Buying, paying and avoiding scams

[dryhillsjon]

Hi from Brunei everyone!
I'm looking at a lovely bus at the moment which is in New Mexico. The problem is obviously that I am in Brunei and would like the bus shipped to the UK (if I'm happy with a pre sale inspection.) The main issue is that the seller wants to be paid in cash to avoid scams - fair enough. I have no issue with that. Any advice on how to do this? Can I forward money to a local lawyer and get them to handle the transaction and paperwork transfer before shipping? Has anyone else done anything like this? I think it's a lovely bus but obviously I don't want to get my fingers burned and neither does the seller. If anyone is near Rio Rancho and can recommend someone to help I'd appreciate it. Popping on a plane is obviously the best course of action but according to google maps I'm currently 8554 miles away so it's not really practical!!

Cheers
Jonathan

[theKbStockpiler]

Not all states have the same rules on this but it's worth looking into.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&a...zWXWDXh_HH
_________________
My beetle is not competing with your beetle. I have the yellow beetle in my town. There is a red one, a green one ......
Use all safety devices including a mask.

[Pruneman99]

Definitely an escrow situation would be safest but the seller may not want to wait to get paid and elect to sell it cash-on-spot. I know I would. (Unless we are talking a 50k or up transaction)

Maybe you could set up a local person to inspect and carry out the transaction in person? Then be in charge of the shipping State side? IDK, but it seems there should be folks to carry out such transactions. Maybe check out antique car dealers.

[theKbStockpiler]

The rule I use here in the states with Craigs List ads is to NEVER look at a car that is a inconvenient distance away unless you are multitasking because the sellers always lie about the condition.

If you look at the reviews of third party new-used inspections in the states they are mostly negative. A classic car inspection is going to be much worse.
_________________
My beetle is not competing with your beetle. I have the yellow beetle in my town. There is a red one, a green one ......
Use all safety devices including a mask.

[Pruneman99]

I have found the samba to be a huge resource for information, ideas, and most importantly people.

Try to find a unintrested member (in the transaction) on here that is close to make sure it's even a real deal? Again, CL is full of scammers, especially on out of state (or country) transactions.

Maybe post the link to the ad. Someone may be able to shed light on it's legitimately. I wouldn't take creedence on anyone unless they have a proven track record on here.

Run a Google search on the images of the ad. Scammers will use found pictures to create fake listings.

But from a seller's standpoint, this is your first post here as well.

Unfortunately, that's where we are in this day and age.

[dryhillsjon]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I have to agree that the danger is just simply getting tied up in knots when it comes to carrying out checks and evaluations of condition etc. At some stage a decision needs to be made - hopefully a good one for all involved. I also agree that me being new (and in Brunei) doesn't really help matters. I may as well start my email conversations by saying I'm from Nigeria and 'Hey it's your lucky day my friend.......'
Yes ideally I would buy local - but I'm not in a country drowning in classic VW's I can tell you. There may be 4 or 5 here that I have seen on the roads.

So the advert is this one - a very clean looking Sundial. Let me know what you think. There is also a link to a blog and a youtube video.

[https://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=2208082]

Many thanks for all your thoughts and ideas.
Jonathan

[busman78]

Find a classic car buyer service, here are two examples I googled.

https://www.nevadaclassics.com/services.htm

http://www.significantcars.com/