How to do a trade safely

[mahlertwo]

Hey all. I'm about to do my first trade of one horn for another, and I was wondering how to minimize risk involved.

[harrisonreed]

Have a contact and a lawyer involved.

There is no actual way to protect yourself without those things.

[hyperbolica]

Make sure the person you're trading with has been around for a while. I've traded horns successfully several times. Sometimes with extra money involved, sometimes with multiple horns, sometimes internationally. Just make sure you're comfortable with the relative valuation of the instruments and that the condition of all the horns is really clear and accurate. I've made trades that were not favorable in the past, but that was because I either really wanted something or really wanted to get rid of something. Just make sure you don't regret the trade you make.

[JohnL]

There are such things as escrow services. It'll cost you some money (both for the service and for the double shipping), but you're buying peace of mind. If you go with someone who specializes in musical instruments, they can actually do some inspection to make sure both items are nominally as described.

Any online seller who does consignment sales should be able to do an escrow - it's essentially a consignment, but without the work of having to stock and sell the item. Since you're doing a trade, you'd have to negotiate a price for their services rather than a commission based on the price of the item.

If the person you're trading with has done similar transactions in the past, maybe they can give you the name of some satisfied customers among the forum membership?

[elmsandr]

There are a number of online escrow services that do it for a value. Could also do a private auction on eBay (do they still offer those?). Problem may be that you have to essentially "sell" both horns to them in order to have it insured for the proper value.

Couple of thoughts on this:
1) if you do anything without insurance of the replacement cost, consider what you would do in that scenario BEFORE you go forward.
2) think of how many times you may do this over the years as you figure out what it costs to insure/escrow this. Then consider if that value is likely over or under the cost of doing it without insurance for all of the transactions. Be honest and consider how risky you are willing to be and how many transactions would have to go bad for this to be a problem. This becomes the effective, expect cost of your self-insurance.
3) never ship anything that you would be broke without. If things go south and it would ruin you... that isn't going to work out for you.
4) talk to your trading partner. They may have experience there, or they may have a problem with the cost of doing it some other way... you can learn a lot from the responses. And maybe they have a preferred method because they do this a lot.

Horns are expensive, but where you are in your life may be different from us. I self insure these days. I take that as a cost of doing business that I am willing to take on for any but the biggest moves. When I was not as flexible, I used private auctions on eBay and such to document the transfers so that everybody had a recourse if there was a problem.

Cheers,
Andy

[Elow]

I’ve only used an escrow when dealing with bitcoin, but it was a little bit of a hassle, but still turned out good. I’m not really sure how that would translate to trade and the condition of the items, but if you find a way to work that out then you should be pretty safe.

[CharlieB]

The Internet can be a dangerous place to trade, even with the financial protections suggested so far.
With no mutual hands-on inspections of the horns being traded, there is the possibility of misunderstandings between the traders regarding the descriptions of the horns.
Good communication between traders is important.
Get to know the trader by asking enough questions about him and his horn to assure yourself that he can be relied upon to describe his horn accurately. Unless he is a serious trombonist, there is the risk that the horn you receive from him may not live up to his (well meaning) description of its condition.
Be prepared to give your trader the same assurances about you and your horn.

[Driswood]

I did a trade with a person on the Chat Forum. I traded a horn for a horn and cash. New York to Florida.

Fortunately, we have a mutual friend who lives near me who could vouch for each of us.

Went off without a hitch.

[Crazy4Tbone86]

If I am suspicious that the person is not a trombonist and might be attempting a scam, I sometimes ask a question that can shed light on the situation. Years ago, I got into an online dialogue with a person who claimed to be professional trombone player selling a Bach 42. Something did not seem quite right about the conversation. So.....I asked him if the "transposing adapter" was in good shape. He responded and said "the transposing adapter was in great shape and worked like it was brand new." BINGO!

Of course, that method only works if you have a non-trombonist trying to make a shady deal. If you ask an actual trombonist that question......you start to look like the shady one!