Personal email from Romania

PopeSock

I guess it's hard for Dracula to get a credit card.

Crowqueen

PopeSock wrote: »

I guess it's hard for Dracula to get a credit card.

If you look on European eBay sites, Paypal is not universally accepted and most people request bank transfer. When I lived out in Poland, everyone used it for payments we would normally make by credit or debit cards. So it's not so much the BT I would worry about, it's the postal service with an item of that value.

I've had a BT from Botswana once. There's nothing to worry about, although the high cost to the recipient is a factor the OP needs to consider. I used to regularly buy and occasionally sell by sending cash in registered envelopes, so I'm no stranger to potentially risky transactions, it used to be about the only way I could buy anything from Eastern Europe or while living there.

bylromarha

Thanks for all the advice.

Have decided not to do it.

porto_bello

bylromarha wrote: »

Have decided not to do it.

I'm relieved to hear this :dance:

The non-eBay/paypal account and google search enquiry all sounds rather dodgy to me.

Aside from this, a dubious postal service and highish value item are always best kept apart. It's just not worth the risk.

Good luck with finding a more promising buyer.

Crowqueen

The non-eBay/paypal account and google search enquiry all sounds rather dodgy to me.

We Brits are far too insular. This alone would not stop me sending. I found eBay through Googling for Soviet propaganda images, which I collected (and still collect), so he wouldn't be the first person to stumble upon what they were after this way.

Aside from this, a dubious postal service and highish value item are always best kept apart. It's just not worth the risk.

Meanwhile I hope the buyer finds what they are looking for. We are very cautious about this kind of thing in this country, but asking to pay by BT alone and living in a country where the postal service is iffy do not constitute a bona fide scam. Having been on the other end of this, I feel sorry for the genuine buyers in these countries trying to get things they can't find in their own country. I had a couple of guys in Latvia who wouldn't send anything to me in Poland for this reason, even though I had bought off them while back in England and had no real problems with the Polish postal service. My mother sent me packages of my favourite savoury rice while I was out there which you couldn't get in Poland. We're obviously talking higher value, but there is such a thing as being over-cautious.

Sorry to be awkward, but having had the experience of being the person on the other end, I see things just ever so slightly differently. Try living in another less developed country and you do gain other perspectives.

bylromarha

I've now received another email from Romania regarding the same product - but wanting 2 of them.

Makes me happier with my first decision to not send.