I think I know the answer, but say for instance I was to sell a bike privately (via an online forum) and the buyer wanted to pay by PayPal on collection, am I leaving myself open to being scammed?

Would it be as simple as the buyer reversing the payment once the bike had been collected and ‘paid for’?

No record of delivery. So yes.

Postage and Paypal, or collection and cash.

Once more with feeling, “if you have to ask…”

If they send it paypal gift then in theory no, but in practice it can be reversed i.e. chargeback if a credit card used.

Effectively, if buyer is legit then they may as well just draw that money out, as if they pay you gift with a credit card they will be charged 3 percent or so. To avoid fees they have to pay direct debit or use an existing paypal balance, which they could just draw out as cash. Raising a chargeback on the credit card isnt straightforward so you would have to be very unfortunate to get scammed using paypal gift, but still… if it looks like a pig and smells like a pig…. The only reason i could see for using paypal gift in this circumstance is if the buyer wanted to use a credit card to spread the cost, and is prepared to take the 3% hit.

I am going to assume the scam here is they pay you regular paypal, but give you extra to cover the fees so you think theyre good, then open an item not received case, which you’ll then lose.

Id be telling them to do one personally.

Edit; if you look at the url of this page youll see its the second exact same topic as this, remove the -2 from the end of the url and youll get a load more answers to your question.

I’ve done this to buy two bikes. I’m using PayPal to use my credit card and it’s zero percent for 90 days, which means I don’t have to sell my current bike first to raise cash.

I pretty much pay for everything with PayPal, card or bank transfer and have sold bikes and been paid by BT or PP. Not used cash in ages and don’t like being paid in cash either. Never had an issue.

I have just sold a bike this way. The buyer asked if I was happy with a Paypal payment on collection, having looked into it I was. I sold via Facebook so had a rough idea of the guys background. Payment was by PayPal gift. It also helped that he paid a 10% deposit a week before collecting the bike, as a risk with PayPal is someone using a hacked account or stolen credit card, you get sent the money and then the bank takes it back.

It worked easily, I saw him send the money and then saw it appear in my PayPal account, and I transferred it to my bank account. He then took the bike away.

When selling, I always take a photo of the buyer with the bike and whatever car they turned up in.

There’s perfectly legitimate reasons why people want to pay PP on collection – it’s an easy way of paying by credit card for higher value private transactions for example.

I’ve done this on hifi stuff but only accepted friends and family and don’t let the person leave until I’ve transferred the money out of PP and into my bank account. Pretty much as good as cash.

No way would I accept PP non-F&F on collection though.

Paypal only covers items that are posted with tracking, anything else can be claimed back.

I nearly lost a motorbike this way. I spoke to paypal and they said i’m not covered, so I offered to knock 10% off for cash and he said no. It wasn’t an expensive bike either.

I’ve bought bikes and plenty of other stuff via PP on collection. However, I’m not a ^&£*.

Have also had people collect a few things (costing several hundred squids) having paid PP. I think my rule of thumb is that if I trust them enough from their comms then I’ll do it. Otherwise no. Would only accept cash or BT for higher cost items though.