|
Buying a boat on line without even seeing it in person
On Sun, 26 Aug 2007 10:34:55 -0400, Harry Krause
wrote: He came up here, spent an hour looking over the boat, said it was in even better shape than I had described. He bought it on the spot, wrote me a check, and we hooked it up to his truck and he took the boat home. Which brings up another question. How did you ensure that the check was good? |
Buying a boat on line without even seeing it in person
Wayne.B wrote:
On Sun, 26 Aug 2007 10:34:55 -0400, Harry Krause wrote: He came up here, spent an hour looking over the boat, said it was in even better shape than I had described. He bought it on the spot, wrote me a check, and we hooked it up to his truck and he took the boat home. Which brings up another question. How did you ensure that the check was good? Wow, even if you went to the bank and cashed the check, if it turned out to be a fraudulent check, it would have still bounced back to Harry. The problem doesn't get any easier with cashiers check's. Counterfeit cashier's checks are becoming a big problem. Most banks will tell you not to use or assume cashiers checks are good until the check has cleared the bank issuing the check. It looks like the only safe way is to ask for cash or wait till the check clears the bank. I personally would NEVER except a personal check for $50,000 and let the personal drive away with my property. This is worse than buying a boat unseen, without a survey. |
Buying a boat on line without even seeing it in person
On Mon, 27 Aug 2007 07:31:24 -0400, "Reginald P. Smithers III"
wrote: It looks like the only safe way is to ask for cash or wait till the check clears the bank. Direct bank to bank wire transfer with confirmed receipt of funds is pretty solid. I'm seeing more transactions being done that way. My trawler for one, as did a neighbor's Rinker purchased in Michigan after a short inspection/test ride. |
Buying a boat on line without even seeing it in person
|
Buying a boat on line without even seeing it in person
On Mon, 27 Aug 2007 07:31:24 -0400, "Reginald P. Smithers III"
wrote: The problem doesn't get any easier with cashiers check's. Counterfeit cashier's checks are becoming a big problem. Most banks will tell you not to use or assume cashiers checks are good until the check has cleared the bank issuing the check. Hasn't happened to me because I insist on cash money - no checks. Well, that's not exactly true - when I sold both Contenders, I went with the buyer to the bank where we did the deal in the bank officer's office - the bank wired the money to my bank and we waited for confirmation of receipt before completing the transaction. I do know of an incident which was kind of interesting. Involved a car deal. Guy came with a cashier's check, both seller and buyer went to the bank, seller's bank called the issuing bank to confirm the cashier's check was good - it was. Week later, turns out the check wasn't any good. Say what? Apparently, the cashier's check was a duplicate of a cashier's check issued by the bank - the amount was wrong. The seller's bank never asked about the amount - nobody actually thought about it - just asked if the check had been issued and gave the number. How about that twist? The car was eventually recovered - in New Jersey, in a container heading for Saudi Arabia. |
Buying a boat on line without even seeing it in person
On Aug 27, 7:00 am, Short Wave Sportfishing
wrote: On Mon, 27 Aug 2007 07:31:24 -0400, "Reginald P. Smithers III" wrote: The problem doesn't get any easier with cashiers check's. Counterfeit cashier's checks are becoming a big problem. Most banks will tell you not to use or assume cashiers checks are good until the check has cleared the bank issuing the check. Hasn't happened to me because I insist on cash money - no checks. Well, that's not exactly true - when I sold both Contenders, I went with the buyer to the bank where we did the deal in the bank officer's office - the bank wired the money to my bank and we waited for confirmation of receipt before completing the transaction. I do know of an incident which was kind of interesting. Involved a car deal. Guy came with a cashier's check, both seller and buyer went to the bank, seller's bank called the issuing bank to confirm the cashier's check was good - it was. Week later, turns out the check wasn't any good. Say what? Apparently, the cashier's check was a duplicate of a cashier's check issued by the bank - the amount was wrong. The seller's bank never asked about the amount - nobody actually thought about it - just asked if the check had been issued and gave the number. How about that twist? The car was eventually recovered - in New Jersey, in a container heading for Saudi Arabia. Tom, did the seller still come out ok? or was it a total theft? |
Buying a boat on line without even seeing it in person
"Harry Krause" wrote in message ... Short Wave Sportfishing wrote: On Mon, 27 Aug 2007 07:31:24 -0400, "Reginald P. Smithers III" wrote: The problem doesn't get any easier with cashiers check's. Counterfeit cashier's checks are becoming a big problem. Most banks will tell you not to use or assume cashiers checks are good until the check has cleared the bank issuing the check. Hasn't happened to me because I insist on cash money - no checks. Well, that's not exactly true - when I sold both Contenders, I went with the buyer to the bank where we did the deal in the bank officer's office - the bank wired the money to my bank and we waited for confirmation of receipt before completing the transaction. I do know of an incident which was kind of interesting. Involved a car deal. Guy came with a cashier's check, both seller and buyer went to the bank, seller's bank called the issuing bank to confirm the cashier's check was good - it was. Week later, turns out the check wasn't any good. Say what? Apparently, the cashier's check was a duplicate of a cashier's check issued by the bank - the amount was wrong. The seller's bank never asked about the amount - nobody actually thought about it - just asked if the check had been issued and gave the number. How about that twist? The car was eventually recovered - in New Jersey, in a container heading for Saudi Arabia. It helps to be able to judge those you can trust and those you cannot. I'd take your check, but your cash...I'd be suspicious. Yeah...could be contaminated with moon or alien dust! |
Buying a boat on line without even seeing it in person
On Mon, 27 Aug 2007 12:24:33 -0000, Tim wrote:
On Aug 27, 7:00 am, Short Wave Sportfishing wrote: On Mon, 27 Aug 2007 07:31:24 -0400, "Reginald P. Smithers III" wrote: The problem doesn't get any easier with cashiers check's. Counterfeit cashier's checks are becoming a big problem. Most banks will tell you not to use or assume cashiers checks are good until the check has cleared the bank issuing the check. Hasn't happened to me because I insist on cash money - no checks. Well, that's not exactly true - when I sold both Contenders, I went with the buyer to the bank where we did the deal in the bank officer's office - the bank wired the money to my bank and we waited for confirmation of receipt before completing the transaction. I do know of an incident which was kind of interesting. Involved a car deal. Guy came with a cashier's check, both seller and buyer went to the bank, seller's bank called the issuing bank to confirm the cashier's check was good - it was. Week later, turns out the check wasn't any good. Say what? Apparently, the cashier's check was a duplicate of a cashier's check issued by the bank - the amount was wrong. The seller's bank never asked about the amount - nobody actually thought about it - just asked if the check had been issued and gave the number. How about that twist? The car was eventually recovered - in New Jersey, in a container heading for Saudi Arabia. Tom, did the seller still come out ok? or was it a total theft? Actually, he did quite well on the deal. He eventually sold it and when he told the back story on it to another buyer, the guy paid the asking price. :) |
Buying a boat on line without even seeing it in person
On Aug 25, 8:34 pm, "JimH" ask wrote: Have you done so? If so, I would like your feedback. It seems that there are some nice used boat deals on line, including on Ebay Motors and other internet listing sources. The problem in most cases is that these boats are located several hundred miles from me. Buying locally is easy as you can do an initial inspection of the boat to see if it is worth pursuing. That is not practical when considering boats being sold several hundred miles from you. The easy solution seems to be making the sale contingent upon a complete structural and mechanical survey by a recommended "buyers surveyor", but that can get to be expensive if prospective boats continue to fail the surveys. As we all know sellers often overstate the condition of their boats when putting them up for sale. How did you handle your 'sight unseen' internet boat purchase? What did you do right? What did you do wrong? Would you do it again? I have purchased two boats on ebay. The first was a Seadoo XPL (1999 which I purchased in 2000). I live in Pittsburgh, PA and drove to New Jersey/New York for this. I did state in the bidding emails that the bid was contingent on my inspection and it meeting the description. I inspected it myself (easy to do on a PWC) and started it up in the parking lot (again, you can do this with a PWC). It was still under warrenty so I was confident everything was OK. Had to go with owner to his bank to write the payoff check. There was no title as New Jersey didn't require one on PWCs yet. Had to get a Bill of Sale and fool around with PA to get a title on the PWC. The bank gave me the title on the trailer. The guy took a bath on this deal, but I guess he got more than he realistically was going to get trading it in on a motorcycle. He and his girl friend tried to ride this ski and found that they fell off and couldn't get back on (XPLs are a bit tippy ;-) ). Well worth the drive and effort for me. I still enjoy riding that ski 7 years later. The second was a 1995 Sea Pro Citation 1900 Classic Cuddy. This was purchased in 2004. This one required a drive to Cleveland. In this one the boat did not meet the seller's reserve so I emailed after the auction to let him know that if he wanted to sell it I would offer $250 more than the highest bid but that it was subject to my inspection. He had a couple others interested and a guy coming down from Canada that was supposed to buy it, so I said keep me in mind if that doesn't work out. Long story still long, it didn't work out so he called. I went and checked the boat out. Fairly easy to see that it had been very well kept and that there were no soft spots on the floor or transom. It was late October and a bit chilly so we started it on the hose and it started and ran fine. Went to his bank and wrote the payoff check and bank sent the titles. This was a deal ripe for problems since I had not had a professional survey, had not run the boat in the water and in fact did not splash the boat until April of the next year. But the boat was clean, the guy selling it nice, etc. To my good fortune I have enjoyed this boat with nothing more than normal maintenance for 3 years. I paid $4,000 and it booked for about $8,000 (high retail). I figured that even if I had to put a couple tousand in it it would have been a reasonable deal and I wouldn't have felt totally screwed until I had put $3,000 to $4,000 in it for repairs. The only real repairs that I had to have done is getting the canvass restitched because the seams were starting to pull apart. So, I have had good luck. Good DUMB luck, but good luck just the same. Dave Hall |
Buying a boat on line without even seeing it in person
Ernest Scribbler wrote: "Tim" wrote Now I also look at it like this on ebay. if I had "won" the auction, and showed up, and decided the boat was really misrepresented, there would be no money exchanged, then what could the seller do? leave me bad feedback? Sounds to me like you have a very reasonable strategy. Well Ernest, it's worked pretty good for me. Thanks! |
| All times are GMT +1. The time now is 08:17 AM. |
Powered by vBulletin® Copyright ©2000 - 2025, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004 - 2014 BoatBanter.com