Auction Guidelines?

[burt777]

Yay! I've won an auction for a Jem 7VWH.

Now, i'm getting a bit nervous. It's not that i don't trust the seller. On the contrary. But i thought... let's be as carefull as possible, so started to look for Jemsites Golden Auction Guidelines. Either i've not found the forrest through the trees, or... could it be it's not there? I really expected some basic rules of thumb as a sticky right here. I've got a few questions i guess almost every beginning online guitar buyer has (or should have!)

Like:
What can i do to make sure i'm not ripped off? What should i ask? I've got pictures from the auction, a name (looks like an okay guy with the results google gives me) and a postal code and home town. Do i need to get his phone number and have a little chat? Some pictures of ID?
Ofcourse he wants to have the money first before he sends the guitar. I understand, but i was thinking... is there any way for me to make things safer?
Should i use a service like UPS or something...? He said he asked the postal office for some insurance, but didn't say what kind of insurance. Are there different kinds?

Thanks for your time!

[fettouhi]

Get his phone number and have little chat with him, so that you can work out how to ship the guitar. Get the guitar insured no matter what, either send it through UPS, FedEx or DHL all of them offer insurance.

Regards

André

[LLL777]

maybe try escrow?

[burt777]

He just mailed me that his post office offers Parcel Force services. First he said postage and insurance was going to be 50 pounds. Now he sais the shipping is 45 pounds and insurance is going to cost an extra 4% of the value (900 pounds * 4% = 36).

Isn't this way too expensive? (i really don't know, never done this before)

And does anybody have any experience or insights about Parcel Force?

Thansk again.