Overseas buyers?

I'm from the Netherlands and have bought a number of cars in the US. Let me know if I can help to further increase the confidence.
For me a Paypal deposit is to show I'm serious as a buyer and to prevent the seller from selling the car to someone else in the mean time. This is then followed up by a wiretransfer which would take 5-9 working days to complete.
Money Orders, althought fast, are not really an option here in the Netherlands because we get charged 12% in fees over the total. Even transferring the total amount through Paypal is cheaper for us.
A buyer is taking a bigger risk than the seller 'usually'. After the money has left your account there's usually no easy way of getting it back.

 

I sold a vehicle to a guy in Taiwan several years ago and we set up a account for wire transfers to it and after I think 48 hours we were allowed to transfer the money into a "car fund" account and no problems. The guy had his brother in the States take a greyhound bus to a local town and I met him there and he drove 100 miles home and made the arrangements for it to get shipped as I wanted nothing to do with that part of it! I showed up with a camera and the guy, Ting Li Lo, was making jokes, " You look like Asian tourist with that camera!" He also added his brother was a collector of old cars "like Ferris Bueller's day off! with big glass display!" My experience was very good and wish you luck on yours!

 

Kurt is correct. I've done this any number of times and used paypal for the deposit, but only $500.00 which I immediately transferred to my private bank account.

Your bank will assist with an overseas wire transfer. If your not comfortable using an existing account? open a temporary account for this transaction. Again, your bank can give you assistance/advise.

As far as shipping, let the buyer set it up, make arrangements for the vehicle pickup. No $$ should change hands with the shipper...period.

Get all your $$ in hand FIRST...then do the transport.

Murph

 

Wire transfer only!

 

I've done overseas both ways. Wire transfer IS the way to go.It all sounds legit to me.Find out if he has a custom's broker here and their contact info.You will need to be registered in your name or you may have other problems.
Good luck,we need some $$$ back in the USA!

 

I have a 32 5W Henry body to trade if this deal walls thru . Let me know if your interested. Gary

 

I have received 3 wire transfers for old car sales in the last year. One in Europe, two in Australia. Worked out OK for me each time. Easy, fast and simple.

 

one thing to remember is money in your account does not always mean its good. Funds take time to actually clear and the bank will never be the one out. I talk to the bank and sometimes cash out. Be careful.

 

You could contact Perry in Holland, his English is good and he maybe willing to talk to the guy for you.... May even know him!!
http://www.rodshop.nl/contact.html

 

i just sold my 35 ford to a guy in Australia. He mailed me a check and I told him that the car would not leave til funds went through. They did after a few days and I am set to deliver the car to Titan Shipping. Make sure you have funds before anything!!!!!

 

This is not a scam. If you want cash for your car then the only way he can hand it to you is through the truck driver. I have sold a few cars to overseas buyers, and this is a good way to do business. As long as you get your cash what do you care who gives it to you.

 

1) How much did the car sell for?

2) How much did you originally pay for it?

 

I am a specialty car dealer and deal with alot of classic cars and motorcycles. I do international sales and have dealt with this many times. The only way to do this correct is with a bank wire transfer direct from his bank to your bank. The deposit with paypal is fine. You will probably see about a 50 dollar charge subtracted out of his 1000 deposit from him transfering the money thru paypal as an international transaction. Do not take payment in full thru paypal. The fees are insane. The best thing you can do is call you banker and they can give you a wire transfer routing number. Then give you buyer that number. The bank can recieve the wire transfer from his bank and deposit the money into your account with out him seeing your account number. Once you recieve the money you can release the vehicle to the transport company. The title has to be giving to the transport company once you are paid in full so they can do the export paperwork for your customer. Make sure you get your money thru bank wire transfer before releasing anything. These oversea buyers know the drill and they are patient buyers. I just had a guy in from australia last week to pick up a bike that he paid me for 3 months ago. These are good buyers, just protect yourself. If you have any futher questions PM me.

 

I sold one to Denmark, and one to Australia. Both times the buyer emailed or called me almost 10 minutes after the auction ended.

I only took 200 paypal deposits, and they wired me the balance to my "hotrod" account.

No more than 2 business days, and I had cash in hand.

In both cases, the trucks sat here for 8-14 days, so it was harder on the buyer than me. But they chose the shipper and I did all I could to make it smooth.

Neither time did they ask for the shipper to pay me though. I likely wouldn't have liked that much....

 

Why don`t let you "Scam Sreamers" the people answer who know what they are talking
about?
The HAMB has enough guys on both sides of the pond that have bought and sold cars
overseas to give some advice.

 

I bought my car last year in CA. Deposit via paypal, the balance through wire transfer into his bank account. Took about 7 working days in total. It's harder on the buyer than the seller! Wait till you have the money in your account ,then "release" the car. If I can help,let me know. I realise that scams do occur, but have never heard it happening from the Netherlands.Being cautious/aware is always a good thing. PM me if you want me to call the guy.Good luck.

 

there was a scam where they paid too much and had you pay back the difference. When their money didn't clear and got charged back out of your account you got screwed and your money was good and you didn't get it back from their account. like If I gave you a counterfeit 100 and got a good 20 in change.
I'm a trucker 11 years...
The trucking company will probably want to pay you with a T-check or a comcheck.
How that works is that they call comcheck and authorize $x in your name and comcheck gives them an authorization number to put on the check.
You, after getting the comcheck call comcheck, they ask you for some info and they give you a release number.
Once you get that release number, the funds are bonafide in your name and the check is good.
comcheck stands behind billions daily and the check writer pays the check fee not you. It's way safer than having a driver carry cash.
find out what brand check they want to use and get the call in number from a couple different sources like truckstops or anyone else who might have a book of comchecks to be sure your calling the right number. they cannot reverse the charges on you with a comcheck the funds are bona fide. take it to the bank, the bank calls to check and it's done.

 

I wrote in asking for advice from Ya'all about a possible Scammer wanting to buy my '41 Ford Pickup. It hasn't sold yet, but I sure appreciate all I've read, and the tips I've gotten. I didn't really want to sell it to anybody that couldn't come and pick it up with cash, but there's enough info here to feel confident about a successful sale. Thanks for all the input.

 

Yeah, I second what HotRodMicky said.

Remember that most people dealing through this site are serious about their hobby and that it would be a social suicide on this board, to scam another member.

Like most have said already, if you get cash in your hand what does it matter who gives them to you.
Having the shipper deal in cash is usually the safest way for us, overseas buyers, to be sure we actually get the car, bike or part.

It is also a very good idea to actually have the buyer call you....... a lot of understanding and trust can be established like that. If the buyer is serious, he will gladly call.

In 2004 I bought a 1949 Caddy Fastback, from CA.
The deal took forever to seal and I have never been so unsure of anything in my life ;o)
All was good though and I was happy after the deal was made.

Just my 2 cents

Thomas

 

I was selling a car recently,and got an email after the auction(didnt reach the reserve) , from a guy in the states(so he said). Anyway,he wanted the car badly,paid the money into my paypal,got the paypal email notification,all looked ok. He put the extra in to cover the shipping.Shortly after,got another paypal message saying to transfer the shipping fee to the shipping company account,or they couldnt complete the transaction.Did a bit of searching on the net and found out what was going on.

He,or someone working with him,sends a fake paypal notification,looks like the real deal. Then they send the second message hoping you would send the shipping fee to their account. Alot of work for a couple of grand.

I got paypal involved early on and they followed what was happening and hopefully tracked the guy down.It sounds so obvious,but dont let the car leave your sight until you have the money,and you know for sure you have it.

 

I don't think this is a scam because this is not how scams usually work.

They usually work by giving you all the money plus via a western union money gram (which turns out bogus).

It doesn't matter who pays you, the shipper or the buyer direct. As long as you get cash or verify that a wire transfer is ok you are covered. Don't except any checks or money orders and let the car go before the check or money order has had time to clear (take at least ten days, overseas may double that).

Setting up a separate account for the wire transfer is a good idea. Then they have no connection to your regular bank accounts.

 

I just sold a car to a guy in the UK. He paid me in full via paypal because the international wire transfer wouldn't work with my bank. Sounds like you need to have a major bank to be able to do that. Anyway, he paid me via paypal AND he paid the paypal fees. Paypal won't credit your account until they've verified the funds have cleared his bank, so that's nice. I lined up the shipping for the guy. The biggest thing in my opinion is to TALK TO HIM ON THE PHONE! This guy called me and we talked for quite awhile, even though I couldn't understand most of what he said, and I'm sure he didn't understand me. He had a wacky accent, you know. Anyway, despite the accent, the money was good and he was great to deal with. Just follow some basics- get the $ before the vehicle goes anywhere, make sure you talk on the phone or in person, and give yourself a little time between getting paid and when the vehicle ships. I know it's sounds crazy, but there's actually some nice guys on the other side of the lake. Hot rodders too. All with wacky accents. Go figure....

 

Well, its easy to scream scam.... but also its a lot of buyers out there ho got scammed by sellers, and i think this guy just try to get secured. I´m also european living, and had bought items & cars from US.,. When dealing on a buy/sell on the "other" side of the world, its a lot of things to straight out, and if the two cant trust each other a little, then its trouble. where deposit its payed. I dont see the big problem, because if its agreed about fully payment before hauling, then you dont deliver, before payment is in the hand, or you got a trusted recipe from your bank,etc.

My self i usually pays by paypal, or transfer it trough a friend from my country Norway, who has moved over there some years ago, where he does the payment, or agree with seller, fixes the handling,shipping,etc.Thats trust between him & me! The wiretransfer has got some changes the last years in my country, and its not easy to fix it now, as before, mainly because of bad communication info between the two parts. Sellers are afraid of scams, and want do much help in overseas sell, perhaps mainly because they also dont know the ways to go. So buyer needs to find the way mostly by them selfs, not easy when not done it before..... and if the buy is to be complained, discharg the buy,he want get money back,or similar,he cant, without making a court time in US.. (on the other side of the world) they cant just go down the street in the local court and belive they fix it, he has to make a US complaint, in US.

Its some good info of how to handle the agrees in this post,( great to see the post on how to setup the wiretransfer to a seller made special account, many times the sellers dont want the extra work on fixing that!) and main thing is some trust, and agree between the parts, (money) who need to be fixed before car/part leave the seller. As with car buying, can some of the scamscreamers, give a tip on how a overseas buyer can be shure to get the title? He needs to trust the seller that he get it, or the shipper to fetch it (if they care) or? Another way to see it is how the buyer to be shure the car is in the condition as announced? Its a lot of trouble nad nervous days for the buyer to before he got what he paid for!

Of course the seller should get the money before deliver, and i belive buyers want to do that to, they just want to be on the safe side as the sellers.
Do communication, trust,maybe some help, and sort the things out!
Last year a seller wanted some money transfered by postal check direct to his adress, this was what he wanted, and belived to be normal in the country, well my countrys postals couldnt fix it because this possibillity of money transfer was closed the same year. What then? Seller wanted it only that way he used to do locally! Fixed it by my friend, but for buyers who dont have any connections there, they get stuck!

Hope mainly this is understanding, im not born american languaged.....

 

overseas is worse then shipping here to an unknow. if you sold it through paypal and can VERIFY the money is there, the buyer needs to outlay ALL other money for shipping, crating, whatever, not you. if you have to put out your bucks to get reimbursed, refund his money. SCAAAAAAM!!!!!!!

 

Overseas buyers are usually genuine, like a lot of people have said before, the car won't get shipped before the original owner has all the money in his bank account. Shipping costs are for the buyer. Why do you say SCAAAAAM if these precautions are taken. Either you're ignorant, scared or have never dealt with overseas buyers into hot rodding like me and the rest of the Hambers.

 

WELL SAID .
I just bought a car from a chap in the US .
GREAT GUY TO DEAL WITH.
Could'nt understand a word he said when we spoke on the phone
Hot Rodder through and through >

 

Nice to see so many people afraid to sell overseas and don't know how to recognise a real scam or how to protect themselves.
Means the rest of us will get their potential buyers and make the money.

"The best thing you can do is call you banker and they can give you a wire transfer routing number. Then give you buyer that number. The bank can recieve the wire transfer from his bank and deposit the money into your account with out him seeing your account number."

Gee my bank routing number and account number is on every check I mail out, guess I should not use checks anymore? I should use postal money orders only?
When I want a wire transfer I have the numbers for the checking account I want it made to.

My bank (actually a credit union) charges nothing to receive a wire transfer. I'd take a small deposit fom paypal, and the balance in cash or wire transfer.

I would not take a T-check or comcheck... Can you recognise a forged check? I can't. UNLESS as Torchmann says "find out what brand check they want to use and get the call in number from a couple different sources [NOT from the buyer] like truckstops or anyone else who might have a book of comchecks to be sure your calling the right number."

But as always, cash is king.

 

Ah yes,two people seperated by a common language!