Not Sure If This Is OK Here, But Here Goes


I'm selling a pair of Magnepans on Audiogon and as usual, have had no response. Yesterday, a guy from Argentina (allegedly) contacts me and says he'd like the speakers and gave me an address and phone number of a guy in Miami to ship them to and he'll forward them on to the end buyer.

At first glance, this doesn't pass the smell test. However, he did give me a phone number, which I may call later today. The other issue I have is that I have little to no experience with PayPal. How hard is it to defraud PayPal and leave me without my  money and the lose of my speakers?

jasonduke2

My @ cents, people from Argentina, and companies, use US residents as their "mules" to buy things in the USA. Getting stuff like HiFi gear is extremely, and I mean extremely expensive because the import tariffs.

I forget what the tariffs are but they are something like x2 x3 the invoicing. A few years ago, I travelled for business to BsAs 4-5 times, and when I was asked what I like to do and mentioned my HiFi hobby and showed some pictures of my setups this couple jumped off the table. They were all over it. To make the story short, I ended buying a TT, an amp and yes speakers that a "mule" got through customs for me!

I am not saying this person is legit, but what this person is proposing is a common way for them to get things into the country. I also have a similar story with a Brazilian gentleman.

Think of Argentina and Brazil as a modern East Germany in the 70s-80s, their governments are nothing short of Russian style governments. For example, people were dying, still are, and both governments made illegal to import COVID vaccines from the EU, Japan, and USA. They either got a Chinese or Russian vaccines, almost a year after everyone was getting vaccinated.

Just my 2 cents, but people in Argentina have been nothing short kind and hard workers and they make the best they can with the little they have.

Cross your Ts, dot your Is and see if this person is legit. I just don’t dismiss people from other cultures and regions because they do things differently than me.

 

I live in Mexico and we import from Italy.  The process for us is to hire an import company in MEX to negotiate with the Italian manufacturing company.  The Italian company must be paid by the MEX import company before they will ship.

Because of a recent contact by an Argentina importer, I know the process is the same for Argentina.  

If the Miami company is legit, they must be willing to wire the funds to you bank account before you ship.  Import/export companies send hundreds of bank wires and letters of credit a week.

Good luck!

 

I’ve used PayPal routinely for international trabsactions, i.e.,, So. Korea, JPN, FRG, UAE, Qatar, and UK. The most expensive single item was ~$30,000. All transactions and monetary exchanges were smooth. On one occasion, an unexpected shipping delay occurred. I prematurely reached out to PayPal, who shut down the seller’s account until I pleaded on his behalf. I would proceed but with caution as urged by our hobby peers. 

Being Maggies your speakers will sell if the price is reasonable. There's not millions of people buying high end speakers out there so sometimes it may take a month or two to sell something. I agree with others that it isn't worth the potential problems.