Facebook Marketplace- selling

[Outnumbered1983]

my 18yr old DS has an expensive gaming pc that he no longer uses, and has no interest in anymore. It was once his pride and joy, he spent a fortune on top of the range components but his interests have moved on. He asked me to list it on fb marketplace for £550. It didn’t sell so he asked me to reduced the price to £475. It’s not sold and due to be collected tomorrow. I haven’t provided any address details to the purchaser as yet. I’ve never sold anything more than £40 on marketplace so I am obviously weary of such a large transaction. The seller seems genuine in messages. DS will be at work tomorrow when it’s collected, so it’ll just me and younger DS at home. The purchaser has messaged to ask if I’d prefer a bank transfer or cash, I’ve not replied as yet. I am obviously not going to provide bank details to him, but I am weary of £475 in cash, and would need to check the notes for forgeries and full amount. I have wondered about a PayPal payment, I’d only need to provide my e-mail address then.

has anyone had experience of large sales or purchases via marketplace and could offer any advice?

Oh god where to start with this.
The cash is unlikely to be ‘forgeries’ 🤦‍♀️
The bank transfer would mean it went straight into your account.
Paypal has ‘buyer protection’ which usually sides with the buyer so is the worst option you could think of.
Be less paranoid about the wrong things and try to think through how to complete the transaction in a convenient way for your son or tell him you are incapable of doing this and let him book time off to do it himself. Scams are more often people who claim they are sending couriers and will pay you when the item is delivered, people who claim they will send money via weird (often but not always fake) methods, people who try to knock you down at the last minute or who hand you a wad of cash that’s a couple of hundred short and assume you will be too polite to count it.

Oh or the people who misuse buyer protection on Paypal and claim the item never arrived.

Paypal sounds the least safe of your options. I would not trust them to mediate any possible issues that the buyer might claim.

Take cash in hand imo.

Have they asked to see the machine running?

Thank you both. No, he’s not asked to see the machine running but I am more than happy to fire it up when he’s here tomorrow, I think i’d feel more comfortable for him to check it over here than take it away unchecked. I’ll ask him for cash. I’ve not bought anything personally over fb marketplace so I guess I’m just a bit wary of how it all works and what’s best with it being an expensive item. I’ve only sold a few small items in the past.

I see you’ve decided on cash. I usually do cash whether buying or selling but I’ve also done bank transfer. Never do PayPal xx

I buy and sell a lot ,via Vinted and marketplace , my son does so also , anything over £20 we ask for bank transfer , you wouldn’t think twice about giving an account and sort code to many different people there’s not that much that someone can do with it tbh and it’s a very normal way for someone to pay for something like this , bank transfer protects you from being given dodgy notes and there’s lots of them out there nowadays ,also it’s so so awkward to sit there checking all of those notes and the forgeries these days are pretty good , PayPal always sides with the buyer as the staff there are just totally incompetent , understandably you have concerns but I think your getting a bit stressed over something that people do daily , not everyone out there is a baddie you would be safest doing a bank transfer x

myself I would only accept cash but im
confident with money and know how to check it and handle cash daily

If they want to transfer 475
get them to transfer a pound tonight to make sure it goes through
you don’t want to be sat around waiting for the money to hit your account

write a receipt for the pc and how much and out sold as seen

there are apps that can scam the transfer make it look like it’s been sent and it’s fake transfer

don’t use PayPal as they can get that back

with notes check for the three raised bumps on the top right hand side of the notes

Make sure you take a picture of them taking the computer. Get them on camera doorbell

also you aren’t Amazon. If they buy it and it doesn’t work then tough on them. No refunds.

get cash.

When I’ve bought and sold an expensive pram I used PayPal friends and family and it popped up with a notification from my PayPal app before they left. I’ve used PayPal friends and family a few times on marketplace.

You've had good advice here. Good idea to get a photo of them collecting it. I think bank transfer if you're concerned about notes but I am always wary of giving my account details out to a potentially dodgy bugger 😅 Very happy to hear reassuring posts that it's safe to hand them out...

I would actually insist on showing them it working because if they turn out to be a bit rough at least they can't say it was already broken. Do you want to be getting in a fall out with people who know where you live?

Failing that, what about meeting them somewhere neutral? If they sound a bit dodg, I'd do that and I have on the past!

We sold a tent for about £600 on marketplace and took cash. Counted it out in front of them.

I won't use PayPal unless I know and/trust the person/business.

also I accidentally sent money to the wrong email once via PayPal friends and family and never got it back

Facebook Marketplace has no protection whatsoever for either buyers or sellers, so the only safe way for it to operate is for the item and the payment to be exchanged in person in real time.

But as people have said, even cash is tricky for this amount. I'd second a bank transfer, and as people have said, give your details and ask the buyer to pay you £1 to check it's all working, then the balance while they're at yours once they're happy the thing works.

You give someone your bank account number and sort code whenever you write them a cheque, so I wouldn't worry about that part. But you want to see the money in your account before they leave with the item.

(I did buy a musical instrument for £1,000 from a lovely woman who offered to send it to me to try without any kind of payment....)

Scrutinise the persons Facebook account. If you take bank transfer check it is in your account before handing over the computer. Cash would be my preference.

I wouldn’t do PayPal like others have said it backs the buyer or bank transfer as they can recall the payment I also wouldn’t feel comfortable being home alone with a child when the person is coming to collect have you not got a friend or neighbour that could be at yours I would do cash.

How does transfering a £ cut out the time waiting for the other £474 to arrive, I dont get how that works. Why wait twice when you only need to wait once, you're not going to hand it over until you have all the money are you?

Former bank employee don’t do the £1 thing as that doesn’t help anyone- they could send you £1 then send the rest some where else on the day you want to see the whole amount hit your account. As pp’s have said giving someone your sort code & account number is generally safe as not much they can do with it (think back to years ago when everyone used cheques which had that information freely available on it). I would take screenshots of the facebook conversations though as thats your proof that there was a sale of goods in case the buyer tries to pull a payment in error claim (less likely these days with account verification on faster payments).

I prefer cash. I once did bank transfer for a table I sold for £300. They organised it there and then. It’s instant so I checked my app before the took the table.

dont let them put it in the car before payment. It’s happened some people have driven off before paying.

Some pp are missing the point of the £1 thing. The whole point of this is you ask them to pay you £1 by bank transfer the night before, then you can test that the payment goes through correctly, and their banking app accepts all your details - and the app can save them for the next day.

Then on the day they pick up, they are not faffing about entering sort codes and account numbers. Plus there is a reduced chance of them saying "sorry it's not working" or "the details don't match" etc.

And of course you don't let them leave until the full amount hits your account, but thanks to the 1£ prep, this should be a much quicker process!

If you give your bank details the worst they can do is pay money into your account.
Ask for bank transfer, it's easier for everyone. Give him a written receipt and have him confirm he saw it working.

I never understand why people don't want to give their bank details out, no one can do anything with them. It's your card details that can do the damage.

Paypal friends and family has no protection for the buyer so she could take payment that way
Id only take cash myself .never w bank transfer

Have you tried selling it to an actual computer shop? They do exist and buy second hand. If its got a decent graphics card they can cost thousands.
But also a non expert could claim you've put its been newly built etc but the graphics card could be outdated and not run the game they want and then claim you've sold a rubbish PC.

I'd definitely get DS to seek out a computer store and get a quote from them.

If selling on fb check the age of their profile, how many friends they've got to check for scams.

I'd be wanting bank transfer to go through beforehand so they can transfer on the spot rather than that much cash.

Someone tried scamming me last year on fb marketplace. It was a £250 item. He conveniently “wasnt in the country” so would send his son to collect and he’d send payment straight away. Stupidly I gave him the bank details then he asked for another detail that didn’t ring true (my email address) so I stopped the process there and then and he immediately blocked me. I was able to report him and more importantly, able to speak to my bank and close that bank account. I am usually very scam savvy as well. I am the person my family check with if they are suspicious of something yet I still very nearly got caught out.

Someone else rocked up to buy something else and wanted to pay by transfer and I made him go to the cashpoint up the road. Cash only now unless I know the person concerned.