I have a C7 Z06 on order. Selling my 2008 C6 Z51. It is sitting on AutoTrader.....and I am gun shy of out of state buyers. Already encounter the PayPal scam 3 times yesterday. Now I have a guy who is interested in the car, but wants me to send a picture of the title, picture of VIN on Dash, and Door..... Any advice? suggestions? Comments?

 

I havnt been scammed but once but e bay stood behind, check with Pay Pal about there policy, I took a personal check for $ 76.000 for an 11 ZR1, My sphicter was a little on the tight side, but I had good LISCENSE # and his mothers liscense also, also they lived close by. Auto trader does pretty good as i have a Lotus on there now making room for the new Z06

 

Your probably dealing with your alter ego on the other side of the fence, he wants to make sure the car and paperwork are legit. A picture of the VIN doesn't hurt, and you could send a basic view of the title if you have it, just gray out all the info he doesn't need to see, just needs to see the VIN and your name. Where is the guy from?

 

 

I was thinking the same thing....paper over title number....and maybe text saying for verification only. The guy is from Phoenix....

 

Most people are serious about buying a Corvette. Do you have your car listed in the C6 Z06 sales section? Maybe you feel a little better. I sold both of my Corvettes in the for sale section......and they were non-forum members. Most of the time, buyers need the VIN in order to run a history on the car.....especially if there are several owners. Also, if there is a personal check, your bank can check to see if the funds are there for so much of a large amount. Hope this helps you confidence a little.

 

I have to add to the C6 FS section....the VIN is on the AutoTrader Site...maybe he want proof of the VIN I posted?

 

You will be fine......good luck to you!

 

In a similar thread a few months back someone said they use their banker as an informal escrow agent. Banker holds signed title and paper work until funds are wired into the sellers account whereupon the banker FedEx's the paperwork to buyer. This gives both buyer and seller some piece of mind. Buyer can call bank and speak to banker, confirm banker has executed title, etc. Seller and buyer work our delivery between themselves.

I have a personal banker so I thought this was a great idea. If you don't have a relationship with someone at your bank, now might be a good time to get one. Go to your branch and seek out someone.

For everyone's benefit, could you explain the "Paypal scam"? I don't think I know this one.

 

Doesn't hurt anything to give him the VIN, people use it to search CarFax all the time. I would write "COPY" across the copy of the title in large print just to be on the safe side, but I don't think there's anything a scammer could do with a copy of the front page of the title. There are a lot of people out there using pictures of other people's cars and scamming buyers out of deposit money, so it's not unreasonable for the guy to be checking up to make sure you actually own the car.

I had a guy from Minnesota and another from western PA contact me about my car when I was selling, I'm in Maryland. I also sold my last Mustang to a guy in South Dakota. (i didn't tell the car that was where she was heading - I think she might have refused to go if she knew what she was in for LOL) You just have to be really careful. If there's a hint of "pay my shipper from the proceeds" or anything like that run.

It's usually easy to tell the scammers by vague language, like "your item" or "your car" and all they ask is "your final price" and "what is the condition of the item". The second you see that crap, report them and delete.

FYI, I posted my car here on the forum, with three online sales companies (Autotrader, Cars.com and a new forum seller - Global Autosports), and also on a couple Facebook sites. I received 2 serious calls from the over $400 in ads that I posted, a few "get real, get serious, be realistic" trolls on the ad that Global Autosports posted here on the forum. My car sold in less than 3 weeks from the initial ad posting. It sold for $5000 over KBB RETAIL value and over $16,000 more than what dealers were offering, but it sold to someone that saw the car in person at a show and fell in love with it. It was too specialized a car to sell from ads and pictures in this case because it was a custom show car.

I've had a lot of luck selling through online ads in the past however, this time not so much. And the best part of it is, online ads give you a much broader market for a car depending on where you live in the country.

My best advice, take as many pictures as possible and give as detailed a description as possible. People who are internet shopping will not give more than a couple seconds to your ad if they don't see enough to peak their interest. Otherwise, they're just going to move onto the next one on the list. Especially if you're a private seller vs. a dealer.

 

Here is what I seen on Pay Pal scam....I have had about 4 different people email or text me with the same lines listed in this link.

https://www.scamwarners.com/forum/vi...hp?f=6&t=69091

 

I have sold about 10 cars online and get the standard paypal scam all this time. Just ignore it. Look for buyers claiming they aren't present to make the purchase for any reason and off the bat offering more to cover paypals fees. Any real buyer will try to get a better price. I have only ever accepted wire for payments and normally put "no paypal" in the listing... Providing the vin is not issue.
If you sell on ebay you can arrange for a deposit via paypal or full amount. Again I like wire for balance but if its done via eBay's checkout paypal will cover any fraud.