Good Faith Deposit?

[gordon2]

Originally Posted by thrifty bill

Again, if you make the deposit through PayPal as a purchase, ...

That sounds like a gray area.

First because the PayPal policy talks all about purchases, and not deposits. But more because its says this:

Payments for the following are not eligible for reimbursement under PayPal Purchase Protection:

...
Vehicles, including, but not limited to, motor vehicles, motorcycles, recreational vehicles, aircraft and boats.
....

Is a non-motorized camping trailer a recreational vehicle? Wiki thinks so.

I suspect if PayPal did not want to extend protection to a deposit made on a camping trailer sold on the Internet, then they would be within their policy to do so.

[thrifty bill]

The more common the model and size (think Scamp 13 and Casita 17), the more likely you will find something relatively local. This is location specific of course. If you live in eastern MT you probably will not find anything local. On the extreme end of deposits you have Lil Snoozy, 40% down up front with very long lead time. People don’t seem to have a problem doing it. Sure, the deposit is with a manufacturer and not an individual but there are numerous FG mfrs that went out of business.

Ultimately the seller has the right to require a deposit and you as a buyer have the right to look elsewhere.

Never assume just because the ad is posted here that the deal is more legitimate.

[redbarron55]

A picture with the person holding the newspaper and the tag in view is a little harder to photoshop, but possible.
Most scammers somehow avoid showing the tag as that can be tracked etc.
I laugh when some pictures here for sale show snow in them. (Florida)

[CPrice]

Thank you thrifty bill for your great teaching moments.

[trainman]

One thing I dislike on ads is a pic of what they say they are selling and it's a pic of the item new from the manufactures pics and not an actual pic of the item for sale. I have purchased many motorcycles from Craigslist and and have not pursued, or even looked at many because of this type of pic, or the item being showed looked like everything around it was a pig pen, or just trashy looking in the background. I feel that people take care of there stuff, just as the way they live. Pictures say a thousand words and a pic with non-favorable surrounding says it all in most cases.

trainman

[Dr C]

Sounds 🎣 fishy to me. I would only put a down payment on a RV that was ordered from a dealer. Then there is a legal paper trail.

[thrifty bill]

Doesn’t sound fishy to me. When some of these FG trailers sell in a day or less, sellers may have no interest in holding the trailer. We sold our last one in four hours and got bombarded with out of area buyers. Sold it to a local person instead.

You either wait for one to pop up locally or you may have to put down a deposit. New is always an option.

I have sold a lot of stuff on C/L over the years, mostly vintage bicycles. The world is FULL of buyers that never show up.

Any deal has the chance to be fishy, both for buyers and sellers. Sellers get scammed too. Most common is the bogus certified check, then they “overpay” for the item, get cash back from the seller, and take your item. A week later you find out the certified check was bogus. You are out the item and out the cash you gave back.

[Dr C]

Maybe I am just old, but giving money to a stranger is not how I created our retirement nest egg. I get all the reasons why the sellers would want a deposit, but “first come first served” is the best motto for both parties.

[MTRCYCMAN]

You definitely don't want to send any money to the seller sight unseen. But, there are several escrow companies that you can use to make a transfer. If the seller is not a scammer he/she usually won't have any objections to using an escrow company.

The escrow will generally hold the money for you with an agreement to give it to the seller at an agreed upon date pending your approval.