instance the post dated Jan. 2, 2011 at 2:53 p.m. in this thread, in which a seller on eBay lost his case with Paypal against such a scammer, despite having been able to present extraordinarily good documentation and photographic evidence in support of his case.

Just something to keep in mind.

Regards,
-- Al

Photograph everything. Ship the item to be signed for by the buyer only. Ship to the verified paypal address only. Send the buyer the tracking #'s and fully insure the item. Only ship after the funds have posted into your bank account, then withdraw the funds. Always use selling as is in your heading. If for some reason the buyer ships the item back, refuse to sign for it then go to the local post office to open it in front of witnesses, take pics too, to make sure nothing was stripped off of the unit. Best of luck.

Peter, I got a chance to respond to the Paypal dispute. What I said did not seem to matter, even though I had a timeline and was telling the truth. Supposedly my buyer produced documentation to them stating the DAC was broken. I never saw any, even though I asked.
Again, I got the DAC back in good working condition. It was however missing a $200 cable and some inner packing.
I tried to start my own dispute about this but Paypal "declared" case closed.
Fortunately Audiogon took my side in all this and I was able to leave negative feedback. Some consolation, but a nightmare over all.

Read your Paypal user agreement. You have no recourse to Paypal's decisions, whatever they are. If, for example, you sell to a customer, the customer receives the item then cancels the credit card transaction they used to fund the paypal transaction, paypal will not be able to collect from the customer and they will chargeback the transaction to your account.