Ship before receiving payment?

[waggy]

Originally posted by: Garet Jax

Originally posted by: funboy42
If it all matches up you 99% safe to ship it out first.

This is bad advice. Everytime you trade online you risk being trolled. 100 heatware means nothing - 1000 heatware means nothing.

Even if you confirm phone number, email address, shipping address, full name, sexual preference....., you are still taking a risk far greater than 1%.

Like I said before, heatware is just as easy as ebay feedback to manufacture so the counts mean very little.

you are never going to reduce risk to 0. just not goin to happen.

i feel better buying from a person with 100 postive heatware tehn someone with 4

 

[RKS]

It seems like most of the people saying they would "never ever ship first" are the ones with low/no referances themselves. As an established buyer why would you send money to a new seller/forum member?

If I had to pay first I would spend a litttle extra and buy from a b&m or a well-established seller. I often x-ship even with new sellers/buyer depending on how preliminary contact goes.

 

[Rage187]

I started out shipping first and now expect it from those with less then 25 evals.

If they don't want to ship first it's probably for the best. Least I didn't get ripped off.

 

[Garet Jax]

Originally posted by: waggy
you are never going to reduce risk to 0. just not goin to happen.

i feel better buying from a person with 100 postive heatware tehn someone with 4

Agreed, but to suggest that someone who has 100+ heatware with a matching email address, phone number and street address reduces the risk to 1% is naive.

That is all I was pointing out.

 

[Viper GTS]

Originally posted by: Garet Jax
Agreed, but to suggest that someone who has 100+ heatware with a matching email address, phone number and street address reduces the risk to 1% is naive.

That is all I was pointing out.

I think you vastly over-estimate the lengths to which someone will go to steal a $100 motherboard. He might be naive but you're definitely paranoid.

Shipping first is very common for new traders around here. Comparing it to the "real world" is not a fair comparison since there is far more recourse when dealing with a vendor, money protected by a credit card company, etc. If you get ripped off by an online store you won't be out a dime. B&M stores you see the product right in front of you and walk out the door AND you have the same credit card protection. Completely different environment.

That said, either party can walk away from a deal at any time. Asking someone to ship first is not an unreasonable request (given local tradition), nor is refusing to ship first out of line. If a potential buyer and seller can't reach an agreement on terms nobody has lost anything.

I shipped first when I started, I've had others ship first to me. I had no problems with either.

Viper GTS

 

[Poulsonator]

Originally posted by: RKS
It seems like most of the people saying they would "never ever ship first" are the ones with low/no referances themselves. As an established buyer why would you send money to a new seller/forum member?

If I had to pay first I would spend a litttle extra and buy from a b&m or a well-established seller. I often x-ship even with new sellers/buyer depending on how preliminary contact goes.

My eBay feedback is 331, 100% positive, and I've been a member since 9/98. Sending money first is completely different from sending the item first. If you don't get your item, you simply dispute the claim with your bank. Bam, your money's back in no time.

If I can't do business with someone who can't send their money first, I'll take my business elsewhere. It's that simple.

 

[chrisms]

Every trading site I've dealt with, aside from eBay, kind of has a code that the more experienced user sends last. Personally if I had 98 evals and you had 1, I would require that you send first because I've proven myself trustworthy while you still have some work to do.

 

[Poulsonator]

It's that whole catch-22. Kind of like getting a job when you're younger...do you have any experience? No? Sorry, can't have the job. But, but...how can I get experience if I can't get a job?

However, consumers have tons of protection against people stealing your money. My bank bends over backwards to help me, and the few times I've had issues in the past with bad deals, I've had my money back within 24 hours.

 

[Captante]

Originally posted by: aidanjm

Originally posted by: Mo0o
the buyer is concerned teh seller isn't legit since he has only 1 heatware eval.

fair enough, I didn't consider it from that perspective.

This is in fact the case... while I've never been burned by an AT member with high heat, I don't ship first for any reason. The one time I did have problems it was based on positive feedback from another forum, however at this point its "in god we trust, all others pay cash" for me!

Its your decision to make & while my guess is you would be be ok, don't let anyone pressure you into doing somthing you arn't comfortable with.

 

[Garet Jax]

Originally posted by: Viper GTS

Originally posted by: Garet Jax
Agreed, but to suggest that someone who has 100+ heatware with a matching email address, phone number and street address reduces the risk to 1% is naive.

That is all I was pointing out.

I think you vastly over-estimate the lengths to which someone will go to steal a $100 motherboard. He might be naive but you're definitely paranoid.

I am not paranoid. As I have said I have been trading online for 15 years. I am just trying to make sure that the OP goes in with his eyes wide open. Short of using a well known escrow service - there is no way to remove the vast majority of the risk with online trading.

 

[Nutdotnet]

It's the way things work here.

If you have less than, say at a minimum, 10 heat, expect to ship first. If you don't want to then take it to ebay, craigslist, etc.

For those who say, "never ship before receiving payment" don't sell on Anandtech. It works for us...

 

[Aimster]

money first then ship

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: stealthrs
Hey guys. I'm selling something in the FS/FT section (Abit AI7 motherboard) and I'm considered a new user because I only have 100 posts and I've only purchased one thing (+1 in heatware)

I got a PM from a user asking if I'd be willing to ship first and receive my payment second... He has +98 on heatware (user: cherrytwist)...

Is it pretty common for new sellers to ship first, receive second on here?

i was asked to ship first on my 1st FS/T sale. If the other guy has good feedback like that, it should be fine (unless he somehow added fake feedback). you should be able to PM the people from his other sales if you want to check.