Official Luthiers Forum!

You can call me the one that doesnt trust anyone, but I have a question about selling guitars at shows.

This may have been covered before, but how do you assure that you are actually paid for the guitars? With so many people writing bad checks, having credit cards that have been stolen, etc, do any of you have good advice on the money transactions for sales at guitar shows?

Is paypal the only acceptable method for payment (besides cash)?

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Reguards,

Ken H

I have been lucky and never had a problem. So very highend guitars went out and all went well. paypal is one of the best methods next to cards. cash is always great
john hall
blues creek

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

I remember a discussion about this, and I THINK it was here.......

long time ago though......

cash or paypal was the suggestion then ASFAIR

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My soundclick xx luthier blog xx luthier soundclick

At the Healdsburg show, LMI handles the sales.
Im sure youcould do it your self too, but for me it worked out great to have LMI take the customers VISA card payment. Then LMI issued me a check for the same amount.

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

I asked Claudia about this a while back. She said that they will be able to process credit cards for us at the show.

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Don Sharp
Got Brazilian?
http://www.sharpguitars.com

That is a good point. Is this show going to do anything like that?

If not, are any of the luthiers running a cc machine? Maybe we could pay them a fee to run the transaction for us.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Ken, to your question.

If there is no way to run a cc transaction there, I would do something like this.

If they can pay via cash or pay pal immediately great, if not....

Take a $400 - $500 NON-REFUNDABLE deposit as cash (most banks only let people take out $400 at any one time via ATM) to hold the guitar and mark it as sold. Then give the buyer a few days to either give you a check or send you certified payment. You can deposit it, verify the funds, and ship the guitar. I might even throw in free shipping.

This way you can seal the deal yet cover your butt for bad checks etc.

Once you take a deposit, I might even mark it NOT FOR SALE - RESERVED and create a "waiting list" if the first buyer tanks.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

I wonder if this would help: Hand the buyer their new guitar, and pull out your digital pocket camera. Say, "Can I get a picture of you with your new guitar?", and snap a couple. I would think that folks who write bad checks or do fraudulent credit card transactions would be reluctant to have their photo taken (evidence.) If you get a bad feeling at that moment, follow your gut instinct.

Dennis

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Dennis Leahy
Duluth, MN, USA
7th Sense Multimedia

Ken ol buddy...I can weigh in on this. My company takes all forms of payment and I have had the least amount of trouble with cash and Paypal.

Problem with credit cards is if the customer gets home, after driving home and dinging the guitar him/herself, the customer can call the credit card company and dispute the payment. 3 times I have had to submit signed contracts and scopes of work to Visa for this very issue. Customer screwed something up and tried to screw me in the process. Eliminate this by making the customer have the dispute directly with you.

Problem with cashiers check's is validity...not to mention the fact that you should be wary of someone presenting you with a cashier's check on the weekend...especially for an amount that has never been discussed before...by and with a complete stranger.

Personal checks - no way - so many are on the moon right now.

If you take a large sum of cash you need to be prepared to mark each one with one of those ink test pens. I have turned over several hundred FAKE dollar bills to the bank.

The cool thing about Paypal is that if you have a laptop on hand...and a way to access the internet (like I do with my phone tethered to the laptop)...you can do the transfer right in front of the concerned parties. Done. I do this often also.

Hope this helps.....and I hope you cross the next hill....

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There is no difference between the man that thinks he can....and the man that thinks he cannot.

Also, most hotels these days have WIFI (wireless internet) available that you can access via your laptop - check to see if the site of the show has wireless access, and if so, you can easily use a laptop computer to do the Paypal transaction...

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Mitch