Help with Selling "Out of State"

I posted an 80's Boss pedal on CL Seattle. I based the price on an e-bay sale minus 20%. I received a few questions and trade offers but no takers. However, a guy in New York is has offered to buy it and pay for shipping. I don't find this odd because it is somewhat of a niche item. It is a Boss DC-3, Digital Dimension (stereo chorus) Japanese made.

I told the guy I would be interested in selling it to him using my paypal account. He told me all he needs is the e-mail listed on my pay pal account and he will make the deposit.

I've never used pay pal except with e-bay. Is this the correct way to use pay pal when doing direct transactions between buyer and seller? Anyone see any red flags here? Anything else I need to know to protect myself? Once he makes a deposit could he withdraw it without my permision?

Thanks for your suggestions,

Tom

Yep.. It can be done 2 ways. He can simply send you money by putting in your e-mail address, or you can get his e-mail address and send him a Paypal invoice. No red flags. Pretty safe way to do business.

Yep.. It can be done 2 ways. He can simply send you money by putting in your e-mail address, or you can get his e-mail address and send him a Paypal invoice. No red flags. Pretty safe way to do business.

With one small caveat though. If you send him an invoice, you will have to pick up the 2.9% + $0.30 fee PayPal charges you (Who comes up with these kind of formulae?). If he just uses your e-mail address for a 'Personal' transaction and checks the gift box, no fees are involved if its fully paid using PayPal account (mo credit and/or debit cards involved)! You can read all about it if you look up the PayPal fee structure. You can find that page if you log in to PayPal, select the 'Send Money' tab, click 'Personal', and select the 'When fees apply' link you'll find on the right hand side of your page.

Hope this helps,

- Jos

He can also send you an e-check through PayPal. The fee is like 50 cents. The downside is a 6-10 day wait for the funds to clear. PayPal notifies the seller when the funds clear and it's safe to ship. I sold a Larrivee RS4 to a person in Canada and have had a couple of people here in the US use it lately. Each transaction was easy and flawless.

Thanks for the help guys.

I'll do the transaction with confidence now.

Tom