selling 1 of my cars

[geraldchainsaw]

i have a person interested in 1 of my cars,  he wants to pay by check from his company,  i don't know the guy,  and hes 70 miles away from me,  also said he would bring a trailor the same day,  he hasn't looked at it or anything,  any ideas or advise u can give me?,  thanks   jerry

[JimNolan]

I've got a suggestion. Have him stop at his bank and convert the check to cash. Don't take ANYTHING other than cash. When I sold my airplane I made the guy count out 50K on my coffee table. Nothing other than cash is foolproof. And, if he's honest he won't care. If he isn't you don't want to take a chance anyway. Jim

[gasman826]

CASH has always been king.  But today anything can be fake. 
Cash is good but you have to count it, protect it, and confirm that it is not counterfeit.
Cashiers checks can be counterfeit and who would know.  They can take as much as a month to go through the system.  A personal check can be confirmed within days if not hours.
Money Orders...same as Cashiers Checks.
PayPal...electronic, immediate, safe.  Down side is that not everyone has an account and like a credit card there is a fee.  I like PayPal.  No counting.  No having to protect it.  No having to recognize counterfeit.  I'll pay a small fee for those services.
Postal Money Orders...USPS or Canadian...take it to the nearest post office to cash it in!  800 number on the back to call to confirm that it is good.  USPS will cash Canadian PO money orders.  DON'T forget the exchange rate.
As a buyer, I don't like rolling up on strangers that know I'm have a roll...even though I'm carrying something else.  A friend lost a friend to a shooting and he still limps from taking one in the leg.
I may worry too much but I'm north of 60 and only have the holes I was born with and so far haven't taken an wooden nickles.

[RICH MUISE]

Gerald...whoa!!! absolutly no check or m.o. or whatevers except cash. What you are telling me sounds suspiciously like the way I was ripped off at my art gallery in the 90's. Super nice guy..came in the gallery twice to look and talk a bunch of b.s. (even told me he'd have his church pray for my terminally ill dad). Asked if I could box up a $3,000 bronze sculpture and have it ready for a friday pickup...and asked if I accepted company checks. He called friday and said he got held up on a business deal, and would be in Saturday..which he was. (This was before electronic days, and the banks were closed on Sat.)..anyway..you can guess the rest...checks were no good. The guy had 20K in his bank account, which was just opened the prior month, which he withdrew in cash Friday evening. In all 31 merchants were ripped off that weekend..furs, jewelery,art,guns,even a porsche dealer. He was never caught and the last total I heard from his haul was 185,000! Super nice guy as I said.
What posible reasons could an honest person have for not being able to get cash, or understand why you wouldn't want anything but, or wait for a check or money order to clear before picking the car up.
If he is leary about having his check clear before he picks up the car, have the transaction handled by a legal something-or-other...they can hold the title for him until his check clears...and then pick up the car.
Rich

[RICH MUISE]

P.S. The above story was the only bad check I received in 23 years of being in the art business...knock on wood.
Also something to consider in case your thinking if the check bounces, you can just retrieve your car. When the guy stole ( I consider it a theft)that sculpture, I called my insurance company....this is what they informed me after their legal department analyzed what happened. Since he handed me a check, and I handed him the sculpture, it was not considered a theft since I handed it to him. In their eyes, and the eyes of the district attorney handling the case, it was not a theft, it was writing a bad check...with a whole new set of prosecution rules and regulations that will have to be followed before your car, if ever, is returned. The charges in my particular case were compounded by the fact that I did not take the necessary precautions to insure the check was good, per normal business routine.

[Ford Blue blood]

If he is willing to bring a check without having looked at the car in person he should be willing to do a wire transfer or bring cash.  Doing business with a check with someone you know is one thing but not with a stanger!

[briney]

I have let my cars go on to the owner that day with a check.

I just hold the title. and i get a look at their license information and address and write it down.

Check clears - mail the title to him - you have his adderss.

If the check bounces the car is reported stolen.

If never really had any issues.

Patrick

[geraldchainsaw]

to birney,    i kinda go with what everyone else has said,   sure u can hold the title back until the check cashes,  but if it don't,  u have help load the car on a trailor, or u let him drive it away,  i have neighbors that watch everything,  if u rreport it stolen and the insurance co comes around and ask neighbors questions,  guess what,   they saw u help him load it, or saw u and him let him drive it away,  kinda blows stolen away wouldn't u say?,     jerry   PS,  the 51 is going,  i hope soon.

[Lou]

You keep the car until his check clears, or he pays you with postal money orders. If he doesn't like that, then walk away. Eather way get his his licence info, and his plate number even if he has a friend drive him to your place.

[Frankenstein57]

If I'm selling something to a stranger, and he want's to write a check, I ask him to go cash it first. I sold a snowmobile to a cop, and I took his check. Everything looked good, I did copy his Visa card, and made it clear I would run it at work if the check had problems. Mark

[Zapato]

cash is king. bought my 57 with a check, but the car was staying with him for almost 2 months before it would have been picked up. took about 6 weeks before he cashed my check. Gerald consider having some muscle there with you no matter how the deal plans are made. iys not Howdy -Doody time anymore.

Zap-

[4thgen57]

I would say cash or no car.

[geraldchainsaw]

ok,  thanks for all  good opinions and info,     i planned on having a friend with me,  x cop also carrying,  now we'll c what happens,  thanks guys,   jerry

[2x57sedan]

if you take a check tell him it needs to be a cashiers check (same as cash) but honestly i would only do cash in person

[Lou]

2x57sedan : I had a guy about 6 years ago try and buy a car from me with a phoney cashiers check. He tried to pick the car up on a Saturday afternoon, I said I wouldn't let the car go until I called the bank the check was drawn on Monday. He was cool about it and let me make a copy of the check, of coarse on Monday I called and the bank said that it wasn't one of thier checks. I never saw or heard from the guy again.