Safest way to buy out of state from Armslist

[Skans]

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...but I won't take your personal check. Nobody else will either. Even waiting until it clears, the other bank can request their funds back.

I pay with personal check half the time. Lots of people still take personal checks. The other bank can't just request their funds back after the check has actually cleared. What people don't understand is that a check can look like it has cleared in only a few days. It hasn't. It takes about 10-14 days for the check to truly clear where funds can't be be returned. I have had this discussion with my banker friends about this. Funds do clear and there is a point where the funds can't just be called back.

I have and do take personal checks when selling something, so long as the buyer is willing to wait 14 days.

 

[MoGas1341]

@Nathan; I must add on, that it was not Armslist's doing... As far as I understand the story, a customer came into Don's shop asking if he could use Don's FFL to have a SCAR-17 shipped to his shop. Don said ok, and the customer gave him the fax# of the seller. After Don faxed his FFL, no SCAR ever showed up and the recipient of the fax (whoever they were) began using Don's FFL, pretending to be him and fraudulently plastering his FFL all over the place in order to sell/move firearms posing as him. According to the ATF, there were a ring of people involved in this scam and the 'ring leader' is operating somewhere out of India.

So now, his business practice is to contact the sender by phone, verify their name, an email and physical address before he will proceed. The buyer of the SCAR-17 definitely got burnt, and it created one daunting headache for Don to finally get everything sorted out.

 

[Tom Servo]

After Don faxed his FFL, no SCAR ever showed up and the recipient of the fax (whoever they were) began using Don's FFL, pretending to be him and fraudulently plastering his FFL all over the place in order to sell/move firearms posing as him.

And people wonder why I won't furnish a copy of the FFL to individuals. Luckily, there's an online system to verify the receiver's status.

It's one thing to meet in a face-to-face transaction, but for something being shipped across state lines, I wouldn't trust Armslist.