Online Private Sales

Just remember: If you send via PP family, any resulting scams don't let you use the PP safe guards. No business deal. No Protection.

If you want protection, the trick is to use F&F with a credit card, not with the money that sits in your PayPal account. If you are the victim of a scam, a good credit card offers safe guards and protections similar to PayPal G&S

I’ve asked three sellers to provide ID for safety buying off any secure platform, identity theft wasn’t such a big thing in Europe but it’s now on the rise and I recognize I would be reluctant to provide the same.

I simply don’t think I would engage in any such transaction nowadays.

I’ve been burned once on Reddit for a $10k deal and I”ll never buy
that way again. It all worked out in the end meaning I had to spend more than I wanted to and a trusted dealer helped (bailed) me out but I learned a valuable lesson. Even considering an individual seller’s “stellar” reputation and large amounts of positive feeback, it only takes one bad deal and they don’t have much to lose. I also learned to use a broker for the transaction in amounts over $3.5k. For Rolex and such, I now only buy from AD, my dealer, or the trusted greys. Way too many fakes and bad polish jobs which are not apparent without looking at in person and removing casebacks.
My 2¢