Advice on Selling "High Value" Item on VAF

Dan Langhout · #1 02-09-2018, 12:04 PM

I've sold and bought several items via the VAF "For Sale" forum and have never had any trouble. Typically paid or received the funds through PayPal, paying or receiving first with item shipment following. Never worried too much about it since the amounts, while not pocket change, were within my risk tolerance. I think the highest amount was $1K. However, I am thinking of selling something worth a lot more (GNS-430W) which is decidedly above that risk tolerance. Lots of folks have bought and sold things on VAF at or above this value level. For those of you who have done this, what did you do to "trust but verify" on either the buyer or seller side of things? I have seen a fair number of 430's go through so I would particularly be interested in those folk's experience. Thanks.

rvbuilder2002 · #2 02-09-2018, 12:12 PM

I think in the past, SteinAir has been willing to act as a middle man / broker for this type of item, for a small fee (you would need to check and see if they still do that).

Seems like a very good way to go with the only down side being that it might take just a bit longer to fully complete the transaction.

BCP Boys · #3 02-09-2018, 12:14 PM

Hi Dan,
There was a post a while back around using a Trusted 3rd party for a low fee. For example you can use Stein as a 3rd party to the transaction. If the buyer is not comfortable in sending you money and you certainly don't want to send your avionics before receiving the money, the buyer can send Stein (an example of a trusted 3rd party) the money, stein confirms receiving the money, you ship the product and seller and buyer pay a small fee to the trusted 3rd party (Stein in this example).

Dan Langhout · #4 02-09-2018, 12:22 PM

Stein as a middle man sounds like a great idea! I hope he still does that.

Raymo · #5 02-09-2018, 01:13 PM

I believe Jesse Saint also provides the middle-man service.

I sold a 430W to a VAF member after removing it from the Lancair 320 I bought from the insurance company. The buyer had it checked out after receiving and let me know the screen did not light up so I sent him back $900 to have it repaired by Garmin.

With that and shipping insurance, I made a lot less on the deal than I had anticipated but honor is more important than a pocket full of cash.

DonFromTX · #6 02-09-2018, 01:20 PM

There can always be a crook slide in, but I have bought and sold LOTS of bigger items on here, always with the best of results. Anything I sell of course I will take back if the buyer is not satisfied, and mostly that is true with everyone here. Many years and many dollars, never a problem.

MercFE · #7 02-09-2018, 01:29 PM

Escrow.com works as well.

rvbuilder2002 · #8 02-09-2018, 01:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Raymo

I believe Jesse Saint also provides the middle-man service.

Now that you mention it, it might be Jesse that i was thinking of......

9GT · #9 02-09-2018, 03:00 PM

Stein did that for me when I recently purchased an avionics package from one of his other customers. Since we were both previous customers, he did that as a favor. I did have him add about $13K in additional avionics and harness wiring though before he sent it to me! Otherwise I would expect that some form of financial compensation would be in order for this service from him.

Jesse · #10 02-09-2018, 03:06 PM

I have provided the "middle man" service in the past and am happy to do that again. Basically, the item would be shipped to me once a price has been agreed upon. I can test to make sure it works if I have a way to do so (a plane here with the same unit installed so I can plug it in and verify it powers on). Once that is done the buyer sends the funds directly to the seller. Once the seller receives the funds I ship the unit to the buyer. I would just charge the shipping plus my time for testing depending on how complicated the test needs to be. For example, if I need to fly to test the Nav radio, then I would need to charge for that.