Trading basses - best method?

[nurnay]

I may be trading my Stingray with another forum member who joined quite a while ago, but only has 25 posts (not that it really matters). Those of you who have traded out of state, how did you handle it? My concern is if I send my bass first, I may never see his bass.

Thanks!

 

[MrMusashi]

now that is a difficult one..

normally i would suspect everything to work out fine, but there are those rare cases where bad things happens..
i have bought several basses from forum members and all deals have worked out fine. mind you they were halfway across the world, but still fine

perhaps the other party have some references here, at talkbass or perhaps he/she sells on ebay. good places to check them out.
also you might ask if there are any longstanding members in the sellers vincinity. they might pop over and take a look at the bass for ya.
there have been a few of those favors done as well in here...

MrM

 

[Caca de Kick]

I've done lots of strait-trades.....

Ship them on the same day with the same carrier. That way they arrive to eachother on the same day (UPS,Fedex). And of course, provide tracking numbers.

 

[Lonnystingray]

I can also confirm to the message from Mr. Musashi. I actually bought my Dargie from Mike (Caca de Kick, here above), paid for the bass, and waited for two weeks for the parcel to arrive. The only reason it took so long was Dutch customs, shipping from the USA to the Netherlands (Europe) took only three days.. I would do ity again any time..

I assume it also comes down to 'gut feeling'. Do as much research as possible, one of my arguments to go ahead with the deal with Mike was the years he has been a member, and the way he communicates.. That should give you some indication.

 

[OldManMusic]

I did a trade with another forumite. It was a gut feeling thing for me. I talked with them on the phone a few times before we made the deal. I also PMed a few other forumites to see if they had any negative experiences with the person. It was still a weird feeling shipping one of my MM babies off with the hope that I'd see another bass in return. In my case, it all worked out. If you go for it, I hope it does for you too.

 

[Holdsg]

sharing pics of packing the basses also helps allay fears.

 

[Basspro]

Ive traded a lot of basses with no problems so far.