Sold item-now what? Please help

[UnacceptableWidge]

My teenage son was too impatient to wait for us to find out best way to go about selling a high value item for him.
He has gone ahead and listed item himself. Item now sold for a couple of hundred pounds.
As a very inexperienced ebayer I am now full of worries. Buyer has sent message asking to come and view item before paying via PayPal. Is that how this is done and if so how would we know payment had been made before allowing buyer to take goods?
I'm not sure if buyer is asking to pay cash on collection, son is waiting for response.

Can any of you experienced sellers please give me some help to ensure I am advising son correctly?

It's not usual for a buyer to want to view an item before paying for it. If it was me I'd cancel the sale and start again in a few weeks. See if anyone else has advice. Is the agreement buyer to collect or were you posting it?

You should always ask for cash on collection. If someone pays via paypal and collects, you have no evidence of them having it. You should either take cash, or insist on sending via a traceable method.

The scam is that someone pays via PayPal and then claims that they never received the iteam. eBay and paypal automatically find in their favour as you have no evidence of sending it (track able method only counts here)

Item was collection only. DS thought PayPal was safer option than cash.

Sorry I think his anxiety and mine combined is making me less sure of myself. Just feeling very stressed as this has been sprung on me after sale has been completed

No PayPal is not good for collection items

So if we message buyer to say 'sure, come view item, please pay cash on collection' that'd be most secure way to do it?

Hi, like the others have said never take paypal for a collection item, if something goes wrong you are not covered. If the buyer pays by paypal before collecting just refund the money and insist on cash on collection. If the buyer gets annoyed just tell him that that you checked with paypal and you are within your rights to do that (you are, I have checked it myself and that was their advice). Also, although it is normal practice on collection items to let the buyer inspect the item at time of collection, make sure that the buyer does not try to negociate the price at the time. He bid and he won therefore, unless the item was not described properly, he should honour his bid. There is something on the way you described your buyer that makes me think they might try that, as really they should have asked to view item before bidding. It has happened to me and it is annoying! Good luck!

Thank you all for your help. Buyer came and was very happy with item and paid cash. Son now very happy and also rather smug that he sold without any stress