How not to get scammed - selling a ukulele

Jerwin

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Hello there,

I am about to start the auction on my Pono MTDX for Europe players only. What should I exactly do to prevent beign scammed by a buyer? I am scared of sending uke and having the paynment cancelled resulting in having no uke and no money.

Did anyone experience this?
 
Sell on UU and avoid ebay. I've bought and sold heaps on UU and not only have I never had a problem, I've also made some good friends too.
 
I was thinking about the steps I should take to do that "properly". In US if you send it with UPS which paypal owns, you can basicly connenct your parcel to your paypal account as a proof you send the package. How am I supposed to do so with Czech Post Service?

And yes, I am talking about selling that via UU.
 
There are no guarantees when selling to a stranger. You have to use your best judgment. And FYI, PayPal does not own UPS...
 
Does the Czech postal service not offer any tracking options? If you send a parcel Royal Mail "signed for" you have proof that it arrived, plus (limited) insurance if it didn't.

FWIW, we run an online book selling business and ship all over the world. Although we have the occasional problem with packages going astray, we've hardly ever encountered people who were actually trying to scam us.
 
In all honesty you are being overly concerned. Sell it here on UU, payment through paypal to an established member. Myself and a lot of other members here have done this countless times. Sure there is no guarantee something might go wrong, but the same holds true for life in general.

If you reverse the situation think about the amount of trust and faith someone needs to have when they BUY it and PAY for it sight unseen, having never laid hands on it nor played it

I have bought and sold a least 6 ukes here over the last year with no trouble. Actually it has been great and I have made some good friends along the way
 
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+1 on what DownUpDave says! I have had excellent exchanges both buying on selling here on UU with established UU members. While I am not overly familiar with your delivery options in the Czech Postal system, if there is some sort of insurance and tracking option, you should employ those to verify and safeguard your Uke delivery.

And no, PayPal does not own any delivery service, especially UPS. PayPal is a much smaller company than that of UPS, and is now an independent publicly traded company following it's separation from eBay. While you may typically be assessed a 2.9% transaction fee for the use of PayPal, the benefits are generally worth it.

Another consideration, albeit not as broad of a buying audience compared to the internet, is to find a local/regional Ukulele group or club that you can try to sell through. This would allow the buyer to see and hear your uke and do a cash transaction in-person avoiding shipping and payment services.
 
I've always used PayPal and have never had any problems.

+1 on this. If you do regular PayPal (not 'Send Money to Friends and Family'), you are protected through PayPal.

Plus my experiences with many ukulele sales/buys on UU, have been 100% positive.

I'd be more worried about shipping (always ship in a good case, well packed).
 
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+1 on this. If you do regular PayPal (not 'Send Money to Friends and Family'), you are protected through PayPal.

Plus my experiences with many ukulele sales/buys on UU, have been 100% positive.

I'd be more worried about shipping (always ship in a good case, well packed).

++1!! Use Paypal and pack well.
 
If I were you -- and I'm not so take the advice if you want or not -- I would also buy insurance when shipping. Things do happen.

Here is what I call trust: I had a custom built 5 years ago. My builder did not even ask for a deposit. He spent 8 weeks building me an ukulele which was most certainly one only I would love. He sent me a very expensive ukulele and did not require payment until 3, or maybe 5, days after I received the instrument. Wow.
 
Here is what I call trust: I had a custom built 5 years ago. My builder did not even ask for a deposit. He spent 8 weeks building me an ukulele which was most certainly one only I would love. He sent me a very expensive ukulele and did not require payment until 3, or maybe 5, days after I received the instrument. Wow.

He can likely do this because his customer fulfillment dept. is comprised of Ninja mercenaries that track down errant ukulele buyers, LOL! :p
 
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