Son put his car on Craigs List in Minnesota. He was contacted by a buyer in Colorado who says he wants to fly in late Saturday night, meet near the airport and will only pay cash. $29,000. This is a one year old Mustang with some desirable package.
It could be legit, but H and I say he should insist on the transaction during banking hours and if the buyer refuses then refuse the sale. Or tell the guy that he will hold the car for 2 weeks until he can get to town during bank hours. Even an early Saturday would work. We have no way of verifying that the cash is legit.
There are cash buyers out there… CO has legalized weed… Just saying. But!!! It does sound fishy. How is the buyer going to conduct a test drive? At night, on a Saturday, near the airport…
I think you are on the right track with the suggestion of making the transaction during banking hours.
I wouldn’t trust it. We have sold cars on CL, but H usually meets the person in a public parking lot during business hours and never goes alone. I have heard of too many bad things happening with CL to trust it 100%.
Our police station encouraged online sales activity to be transacted in the parking lot directly in front of the station, with signs posted that it is under 24 hour video surveillance.
We once had a buyer show up at our house with small bills. He and his wife hunted and sold mushrooms for a living.
He arrived after banking hours and I worried all night that he would return for the $11,000 cash he
had given us in small bills.
No, have him wait until banking hours and meet at the bank itself.
Re: the suggestion of a cashier’s check, Craigslist warns against accepting a cashier’s check, saying “banks cash fakes, then hold you responsible.” In other words, if the bank accepts the cashier’s check but it is later determined to be a fake, you’re out the money.
I agree with everybody else – banking hours, a safe location, and have the money deposited before handing over the car. Perhaps your should even call his bank ahead of time and be sure someone would be on site to verify the authenticity of the bills.
Great minds think alike! Thanks for all the comments and I will pass this on to my son. (years ago he became a true believer of the collective CC wisdom).
I have also read about bad cashier’s checks… Yikes!
I’ve read about bad cashier’s checks as well. There are a lot of crooks and dastardly folks out there. Caution is a good thing. It’s great that your S bounces these concerns and issues off of you, to get your insights!
Another very bad thing that can happen with cars especially is if ownership papers showing that the vehicle was sold and the name & contact info of the new owner aren’t timely registered, the original owner can be accused of doing all the things that the new deadbeat owner that doesn’t register did (unpaid traffic tickets and worse). This happens MUCH more often than one might think and can be a HUGE headache.
I like the idea too, of doing it at the bank. In addition to the bank inspecting the bills, it also gives the advantage of having a Notary on the spot for the title transfer.
When we bough a car for cash, the seller asked us go to our bank’s branch with him and get a cashier’s check in his presence. Then we were off to his bank to deposit it. Then the title was transferred. A bit paranoid? Maybe. But we were fine with that scheme.
These days, it makes sense to be cautious. When we sold a car, we were paid cash and we offered to be responsible for registering the transfer of ownership and paying the minimal fee to do so. We went to the satellite city hall that day to be sure the ownership papers were properly handled.
How do you deal with plate surrender in a situation like this? When we delayed plate surrender for a couple of months for our D’s car, we kept getting fines in the mail for photos that misread someone else’s license plate as hers. Once it was a bus! I’m sure this isn’t the worse thing that can happen.
Do not let some unknown person take the car with your plates on it!
In our state we have traffic cameras, and owner of car is responsible for all tickets.
Also, if person has an accident, your insurance would be involved.
The whole thing smells and I totally agree with others, I wouldn’t do that. It could be the buyer is quirky, but this kind of thing is a classic, cash (which may or may not be good, typical trick is the cash is bundled, outside has a couple of hundred in good bills), quick sale under oddball circumstances to pressure it into happening fast. Plus in doing it this way, the buyer likely would want to ‘keep the plates’ until they got it registered, since he can’t register the car until the sale is completed…
If the car is worth that much, your S will be able to find a buyer who is legitimate at that price, and if that is well above what book value seems to be, even more fishy.