Hello all, Excuse the ignorance but I just wanted to know what is the general form of trade used on here when making a purchase? For example if F2F is not possible what are the other methods that are generally used such as bank transfers, Paypal etc... Interested in making some purchases on here but dont know the best methods of payment. Obviously buying off a long term member would be a safe way to start. I tried searching the forums but couldn't find any how to's. Any advice would be much appreciated.
Most purchases I have made on here with members are finished by personal messaging, where addresses and bank details are exchanged. I have never been asked for or offered paypal details but if you are doing an international transaction this would probably be easier. When you give out your address be aware that you are telling someone; You collect precious metals You have spare money to be spending on precious metals your home address You may not keep your metals or money at home, but you are opening yourself up to a certain level of risk and members on this site have been burgled, though I haven't heard of anything like that in the past couple of years. I personally get all my metals and eBay purchases delivered to my work address, the metals for security and the eBay so my wife doesn't work out how much I am buying. Australia Post rarely loses mail in my experience but if you are unlucky then you need to know who is taking the risk, the buyer or the sender. This needs to be worked out before hand. You may wish to pay for extra insurance, but be aware that Australia Post doesn't let you post coins, money or precious metals. If posting you can call them metal samples or medals, but good luck with that. Ask how they are going to send the items, most sellers know how to package them up properly, but I have had items shredded by automatic sorting machines and oddly, none of the items, including uncirculated banknotes and rolls of coins, ever showed up again. Generally boxes are the best way of posting metals, even if they then go inside post satchels, it is worth paying a bit extra for express and tracking. And have the address plastered all over the outside and inside of the envelopes, you can never over-label or over-sticky tape or over pad a consignment.
Thank you Jislizard for a thorough explanation. Much appreciated. I think a sticky thread like this may be good for other 1st time traders.
I can also suggest if sending goods via post to put them inside common items, like headphone packets, books, etc. Every bit of disguise helps.
It might be worthwhile mentioning that some members use the PayPal Gift or Family/Friends option for payment too. This way the payment is instant and there are no fees on the receivers end either. PayID is another new system up and running but some banks are not on it yet. That is also an instant payment method. By far and most the method I've used is the bank transfer. Normally it arrives in the sellers account on the next business day and once verified they send the items ASAP or as arranged with the buyer. All those methods have worked well for me.
I may add that if you are selling or trading you may be asked to send first, especially from well established members, as you are a new member. Don't take offence to such a request, but do send registerred. Enjoy the forum.
Get set up for an Australian Post parcel locker. This way you don’t give out your address and there is no chance the postie will leave it sitting on the front doorstep.
Another idea for postage is to use Australia Post's free Parcel Collect service. With that service you don't even need to give the sender your real name as you are given a unique number. An address would look like: Parcel Collect 12345 67890 Brisbane City East QLD 4002 When the parcel arrives the Post Office sends you an SMS telling you it is ready for collection. You can access the service by signing up for a personal account (MyPost) at https://auspost.com.au/mypost/auth/#/register if you don't have one. Next go to Alternative Addresses and click on the 'Add' button near Post Offices. Simple. Also, since there is no limit to the number of post offices you can add this service to, you can have your package turn up at any post office that suits. I even have one package delivered to a post office I was passing during my holidays once.
Yep. Beats paying for a PO Box. They say its for parcels only but i use it for registered also and never had an issue. Saves the postie a trip to my place.
Yeah they just keep it behind the counter like a normal parcel. You get a text message when its arrived and ready for collection. There are parcel locker addresses that you can get also that are 24hrs but not sure how those work exactly.
Parcel locker works the same as parcel collect except they put it in a locker. You can access the locker 24/7 with a combination of your mobile number and a single use code they send you. You have 48 hours to collect the delivery from the locker after that you have to collect from the post office. I like the parcel locker as I drive past one to and from work but outside normal post office hours.
When I sent out parcels or padded envelopes I also used the Parcel Collect address as the return address which is good for privacy. One time I had a padded envelope as a return and the PO emailed me saying "you have received normal mail to your Parcel Collect address, we will now redirect the letter to your residential address, sorry for the inconvenience". It is good for us and the PO as there is a lot of time wasted going to peoples physical addresses only to find the recipient is not at home. Then they got to leave a card and drive the item back to PO anyway. It's a very good win/win service for everyone. The PO BOX is good if you have a lot of deliveries and you can send all your mail (not just parcels) there too. They will hold items at Parcel Collect for 2 weeks maximum. For the PO BOX they will hold it for 30 days, so the staff tell me.
When you sign-up for the Parcel locker (parcel collect), you will get a parcel locker number. This is unique to every registered account at Australia post. The same number can be used to collect the parcels/letters at the nearest post office as well. All you need to do is to add your desired post office as the "Delivery address" in your Australia Post account and you will get another delivery address just like the parcel collect with the same number. You may add as many Post office locations as your delivery addresses as you like. The same could be used as a return address as mentioned by Silverling.