Learn me PayPal scams

I haven't sold anything online in a loooong time, so I'm out of the loop here.

I listed sort of a niche guitar on CL and it got the attention of a buyer from Aruba. Much to my surprise, seems legit, and we've come to an agreement on terms and price.

The plan is, he makes a payment to my PayPal account, I ship the guitar, and when I give him the tracking number, I withdraw the payment.

Does that make sense? Am I overlooking a loophole that exposes me to losing a guitar and several hundred bucks at the same time?

Make sure he's a verified user and only ship to the verified address listed in his Paypal payment. Other than that I don't know of anything. Do not ship on an eCheck payment only, that takes a lot of time to clear. If he makes an eCheck payment you have to wait for Paypal to tell you it's all clear. Takes about a week.

i just heard a story where the dude got the item, contacted paypal and claimed the item was not what it was supposed to be and they took the money back from the sellers account.

Honestly, I'd do this on Ebay and eat the fees. Just going to be safer that way.

mtn wrote: Honestly, I'd do this on Ebay and eat the fees. Just going to be safer that way.

That's not bad advice. It costs you 10% in fees (ouch, eBay fees have become ridiculous!) but it has seller protection, etc in place. Of course so does Paypal, theoretically, and they're both the same company at this point so ...

The buyer does a chargeback, and you lose. Be it bank transfer reversal, or credit card. A buyer can takes months to get around to it.

If you want the most ruthless protective to yourself for shipping, money order or money transfer. Once it's done, it's done. There is no charge back or reversal by the buyer at that point.

Been burned enough by these games myself that fundamentally, you don't get your widget from me until you drop cash in my hand. If that means I lose a sale, so be it. Cash on the barrel head.

What is the guitar? How much are we talking here? And can I see a link?

The scam is usually that it's paid for with a "borrowed" credit card number and once the owner of the card notices, you'll end up with no guitar and no money.

The guitar in question is a Danelectro Mod 7. One of the only mass produced 7 strings that's not made exclusively for metal. It's really a neat guitar, I just don't use it much.