His game, his rules.

Bank checks are what the Nigerian scammers use right?

i cant tell you really- i only do cash, and i look at machines in person. its seemed to work so far-

Selling and buying games requires a certain level of trust. The seller normally holds most of the cards in the transaction, so you had better trust him to move forward.

No seller would mind if you posted a 'Have you ever had dealings with this pinsider?" thread for getting feedback, if you're worried about trust.

The financial world is tricky. Just because something "clears" doesn't mean it "clears".

That said I've paid that way no problem before.

Unless you just happen to bank at the same brand bank, a Certified check takes the same 3 weeks to bounce as a personal check.

So yes, it will have to clear before he knows you did not just print it in your basement.

If you have time to go to the bank and get a Certified check then you also have the time to get cash. You can't go wrong with cash.

Double edged sword.....damned if ya do, and damned if ya don't.
We all hope we can trust each other in this community,
but fact is, in todays world..... it's not so easy.

I can see his point, and your's.

While it may be a pain in the ass, if you can't reach an agreement
then go look at it, pay cash and bring it home.
If thats not possible, then you'll have to roll the dice and play by his rules.
Otherwise, pass on it and look for another pin.

I appreciate your frustration. A wire transfer is inexpensive and not that hard to arrange. You may have to swallow a little pride and just do the deal if you really want it. No big deal. I'm sure it's not personal.

I paid with a certified check once on a deal..

But, when I did, I had the seller meet me at the bank, where the check was cut right to him, in his name.

He was comfortable with that.

Wire transfers are easy and quick. I agree with Nevus. I bought a sweet old Jaguar that way once.

_{Post edited by txstargazer3 : Added another thought.}

The seller is correct.

Ive been paying lately with a postal money order. That way my wife doesn't know how much I spend. Anybody else use money orders? I've had good luck using them. Ed

My bank told me wires are the only sure means of avoiding fraud. Can't be reversed, can't bounce, can't be counterfeited.

Wire transfer or paypal gift if long distance, cash if in person. I do this buying and selling

I've sent and received payapl gift for pinball transactions. All have gone perfectly.

Stomach the 3% fee and pay by regular (non-gift) PayPal. That way, if there are any problems, you can always go back to PayPal and get your money back. Regular PayPal is, by far, the best way of sending money that protects all parties. PayPal gift is not secure and they won't back any complaint. Plus, it's immoral... it's not a gift. It's skirting the rules. Just my two cents though...

Bank wire transfer can be just as risky for the buyer as there is no recourse if the game doesn't ship. That's just some risk you take if you do not want to pay the paypal fees or anything like that. Escrow is always an option but again fees are involved. However, both are protected. Here is what I do. My secret and it's helped. Once I look at buying from someone I get the address of where the game is. Make sure you have a phone number. Then Google earth the address and see where the game is really at. If it pops up a house then ask when setting up for shipping cost is this a residential home? are there any stairs? if they say no it's at my business then see if it's a business. Also, if you have a name you can google the name and in most cases see who your buying from. It's not a tone of help but if he says there are no stairs and the house your looking at does then keep asking questions. Better yet find someone on Pinside to buy from and keep it simple. Not to stay things will always be on the up and up but some people have bought from someone on here before and can vouch for them. I sold a game that the guys was worried who I was and he asked someone else's on pinside about where the game was (City & State) and the pinsider called me by name and the guy said yes that's him. He said oh yes he's ok and we did the deal. I have nothing to hide and I do not care if he calls me at work or sends someone close to me to come look, like another pinsider. I stay away from people who are in a hurry to push the game or act like I am putting them out for asking questions. If they act like that then making things good could be a problem later. Bad attitudes and personalities tend to make bad deals more often than good. It's cash or else's on a long distance deal! I'll take the or else. There's nothing I need that bad.
If your buying local I am not sure why cash is such a big deal? Plus, cash is much harder for my wife to see what happened or course trying to hind the pinball machine from her is another story.…Good luck!

Oops

I think it depends on the bank. A lot of banks won't cash a certified check if it is over a certain dollar amount unless you are an account holder. This must be for recourse reasons I suspect. For example I know Chase is $2500. Certified checks do guaranty the funds are good as the account holder could not get one made if the funds are not there. Cash is king!

Well I see points against bank checks that I never considered. Part of the problem of being sheltered, naive, (honest?) Is sometimes you can't think of ways people can screw each other.

My apologies to the recent recipient of my USBank certified check. Its good, I swear.

I've sold and did the exact same thing once. Met at the bank so I knew the check was good. He just wasn't comfortable carrying that much cash.

I just flung poo and threw bananas at The_Gorilla when I bought a game from him, it was Congo so it seemed like the right thing to do and he was happy.

#1 never buy from someone you don't trust but if you are unsure cover your butt as much as you can.

Wire to his account without documentation no cover.

Wire to his account with documents stating what he is selling and how you will get it etc...your covered if it goes legal.
According to my banker if they do not follow trough it is considered mail fraud.

What about a postal money order? What if I send one and I don't get my game? Am I covered? I've bought 2 pins this week like that. Ed

I've used bank wires to buy games with no problem. Easy, cheap, and painless. As long as the seller does his part as well.

The only really safe way to do a transaction is cash. I have been screwed via PayPal and it seems there is no 100% safe way to do the transaction through the bank either. I realize that it's hard to do a cash transaction if there's shipping involved in the deal. However, I wouldn't send money to anyone that I didn't trust and I avoid shipping unless it's with someone that I've thoroughly done research on and whom I trust.

It's sad that we have to worry about scammers!

Correct me if I'm wrong but wouldn't a bounced Certified Bank Check have to be a straight up scam?

A legitimate bank check is automatically deducted from your bank acct, hence no way to bounce. The Nigerian scams are fake checks from the start, counterfeits. I've used escrow accounts and wires for high dollar transactions. Postal Money orders are great but they max out at $1K each. Unless they changed that policy. Been awhile since I used them.

If the seller wants a wire get them to send you a bill of sale, notarized if necessary. As others have stated sending a wire gives you little protection.

I've always found "common ground" with someone when I'm buying/selling long distance. Ask questions. Who have you sold games to on RGP or Pinside? I've bought games from xxx. Do you know or have you done business with any of them? Usually, you can find a common denominator for a reference or two to start. The same can also be used to flush out potential scammers.

With wire transfers make sure you go to your branch and do it at someones desk..

dont do it from your home computer, as banks will hold a transferfor as much as a week or longer if they like, cause 90 percent of fraud is through wire transfer....just becasue its called a wire transfer does NOT mean it is instantly in your account, thats all up to the bank..

I had this happen with another pinsider that bought a game from me, he transfered it in the AM Cali time, and my bank wouldnt clear it for up to 4 days, it was 2 days after he transfered it before i went to the bank to figure out why it wasnt in my account already..

NOT his fault at all either ! ...

but he did the transfer from his house online...

And get this we both use the same bank !

FYI

Postal money orders are a good option if the buyer completely trusts the seller. They are cheap to purchase and while your local post office may not have the money on hand to cash them they do have ways to verify that they are good. Then the seller can take them to his bank with a good deal of confidence that they are legit. If the seller runs off with the money orders the buyer is screwed.

Fast-Ed, i use money orders sometimes too...

Its is a solid way to pay for the seller, but it is like sending cash... Maybe not the safest thing i guess..

Not sure how USPS would handle those issues, if money orders are insured funds...

For CL deals or ebay i will go pick the item up and pay cash, for pinsiders that have been here a while, or other "pin" folk where i have to ship, it is generally a cashiers check...

I would wire if i were to do it from my branch only...

Yep scammers out there can make fake cashiers checks so I myself would only do cash as a seller.

In Canada E-Transfers are the way to go. Very low cost, a few dollars for $1k - $3k daily transfers. You know you have the cash deposited into your bank.

Have done this with greatwichjohn and everything worked out well. Helpful also if you know the fella you're buying the game from, as was the case with me.

e-transfer takes 5 minutes to deposit into another bank account anywhere in canada. i have used this method many times. hopefully this system will be done throughout north america one day. i just wish the amount was a bit larger then the 3k max per day per transfer.

Send a bank check from a national bank like Bank of America or Chase. He goes to a local branch and cashes the check with two forms of ID and walks out. No way to bounce that check three weeks later.

Owner of the item usually governs the making of these rules.
Unsure about reverse charges.

Immoral? No. Not even skirting the rules. You can send money to anyone for any reason, PayPal used to just have this as a "gift" and the name stuck, even though you'd have a check box for gift, money owed, living expense, etc. Now it's just "I'm sending money to friends of family", and if you can fund it with a credit card if you want and choose who pays the fees. If you choose to send it that way it's no different from sending cash in an envelope. Except the mailing of course.

Postal money orders?

I bank at USAA so sometimes large purchases present some problems. I was buying a car locally, and the seller (a very strange, nervous woman) wouldn't take a check from my bank because of all the scams she read about. OK. So I asked a Pinsider down the street if he would cash a $9000 personal check which he did that day.

Ironically, when I gave her the envelope full of cash she was so nervous she didn't even bother to count it. I guess she'd never heard of counterfeit money. It all reminded me of the sale for the F.C.O.J crop report in Trading Places. For a Prius.

fwiw, cash isn't as "safe" as many would like to believe... there's no shortage of counterfeit funds out there...

I can't imagine it's too bad now in Canada, we have fun plastic monopoly money with holograms and watermarks and clear sections and I don't know how the heck they make that stuff. I think they used science.

Our post office does not issues money orders anymore. I asked why, they said because of all the scams. Who knows if they were telling the truth as they have lied to me before. So, I went to Bank of America and they said the same thing. So, maybe some truth to that. My bank has sold out to Arvest which sucks because when I go to a show in a major city now there are no banks to run to, so FEEs FEEs FEEs because I am not their customer. It suck sometime and I miss out, No I am not the type to keep a thousand(s) dollar in my pocket when on the road. I would not be a good person to rob as you might only be able to get a pack of gum.

What kind?

Pinside is great because you can build relationships of trust that facilitate sales. That said, I hadn't even been here a month and made a great purchase from someone who had good feedback from another buyer. So there's that.

In other news, I hacked up a loogie reading the thread title

the only way to take a check or money order or cashier check is to completely wait for it to clear.

there are many stipulations on this and it can take a month or two depending on the bank.

I know someone who got ripped off on a wire and he lost 3000.

also another friend took a check to the bank they said it looked fine and even deposited it.

a couple weeks later they called him and said he owed them money since his check bounced....

he was like you guys verified it in person..!!! their response we cant tell if something is fake or not.....

he got ripped off as well. be careful and fyi pp gift can be reversed too.....