Re: [OT] A simple question on trading Message #8 Posted by Bill (Smithville, NJ) on 25 June 2004, 11:03 a.m., in response to message #1 by Valentin Albillo
Hi Valentin,
>> Should both persons send their items out more or less at the same time ?
I have done quite a few trades, and that's how it was done each time. All my trades have worked out okay. I only got worried on one trade. This was a trade with a gentleman in Holland. I had shipped my item using air mail so that he received it in one week. Then I waited and waited.. Turned out he had shipped by surface and it took 6 weeks to arrive. But all worked out in the end and I was pleased that I had made the trade.
On all trades, I do the following:
1. Have multiple correspondence with the person to try to determine if I have a "warm fuzzy feeling" about the integrity of the person. This is similar to having a long conversation with a perspective seller at a Ham Radio Ham Fest (Flea market). If I don't have a "good" feeling from the correspondence, then I probally will not do the trade.
2. I always do a Web search. Has the person posted to the HPMuseum site? Has he posted to other forumns? From the postings, I can get a better feeling about the person.
3. Does he offer his phone number with out being prompted for it?
4. I always use the Web to try to verify the shipping address matches the person and that the phone number matches.
Above being said, I have had many excellent trades. In addition, I have had many many nice suprises.
In one case, I traded a HP-45 for a HP-25. The gentleman e-mailed that he had accidently damaged the HP-25 he was planning to send and offered to send a different one, which I accepted. Then after I had received the HP-25, he sent a second, better quality HP-25, and told me to compare them and just return the one I didn't want to keep. That was very trusting on his part. I made my selection and shipped the second HP-25 back to him with a nice thank you.
Of couse, if I do enough trades, sooner or later, one will go bad. As long as I do my research before the trade, it's a risk I'm willing to take. With proper research, the risk is probally no higher than buying something on e-bay or elsewhere on the web.
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