Shipping a guitar from the UK to Italy -scam?

Teyeplayer

I am trying to sell my Martin 00015 as listed here and on a few sale sites and I have been contacted by a buyer through gumtree who wants the guitar shipped to Italy. I’ve requested payment using PayPal gift, have warned that once the guitar is out of my hands that it’ll no longer be my responsibility and he has agreed to all of this. Why am I suspicious? One word...Gumtree. Oh and he suggested all mahogany guitars don’t come up often in Italy (which I was surprised by -someone here may be able to confirm or dispute).

I’ve wracked my brains for chargeback scams and all sorts and can’t see a flaw. Seems too good to be true, I even suggested we complete through reverb.com for buyer/seller security and he has agreed. 

Am I missing something fretboarders or being unnecessarily paranoid? 

(Hint: come on, someone make my life easier and let’s sell this one closer to home).

shefguitar

Sounds genuine if he is willing to agree to your terms. I sold a guitar to a guy in Italy and no problems at all.

NeilMcG

There is a flaw with Paypal gift I believe. If the buyer funds the purchase via credit card and then initiates a chargeback via the credit card company then paypal will take the money back from you.

I don't know how common it is actually done, but I have seen it mentioned frequently enough to be very wary.

Teyeplayer

NeilMcG said:

There is a flaw with Paypal gift I believe. If the buyer funds the purchase via credit card and then initiates a chargeback via the credit card company then paypal will take the money back from you.

I don't know how common it is actually done, but I have seen it mentioned frequently enough to be very wary.

Interesting... hadn’t heard of this one, thanks for the heads up Neil.

Anyone got any experience of seller protection if I make him go through reverb.com?

GoldenEraGuitars

@Teyeplayer it’s a trap! @shefguitar is the Italian buyer!! 

StormshadowGuitars

Tell him to Bank Transfer it to you!

prowla

I don't know whether the suspicion is well-founded or not, but a lot of sellers have the rider "Will not ship to Italy".

WezV

Does Italy still have a notoriously bad postal service?  It used to be that some companies refused to ship there at all.

Teyeplayer

WezV said:

Does Italy still have a notoriously bad postal service?  It used to be that some companies refused to ship there at all.

Not sure about the postage but I’ve a feeling it’s still pretty corrupt. Edit: based upon what family over there say.

MagicPigDetective

Weird seeing this up now, I’ve got an amp on ebay, collection only. I’ve just been contacted by an Italian who wants me to ship it there; I said no way mate not worth the hassle and he seems to think I’ve got something against Italians! 

Teyeplayer

lonestar said:

@Teyeplayer it’s a trap! @shefguitar is the Italian buyer!! 

With South Yorkshire as his location and a postal address in Pescara. You sure lonestar?

Teyeplayer

MagicPigDetective said:

Weird seeing this up now, I’ve got an amp on ebay, collection only. I’ve just been contacted by an Italian who wants me to ship it there; I said no way mate not worth the hassle and he seems to think I’ve got something against Italians! 

Very interesting...didn’t say where he was located or give a name by any chance? (Pm if preferred).

GoldenEraGuitars

Teyeplayer said:

lonestar said:

@Teyeplayer it’s a trap! @shefguitar is the Italian buyer!! 

With South Yorkshire as his location and a postal address in Pescara. You sure lonestar?

I’m sure! Did he not tell you that as a Nigerian prince he has lots of money to splash on guitars

57Deluxe

Speak to your Bank and ask for the safest payment method. Check that the IBAN system doesn't have any nasty loopholes in it.

Chalky

You said "warned that once the guitar is out of my hands that it’ll no longer be my responsibility and he has agreed to all of this." That statement is utterly stupidly meaningless.

Its like you've said to him "Don't rip me off" and he agreed.

So let's just lay it out plain:

YOU HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO PROTECTION ON THIS DEAL!

Now. Ask yourself. Do you feel lucky?

shefguitar

MagicPigDetective said:

Weird seeing this up now, I’ve got an amp on ebay, collection only. I’ve just been contacted by an Italian who wants me to ship it there; I said no way mate not worth the hassle and he seems to think I’ve got something against Italians! 

I listed some pedals on eBay recently as UK only and I still got contacted by a guy in the Netherlands asking me to relist them as EU wide as he wanted to buy them.

When I ignored him as I didn’t want the hassle and didn’t like his tone he went on a rant about Brexit, calling me an f’ing ignorant Brit and saying this is why everyone hates us! I even blocked his username and he sent me another message through another username and said he would keep doing it until I answered him! I ended up selling the pedals offline and removed the listings.

Teyeplayer

Chalky said:

YOU HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO PROTECTION ON THIS DEAL!

Now. Ask yourself. Do you feel lucky?

I’m inclined to agree with you Chalky and must confess (as is pretty clear from my posting this thread), my gut instinct says avoid like the plague.

Funny isn’t it though, we pass money and guitars round this forum all the time; deal with the outside world however and someone saying ‘I really want to buy your guitar’ sets alarm bells off.

notanon

Gut feeling: You go against it, you sell the guitar and something goes wrong. All the time you will think, I knew I shouldn't have done it.

Gut feeling: You stick with it, you walk away. Sure, you may think I had a sale there. Consolation is that you haven't lost anything and you can wait for the next safe sale.

No brainer IMO - gut feeling every time for me.

Roland

 Teyeplayer said:

WezV said:

Does Italy still have a notoriously bad postal service?  It used to be that some companies refused to ship there at all.

Not sure about the postage but I’ve a feeling it’s still pretty corrupt. Edit: based upon what family over there say.

@lukedlb for comment about parcel services in Italy

Teyeplayer

shefguitar said:
 I even blocked his username and he sent me another message through another username and said he would keep doing it until I answered him! I ended up selling the pedals offline and removed the listings.

I had a similiar to do recently when selling a pedal, one fella on eBay was desperate to deal outside and didn’t get the meaning of ‘no’. Another on reverb got really arsey and verbally abusive because I wouldn’t accept his very low ball offer, almost seemed to think he could bully his way to getting me to agree. Crazy.

57Deluxe

Italy is the new Nigeria... they all hopped over