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?

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.

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.

On Sun, 26 Aug 2007 17:08:47 -0000,
wrote:

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?

Have the seller provide the survey and if you buy the boat, you would
reimburse him for the cost.

Not a good idea, and the buyer always pays regardless, at least with
larger boats. You want a surveyor who is working for you, no one
else.

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.

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?

"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!

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. :)

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

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!