Buying from the Classifieds

Hmm. It looks as if my fifth attempt to buy a DA 12-24 has just gone for a burton and it got me thinking.

I'm sure 99+% of the esteemed members of this forum are trustworthy, but by the nature of photographic goods there may be large sums of money involved.

What sort of precautions do other members take when buying/selling here?

None at all. Everyone seems totally honest to me.

Mike

Sorry to hear that Oggy - what went wrong :

I have worked on the basis that if someone has posted for a while, then hopefully everything will be o.k.

You also get a feel for the vendor during the exchange of PM's.

If someone joined up as a new member and their first post is something to sell, then I would give it a miss, although they could, of course be the most honest person on the planet.

Selling is much harder

I have bought and sold a few things on here, if I am selling then I always insist on payment first, no matter who it is and if buying it depends on how long the person has been a member and what their post count is.
If new and/or a very low post count then I ask for the item to be sent first, I would hope that my length of time on the forum would count for something and if not I will pass and live to buy another day.

Maybe its time for a rating system on here like other forums.

Thanks for the replies,

Firstly, my compliments to Vikram Keshvala who was a pleasure to nearly do business with. Unfortunately forces beyond our control stopped that sale. He was prepared to post the lens to me when I said I had posted the cheque to him, mutual trust.

Other comments about post counts/time on the forum make sense.

Mike - you as a seller would not be able to do business with you as a buyer. I've handed that one over to the ethics committee.

i would only but with paypal, as it gives some cover, i have brought a lens of richard(loskeran) with no problems,a real pleasure it was to, and i have sold a lens to vikram with no problems once agin a real pleasure,

Indeed I wouldn't but thats just the way I do things, it's always worked for me before and I wouldn't change the way I do it now .. even for me .

But saying that if I sold something to myself I always ask for payment first but I will only pay first if the person has a good record which I have so I would be happy to do so .. therefore I could deal with myself .. couldn't I

Actually I didnt keep to it a few weeks ago when I bought a 55-300mm off a forum member but then I was using Paypal with a credit card so was covered by Paypal themselves and if they found a getout clause (always possible with them) then my credit card company would refund me.

..card so was covered by Paypal themselves and if they found a getout clause (always possible with them) then my credit card company would refund me.

Mike - I'd be careful about the last part of your statement, not all Credit Card companies would cover you. In these circumstances some claim you have used your card to fund your PayPal account, not to buy the goods directly. If it's important to you to have that protection at some time in the future I'd suggest you check with the particular credit card company you use.

Interesting, will check with Egg over that, cheers.