Best way to buy expensive avionics from private seller?

jd21476

jd21476

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jd21476
I found a decent deal on some avionics that I may buy. My hold up is that Im in CA and the seller is in TX. I dont like the idea of just sending a few thousand $ to someone and hoping its a legitimate sale.

Any ideas?
 
First, how well do you know this person? For example, I seem to be on this site all the time. I've been to a bunch of POA events. Anyone could tell you that I'm an utter reprobate who shouldn't be trusted with the wheel of a Tinkertoy.

Second, what is the mechanism of payment? Do you have any recourse if the goods don't show up, or if they show up not working?

Last, there is no doing this without risk. The unit could arrive just fine and catch on fire next week. The only way you can get away from risk is buy new with a warranty.
 
How much savings? Has it already be registered with the manufacturer? Is the installer onboard with the plan?

I’ve bought used stuff, sold some too. I was looking for a G5 a few months ago, a guy had one for sale, locally. I never went far exploring the deal. The savings wasn’t great, it had a bit of age to it, not sure about warranty remaining, if any. With a new unit one usually gets full updates to start off fresh, not the case used.

Unless I’m saving a bunch, I like to start factory fresh with full software & database updates, add some warranty time too. The other part is dealing long distance with a potential unknown seller.

Like so many things, it depends. If it’s like a used KX-155 to slip into an existing slot, the seller is reputable, with a 30 day test policy, could be very doable.
 
I bought my KLN94 off a guy on Mooneyspace. He'd been on Mooneyspace for awhile, and seemed generally well regarded. Wound up with a good unit for a good price that works well. You just don't want to buy anything off a scofflaw like me.
 
My experience is mostly from the selling side (though I've bought a couple things and haven't been ripped off), but I find that in general if you are somewhat "known" on the forums (been around a while, some level of posting, etc), that there isn't too much friction to the sale. The only time I've had difficulty figuring out payment was selling a GTN650 that I had put up in a bunch of places, and a guy from Facebook was interested, but he wasn't on any of the forums, didn't know me and I didn't know them. We tried to work out an escrow arrangement, but he didn't want to pay the expense, and his counteroffers of sending it to his avionics shop (small shop, totally unknown to me) for inspection prior to funding wasn't working for me. I ended up selling it on BT to a guy who happily PP'd me the funds.

Know anyone on one of the forums who might be located near the person and could at least lay eyes on the merchandise? As a legit seller, I'm also generally happy to entertain requests for "weird" pictures of the items (I've even someone ask me to take a picture of the item with a printed picture of Nicholas Cage), to prove that I physically have the item. So you could try something like that to get "proof of life". Nothing is absolute of course, but someone who is willing to go through that trouble is usually interested in closing the sale.
 
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I was recently selling a pristine Garmin 530W. I'm in California. A potential buyer contacted me from Illinois. We made a deal on price, and then he would not (or could not) agree to any form of escrow. He was convinced that no matter what we agreed-upon, I was going to send him a 10 lb box of sawdust (his exact words). So, the deal fell apart and I ended up selling it to a local plane owner who picked it up.

While I was wasting time with the Illinois buyer who was convinced I was going to send him a box of sawdust, I researched companies that do escrows for avionics. The one I liked the most was Stein Air. www.steinair.com. I spoke with Stein and he explained their process. He was very professional, and the pricing was reasonable. But, Mr. Box of Sawdust would not agree to Stein, or anyone else, so the deal never happened. If I had to do it all over again, I would not hesitate to use Stein Air.

You might also consider contacting Chase at Avionics Source. www.avionicssource.com. He might have other ideas.

HTH.
 
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There are avionics shops that will provide a service receiving and checking that the unit works for a fee (Stein Air is one of them - have never used them).
 
Where in TX? might be able to get a recco on who can bench test it close to seller.
 
I've bought and sold all kinds of goods, including avionics, with nary a problem from people who passed the "sniff" test. (Okay, maybe that came out wrong... )

There's no such thing as a risk-free transaction, but if they walk the walk and talk the talk, are verifiable "people" in the real world, etc., I don't get too concerned about it. I've sent money in exchange for product sight unseen, with no contract, to receive it later. Sellers have also sent me products without payment. If you can't get to that level of trust as a starting point -- or failing that, you can't mitigate the risk with a logical tool such as escrow or other good faith measures between two parties -- it's probably not meant to be.
 
If you send money with paypal, which is a credit card purchase, I believe you have some protection. I have purchased items on ebay and had to activate the buyer protection option, which will protect the buyer and seller...but ebay does has a fee and sales tax to consider. Good Luck !
 
So the guy actually has relatives somewhat close to me in So Cal. He is willing to ship it to them and then I can buy it from them in person. Its brand new in the box with receipts and everything. Ill post an update when the sale is complete.
 
Doug Reid said:
If you send money with paypal, which is a credit card purchase, I believe you have some protection. I have purchased items on ebay and had to activate the buyer protection option, which will protect the buyer and seller...but ebay does has a fee and sales tax to consider. Good Luck !
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This

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So it all worked out. The seller actually had some relatives near me and I paid to have him ship it to them and then I went and looked at the G5 and once it was complete and new in the box, I just paid them for it and took it home.
 
Excellent! When things aren't as easy, though, I'd follow the advice from others in this thread and run (not walk) away if the seller objects to escrow via a well-established and trusted third party for anything expensive.

That refusal doesn't necessarily mean that they're crooked, but that's not your problem — as a potential buyer, you're not obliged to establish their guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
 
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