Selling to someone in another country

Ellery911,

Thank you for your response:

Nigeria is OK...anywhere else I would be suspect.

I just got a couple of emails from Nigeria asking for my PayPal information and confirmation of my banking information. Fortunately after reading your post I did not hesitate to forward my information to the gentleman who ask for this.

He was very pleasant, lots of "Sirs" and "thank you's, but seemed to be in a real hurry to make purchases I was offering.

It appears that I came across as SO trustworthy, he is sending me EXTRA money for the deal and after I cash the check for my part and ship the goods, I forward the balance to a friend he owes money to.

It makes me warm all over to think this total stranger would trust me all that cash. It's almost restores my faith in mankind and the internet.

I cannot understand what seems to be the problem. I am from Canada and have made well over 20 purchases from Agon members from the US without any concerns. All members have been an absolute pleasure to deal with. I pay the shipping, taxes and duties that result from crossing the border. The shipping is paid upfront obviously, and, I pay for any additional fees on my end. The seller has their money for the item and shipping before sending, I pay the rest. Am I missing something? I have sold to the US, is the paperwork that difficult to fill out? I prefer to use USPS where possible (if the item is of low value) as UPS etc. charges a hefty brokerage fee. I will use UPS in cases of valuable items. Please do not discount Canadian buyers. I certainly would not have the system I have without the help of the US Agon members. Thanks again everyone!

Rambone, you are lucky things have worked out for you. My problem was a purchase from a Canadian who neglicted to include a valid NAFTA agreement for goods manufactured in Canada. FedEx did not want to deliver the package until I hounded them for a couple of weeks, even though tracking said it had crossed the border, then the brokerage bill was huge and much larger than the quote by FedEx Trade Network. FedEx when called said FTN was an entirely different entity and they had no control over what happened with brokerage. It took over 6 months to iron out the NAFTA thing and still cost a lot, and finally, I got a bill for close to $200 in state sales tax thanks to FedEx notifying them. The tax bill was based on the insured price, not the actual purchase price (which was lower), but I just paid it to get things over with. I understand when shipping to Canada, if the buyer does not pay the brokerage (for whatever reason) the shipper will come back on the seller for those fees, and the seller will have no recourse. Yes, there are real pitfalls, but if I ever sell/buy from Canada again, I hope it is with someone as knowledgible and trustworthy as you.

Now how do you like to see this sequence of events?

* CLEARLY my ad says no non-US/Canada bidder.
* Some overseas member in Asia asking u whether u'd let him buy moments before the auction ends.
* He's got great feedback, so you provide him with details and how you might entertain a bid from him.
Then when the auction ends someone with zero feedback from that same city places a bid.
* member with great feedback then emails you immediately saying "Oh I missed the bidding but lets make a deal"

Now I need to relist the item and pay another $6.

So the question for you guys is, how do you prevent a joker-scammer from winning the high bid in an auction??

You do not need to accept the bid from the "joker-scammer" with no feedback, because you said US-Canada only. However, if there was a high bidder who met your qualifications and who bid above your reserve, then you need to sell to that person. Just because you decided to possibly entertain a bid from someone outside of your stated region, does not mean you have to accept all such bids, especially if your ad states you would not sell outside US-Canada. If you had no other offers, and you want to sell it to the good feedback guy from outside the US, have him post a wanted ad, which you can respond to. That way you can see if he is serious and you can conduct the transaction within the Audiogon system. Piece of cake.