Cash on collection/Collection only

Caporegime
Joined
21 Jun 2006
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38,372
Does happen in real life.

Year ago I got my tool room broken into and all my power tools stolen.

Its at the back of property through two locked gates and you cant see it from the road.

Its a room in the barn attached to my house and there are three locked doors, one is the boiler room and the other is horse feed room.

They only broke into the tool room.

So they knew exactly which room it was and where I kept all my power tools.

They could have only done that with prior knowledge of my property and having been there before.

Did someone buy a tool off you in said room a week before on gumtree?

Yeh they work off information the organised gangs. Especially for cash and jewellery thefts. But they don't tend to be scouring gumtree for targets.
 
Caporegime
Joined
21 Jun 2006
Posts
38,372
I don’t see what’s that unbelievable about someone checking out whether someone has other things worth robbing and seeing how their house is secured? And they don’t necessarily need to buy. They can always say they don’t want it after inspecting.

Which is why you have the item at your front door. They get to see it there and don't get an MTV cribs style showreel of your home.
 
Soldato
Joined
9 Mar 2003
Posts
14,246
If you didn’t give some random a tour of your workshop when they collected something, it’s more likely the theft was either by someone you know or someone you know told someone else about it.
 
Associate
Joined
28 May 2021
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1,313
Location
St Albans
May be an odd question but thought i'd ask to see what people's methods are.

Whenever i sell stuff mainly through forums etc, i would usually post items off to their destination and have never done a collection only type item.

For any one who do do Collection only, do you invite people over to where you live and do the transfer there and then, or do you designate a specific place like a random car park away from your address to carry this out?

I personally find it concerning if the buyer were to rock up to your house to receive the items with the off chance of being robbed, threatened or what not (since they now know where you live).. but also a bit weird doing it at a random area which can look a little shady too.

Thoughts?

Most FS forums recommend you exchange addresses for protection anyway so why the worry about someone coming to your house.. it doesnt make you MORE likely to get robbed? When I have sold stuff on eBay or whatever, I have zero issues with someone coming to collect. In fact made a great friend through a sale a few years back, we have a LOT of nerdy hobbies in common ;)
 
Associate
Joined
14 May 2018
Posts
151
Most of the stuff I've sold on Gumtree has been via collection at a local train station. I sold a DJI P2V+ Camera to a guy in a chicken shop once (his idea). I personally avoid meeting at my house. It's not that I'm worried about being robbed. I just don't want someone coming to my house and saying something I sold them was dodgy, when I know it wasn't.
 
Caporegime
Joined
21 Jun 2006
Posts
38,372
Most of the stuff I've sold on Gumtree has been via collection at a local train station. I sold a DJI P2V+ Camera to a guy in a chicken shop once (his idea). I personally avoid meeting at my house. It's not that I'm worried about being robbed. I just don't want someone coming to my house and saying something I sold them was dodgy, when I know it wasn't.

Gumtree is sold as seen. If it breaks afterwards tough luck. If you don't understand this then you shouldn't be on gumtree.
 
Caporegime
Joined
5 Sep 2010
Posts
25,572
You are quoting foxeye not me.

If you care to go through my other posts you will see that I have openly said that scalping is simply supply and demand. There is nothing wrong with it unless it's essential items. It's a free market overall.

Nice try though. Maybe you will get a win next time.

I hope you're declaring your profits for tax purposes.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
9,160
I was scammed a few months back through my own stupidity and accepted fake notes on the doorstep. I'd consider myself to be extremely savvy, aware of various scams and have sold hundreds if not thousands of items through various methods (ebay/forums/gumtree/facebook etc) without issue.

However on the day a chain of events led me to let my guard down and unfortunately I lost an item worth a decent sum of money. It's probably one of the best things that could have happened to me. I became sloppy and too trusting, I won't be making the same mistake again.
 
Caporegime
Joined
21 Jun 2006
Posts
38,372
I was scammed a few months back through my own stupidity and accepted fake notes on the doorstep. I'd consider myself to be extremely savvy, aware of various scams and have sold hundreds if not thousands of items through various methods (ebay/forums/gumtree/facebook etc) without issue.

However on the day a chain of events led me to let my guard down and unfortunately I lost an item worth a decent sum of money. It's probably one of the best things that could have happened to me. I became sloppy and too trusting, I won't be making the same mistake again.

Fake notes are extremely easy to spot now they are plastic. When folded they tend to change colour, etc. Or you can see it's a fake from a mile off. There are websites online showing you how to spot fakes now too.
 
Associate
Joined
10 Apr 2008
Posts
2,487
I just had an experience with a ‘collection’ sale that made me remember this thread!

Sold a 2016 MacBook Pro. Guy comes, inspects, says it’s ‘mint’ and pays by BT. Next day I get 20+ message about ‘screen burn’ and an ultimatum that he wants either money back or a full refund, and that he’ll be coming round my house tonight!

I told him the sale was final, but just goes to show what you have to deal with sometimes with private sales. I think he just wanted to get it at a better price so he used vaguely intimidating language to try and scare.
 
Soldato
Joined
16 Aug 2009
Posts
7,750
This is why you meet outside your neighbours house.

Security, not far to walk and if they come back in the night it's not your problem!

That happened to me once except in reverse it wasn't his house and it wasn't his car he was selling! :eek:

I just had an experience with a ‘collection’ sale that made me remember this thread!

Sold a 2016 MacBook Pro. Guy comes, inspects, says it’s ‘mint’ and pays by BT. Next day I get 20+ message about ‘screen burn’ and an ultimatum that he wants either money back or a full refund, and that he’ll be coming round my house tonight!

I told him the sale was final, but just goes to show what you have to deal with sometimes with private sales. I think he just wanted to get it at a better price so he used vaguely intimidating language to try and scare.

I had a similar thing on a eBay sale he was complaining about the postage he was just trying to get some money off after the sale by the looks of the f/b it wasn't the first time either. I just ignored him eventually he completely lost it left some colourful language and a neg which I reported and got removed for foul language. Idiot.
 
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