Shitty Rambo Posted July 10, 2013 Share Posted July 10, 2013 *This will eventually be merged into the Vinyl Collective Best Practices Policy... Thread* Lately I have noticed a running trend with potential scam reports, it seems like more often buyers are sending their payments as gifts instead of product payments. I strongly urge you all to NOT send your payments as gifts when buying records from another user. This essentially is you giving up any chance of ever getting your money returned should you be dealing with a scammer. The seller fee is not necessarily expensive. It usually won't be more than a couple dollars. Let's say you purchase records from a user for $30 PPD, an additional $1.17 will cover the $.30 + 2.9% seller fee and give you 40 days to file a claim if you do not receive your records. Sellers, if you want to keep your funds at the decided price simply add $.30 and an additional 2.9% to the total (https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/paypal-fees), inform your buyers that this additional price is there to protect both parties in the event that something goes South. Keep tracking information in case someone tries to open a case against you claiming they did not receive their records. You are all free to send your money as a gift if you trust your seller, just please keep this in mind. A little can go a long way. Be safe out there friends! No This Is Patrick, daegor, hzielaskowski and 2 others 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hipsterasfolk Posted July 10, 2013 Share Posted July 10, 2013 $_$ <= Needs to be a smiley added to VC now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dreamover Posted July 10, 2013 Share Posted July 10, 2013 http://www.thefeecalculator.com if a seller insists receiving the payment as gift, just add the fee and send as purchase. small price to pay for peace of mind. eisforerik, batnoises, Stickman31 and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Micah511 Posted July 10, 2013 Share Posted July 10, 2013 I feel like you should negotiate a price, then calculate the fees that need to be added on, and the buyer pays that. Most of the time it shouldn't be more than 3-4 dollars at the most. I've been one to request money as a gift in the past, but for the sake of both parties I'll probably do this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hipsterasfolk Posted July 10, 2013 Share Posted July 10, 2013 don't buy from sketchy people is always a good idea, then again all retina melted basement dwellers are members of VC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
konk Posted July 10, 2013 Share Posted July 10, 2013 Anyone that doesn't add the fee in when paying is a piece of shit anyway. agreetodisagree and homework 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jtcohenour Posted July 10, 2013 Share Posted July 10, 2013 Damn I wish I had seen this thread earlier. I just sent a 30.00 gift payment this morning. Hopefully the seller is honest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuzzersonKillwell Posted July 10, 2013 Share Posted July 10, 2013 Sometimes I require the seller to send as a gift if they have low or no feedback and a low post count to protect myself. In general I've had really positive experiences on here, gift or no. I'd wager you'll be alright jtcohenour. somethingvinyl 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdventureIsOutThere Posted July 10, 2013 Share Posted July 10, 2013 Anyone that doesn't add the fee in when paying is a piece of shit anyway. Maybe it's just you that is a piece of shit? vinyl addict and Die Laughing 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derrickcook19941 Posted July 10, 2013 Share Posted July 10, 2013 Got scammed out of 100 dollars. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derrickcook19941 Posted July 10, 2013 Share Posted July 10, 2013 Bought from the guy before and he shipped fine the first time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwhitmuzik Posted July 10, 2013 Share Posted July 10, 2013 Can't you not do a gift anymore? Someone has to pay the fees (unless the buyer has paypal balance). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
isavedlatin54 Posted July 10, 2013 Share Posted July 10, 2013 I have no problem gifting to established sellers. but would never gift anything over like $40 to anyone. jtcohenour and Requiescat 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jtcohenour Posted July 10, 2013 Share Posted July 10, 2013 Sometimes I require the seller to send as a gift if they have low or no feedback and a low post count to protect myself. In general I've had really positive experiences on here, gift or no. I'd wager you'll be alright jtcohenour. Thanks for your feedback. It looks like the guy has been bumping a thread selling a bunch of records for about a month and has already received feedback on a few he sold a few weeks ago. I think I'll be OK. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jtcohenour Posted July 10, 2013 Share Posted July 10, 2013 Bought from the guy before and he shipped fine the first time Damn that really sucks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jtcohenour Posted July 10, 2013 Share Posted July 10, 2013 Can't you not do a gift anymore? Someone has to pay the fees (unless the buyer has paypal balance). When I sent the payment this morning gift was not an option. I could only send a payment for merchandise or send to "friends and family" or something along those lines. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shitty Rambo Posted July 10, 2013 Author Share Posted July 10, 2013 When I sent the payment this morning gift was not an option. I could only send a payment for merchandise or send to "friends and family" or something along those lines. Friends/family is gifting jtcohenour 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TFP Posted July 10, 2013 Share Posted July 10, 2013 When I sell (which is rarely) I always ask the buyer to incur the fee on their end, I know not to ask for a gift amount. But Rambo has a good idea to just start adding what would be the fee to the original price. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mauledbyabeer Posted July 10, 2013 Share Posted July 10, 2013 Hopefully after reading this people on the board will be more careful. What sucks is that scammers are what are making this community much more negative than it ever has been.. shit is getting out of control. On the old board this wasn't happening as often as it is now it seems. I had been preferring my buyers to send payments as gift to avoid fees however I always urge all of them before the deal is agreed to send whichever method they choose. Now, it should be common practice on this board to send as payment no matter who you are, that way it eventually should shy scammers away from attempting such a thing and in return make this community more safe and enjoyable to trade. jtcohenour 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gmoney Posted July 10, 2013 Share Posted July 10, 2013 I request people pay as a gift, but maybe a little different since I've been here forever. I just hate giving 'the man' any more money than I need to. If someone ever requested no gift payment, I would just request the extra Paypal fees. No complaints yet, but I feel for the people that get scammed - seems to be happening more and more lately. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turnstiles Posted July 10, 2013 Share Posted July 10, 2013 I've sent as a gift to at least 5-6 people on the board and I've never gotten screwed. I like to believe that people are inherently good. However, if this is a new policy and we all start doing it I will follow suit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
castaway Posted July 10, 2013 Share Posted July 10, 2013 I've always asked the buyer to send it as a gift if they're feeling nice, but if they're not comfortable with that then it's perfectly fine and I just incur the extra fee. Basically I just leave it up to the buyer to be courteous or not. And if they send it as a gift maybe I'll include a few cool stickers or something. jtcohenour 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daegor Posted July 10, 2013 Share Posted July 10, 2013 As a seller, I always think about all associated fees when coming up with a price. If it's PPD with someone on the board, then I'm thinking about that PayPal fee (as well as shipping, packaging, etc) before accepting the price. It includes the fee, basically. If it's Discogs or eBay or something, I work the associated fees into the amount I charge for shipping. It doesn't matter how well regarded a user or seller is, shit happens. I order a of shit from Brent at Broken Circles, and have had two packages disappear while crossing the boarder. Brent is the awesomest dude ever, but it's the MAIL I don't trust As a seller, I WANT the buyer to transact correctly and not use 'Gift'. I've never had a dispute where I've gotten screwed, I line my ducks up. Worst case scenario (which has happened a few times to me), mail disappears, claim is opened, PayPal refunds the buyer, I provide enough proof that I actually DID mail it and I'm in the clear. One particular instance really sucked because it was for a super-rare CD which just vanished (or the buyer was jerking my chain), if I didn't have the correct documentation I would have been out $250+. minor incident and dreamwolf 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle_ftl Posted July 10, 2013 Share Posted July 10, 2013 It's unfortunate that people are taking advantage of this and scamming other people out of their money. There's plenty of people that I've gifted money to, and I guess moving forward I'll just be a bit more careful about it. I've never been ripped off, but sometimes I worry about that happening, especially when making a trade with a brand new person I've never met on here. Generally, for me, if someone has a good amount of positive rep, I feel more comfortable sending them money as a gift. I guess I'm just lucky I haven't run into any shady sellers thus far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kylebutcher5 Posted July 10, 2013 Share Posted July 10, 2013 I've stepped away from a few deal because people ask for gifts, and when I said I'll gladly pay the product fees, he said for a 25 dollar record I'd have to pay an additional 5 dollar fee. That was sketchy so I backed away even though he had some positive and neutral feedback Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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