Cash vs. Check revisited

If the price is over $1k and I wish to purchase something I will pay half with a check and pay the next half and pick up the item after the first has cleared. This has worked 100% of the time. If I am selling something it works the same way. I just bought a gravity box for $5500 off of craigslist 80 miles away. I sent him a check for the full amount and picked it up 2 weeks later. First I verified his address and farm, then sent check. A little nervous until it was behind the truck. Wanting cash is fine but if you take a check be prepared to get burned unless you take precautions. If the buyer doesnt like your terms tell him or her to go fish!!!

Nothing wrong with wanting cash only. Just let them know when you set up the time and place to look at it. If it's a big problem either they will tell ya so or not show.
Angle Iron

I take only cash after one bad check . Did get money but lost a whole day going to bank it was wrote on and had to pay my bank a fee for the bad check. I now take cash only . If they want the item they give a deposit non refundable if they come back and say they don't want it and so many days to come back and pick up and pay for it in full. If they don't call or pick it up at the end of time it goes back up for sale.

Part of the problem with cash is the stuff that has been in the news about people showing up to look at something listed on CL and being robbed and or murdered. My FIL was scared to death of CL. When he needed an electric scooter to get around on my BIL found one. FIL insisted that I went with my BIL when he went to look at it because I have my carry permit. Was kinda funny. I had to go to my FIL's house, show him at I did indeed have a pistol on me before he would give us the cash to buy the schooter if we thought it was a good deal.

When I'm dealing for something on CL that is in an area like the Twin Cities I just tell em that I want to look at it and that if I decide to buy it I will be back with cash or a certified bank draft.

Rick

I see a lot of you guys saying to only take cash. How do you feel about walking into a strangers home/property with maybe 10K in cash??? Do you feel comfortable walking around town with that kind of cash on you???

I was looking at a late model 4020 a few year ago. The guy had the tractor in the Cedar Rapids paper. He clearly stated CASH money only. Wanted $10K for a low houred 1972 JD 4020. He gave me direction to a farm out in the middle of no where. Not a house in site other than this barn. He jumps out of his truck with three other fellows. He wants me to follow him into the barn. I am carrying my pistol. I kind of flip open my coat so they can be seen. The fellows with him get all kind of fidgety after that. Guess what?? There is was no tractor in the barn. He claimed his brother must have moved it. I then pulled my pistol out and watched the guys as I got into my pickup and left.

Think he was wanting to make some easy money off an old fellow???

So I tell any one with anything over a few hundred dollars they can call my bank and talk to the manager before I get there. He can tell them I never have written a bad check. I have done wire transfers right over the phone too. They can call their bank and make sure the money is there. If they still want cash only then they can sell to some other fool.

Another thing you guys need to think about. It is the IRS. If you are audited you need to prove what you have paid for things or received if you sold some thing. It is a lot harder with cash even with a receipt. I sold a JD 4430 a few years ago. The guy paid for half of it with cash. I wrote the receipt for the full amount. I was audited that year. I had to get that fellow to sign an affidavit stating that he had only given me that much cash. It was a real pain in the butt. The auditor really thought he had me cheating on the cash amount.

If Iam dealing in large amount of cash I tell the party to meet me at my bank and deposit it there if the party is on the up and up they will have no problem with it. If I do take take cash i have my friend S&W and never turn my back to a stranger.

Amazes me that nobody has ever seemed to have heard of a bank money order.

Amazing yet how easily the can be copied on a computer and massed produced.

Did you report these guys to the authorities so no one one else would get robbed? Did you get a license number from their vehicle?

rrlund a few years ago there were bad money orders floating around here and the only one people weren't afraid of were postal money orders.

I've bought a bunch of good things, used on CL, and to be honest, though I've never been alarmed by virtue of places I have gone to, surroundings and people, as everyone was just a legitimate seller, honest and a pleasure to meet or deal with.
What JD Seller describes is hard to believe but with higher dollar items, I would agree about other than cash. I would request cash, but if buyer is not comfortable, well they'll just have to allow time for a check to clear or a cashiers check to be verified, cleared etc. end of story.

I also hate to say it, but I cannot imagine getting done in by low life thugs like what JD Seller mentioned, especially after making through southeast asia, you just never know whom you are dealing with, wonder who they did it to next, definitely not a waste of bullets, just the law frowns on it Its a good reminder, if its too good to be true, likely not real, and don't put yourself in a vulnerable position,

Times have changed, just remember when you could cash a check from a bank its drawn on, show your ID, sometimes not if they knew you, had an account, but you did not need to have an account with funds to cover a check you cash.

I remember a customer of the lumber yard I worked at, he would pay C.O.D. for building materials, had a brief case and would dole out 8-10K to me the driver and entrust it gets back to the office, can't recall how well he knew me or what, lots of great customers you dealt with all the time, but this guys jobs were 30+ miles away, I never gave it a thought, but could you imagine, there were still people out there dumb enough to take off with it, I figured no one knew I had it, but still told the guy, what do you think I'm running here a brinks truck or something LOL !!!

I live in a fantasy world where people are honest, cause well really they're not, but going back to '02, on a phone call, I arranged for transportation for a D7 caterpillar to be shipped, truck arrived, picked it up, delivered it and I paid with a personal check, service was good, gave a $100 tip, from just a phone call and one personal check, we never did business before, total strangers, it would just be so much better if people did not try to steal, things are so much easier when kept simple.

You are very lucky, almost all robbers have guns and at least one of their guys stays behind in case the victim gets wise.

Yes I called 911 and reported it to the local sheriff. What douche bag!!!! He spent more time checking my LEGAL conceal carry permit out than writing the report down. He wanted to charge me with threating peaceful citizens!!!! I knew the State police commander in that area. He had to come over to keep "Barney" from arresting me. The license number came back to someones car not a pickup. So I either got it wrong or they had swiped the plates.

Cell number was to a cheap throw away phone. The farm was in the same last name as the guy that I met. I did check it out later.

Maybe the guy was totally innocent. If he was I bet he is telling his buddies about the crazy old man that about shot his butt. LOL I never go to look at anything anymore with out one of the boys being with me.

Dave and I thinks sumbudy been watchin Dirty Harry movies again. Do you talk to empty furniture also??

I got a $10 bill the other day from a store, and as the lady handed it to me, something popped out at me that there was something wrong with it. I took a quick look at it against a couple of others and the edge margins weren't right. "Awe no, got me" is what I thought as I shoved it into my wallet, that and that lady was sure smiling at me, probably glad she got rid of it as well. Well, it aint in my wallet anymore, so I don't know who got it. But one day, someones going to get burned.

I write checks. Only once or twice has anyone ever said no checks, but then I make them my offer. "I'll write you the check, you hold ??? for a couple of weeks, and after you've cashed it and spent the cash on whatever you want, family vacation and returned, whatever, you call me, and I will come pick it up". Never had a problem, nor has anyone ever cashing my checks.

Good luck everyone.

Mark

Guess you'd have to be afraid of hundred dollar bills then unless you had one of those special pens to mark them with.

If you hold a hundred bill up to light there is a thread in them that you can see. If you have good fealing in you fingers you can feal the thread. The thread is one thing they haven't copied yet as far as I know.

Sure they have, they bleach a one or ten dollar bill and reprint it as a hundred. They are finding bad bills in our area right now.

It can take over a month for a phony cashier's check to bounce on your account. Sellers beware.

I didn't know anyone still took cash. That's pretty old fashioned.

All bills over 1 dollar have a plastic strip in the paper with the bills value printed on it.

Those get counterfeited also. Usually takes awhile for it to show up as such but you usually get left holding the bag. You read about it on forums similar to this one where people get taken.

Mark