A Paypal Offer - Is This Secure?


Hi All,

I am selling a CAT amplifier and have a paypal offer from a buyer who has very little feedback (only one transaction) and does not speak english well and communicates only small bits of information at a time. I am nervous about this. I spoke with paypal and they told me that as long as:

1) I am selling something of substance
2) I ship to the paypal address, no other address
3) I can document the shipping of the product

I am protected as a seller. If this is true, I should be able to accept his offer and make sure that I am shipping to the address listed in paypal, and I should be fine shipping pilot air insured (with tracking and all, including photos of packing, etc). What do you guys think? Is this too much of a risk, or not really a risk at all?
peter_s
Since the buyer has little feedback, don't ship until the paypal funds post to your bank account. It takes about 3-4 business days. Ship to a confirmed paypal address, with the package to be signed for. When the funds post to your account, take the money out until you have cofirmation that the item shipped was received. Note.. It's your gamble if you choose to ship overseas due to customs and buyers that want you to help them cheat on taxes. Try to sell major items lower 48 states only. Best of luck.
Watch out for the charge back policies of PayPal, not to mention the extremely high fees, which the seller pays. Remember if the seller charges it to a credit card, not paypal's in house financial shop, it leaves you with a 90 window of uncertainty if the buyer challenges your goods.
I have a friend who got burned by PayPal and there are a lot of web sites that tell horror stories of how folks are cheated, and how long PayPal may hold your money. I know many people use it, but there are risks you may not be aware of until something goes wrong. Proceed with caution, and make sure your shipment has to be signed for by the person receiving it.
I have found that many audiophiles willing to spend the money on nice equipment are Asian decent. So I myself had to get past the communication issue to sell to some very nice audiogoners. But I would definitely document everything with pictures and use paypal