international buyer,

I have also done an international sale. Easy as pie to receive money. Bank transfer ("wired money"). Just to obtain a comfort level, however, phone your bank and get the specifics with respect to the risk involved, etc.

remember Paypal charges another ~1.1% on top of their 2.9% for internation money conversion. I have done paypal and bank transfers before. Both have been painless. Shipping with insurance is the risk because typically you can't insure it. Try to use USPS for shipments but they won't ship large components. then you ahve to look elsewhere.

As everyone has said, use your gut feeling and yes there is a Cashiers check scam where they send you too much and want you to wire the money to another account ASAP...

If you don't have a tracking number to track the item to the buyer's door, you are at risk of Paypal chargebacks. I probably will not ship international again. Three times in the last three months I am out the purchase price, plus Paypal fees, plus the merchandise to chargebacks with international buyers. All three times customs and postage info were forwarded to Paypal with no effect. All were Ebay auctions. That could be the main problem. Paypal is an Ebay company.

I have never had a problem, buying or selling to Singapore, HK, Germany, Italy, Australia and Canada. Without excellent Audiogon feedback that you can verify, I would only do Western Union or wait for a money order or cashiers check to clear. Guess I've been lucky.

I just got the Nigerian scam, too. I think they have raised it to a new level now, though. He wanted it picked up the next morning by FedEx, because he wanted to present the item to his "club" the next weekend. I told him to cancel the pickup and I would deliver it myself to FedEx drop-off when I got the second email from Bid Pay.

Well, both emails from Bid Pay came simultaneously. That has never happened to me before. Plus, there were grammatical errors and no html or links to the Bid Pay site. They looked fake.

I checked my checking account for the deposit from Bid Pay and there was nothing there. Then, I checked Bid Pay and there was no record of a transaction. So, now they are forging Bid Pay emails and not even bothering with initiating a Bid Pay payment.

What I don't understand is that he wanted it shipped FedEx Priority to Nigeria. The cost of this must be quite high...at least $150.00, I would think, for a 30 lb. item worth only $200. What if I shipped him a box of rocks? He probably has a bogus FedEx account, too.

His emails came from a nyc.com and a yahoo.com address. He used them interchangeably.