Hi Bob,
A final note. Don't give out any personal information beyond what you would
expect to divulge in a state side sale. There is no significant difference in
selling locally or overseas. The shipping issue is obviously more involved. As
you appear to be already doing, organize the transaction on your terms. If
this guy is nervous about that approach, suggest using a broker in the US who
can
create an escrow account and manage the transaction. The broker would collect
funds from the buyer, verify their authenticity and hold them until the buyer
receives the car. Once the buyer is satisfied as per the terms of the sale,
the balance of the funds (beyond the deposit) would be released to you. Insist
that the deposit be nonrefundable. After all, you are putting a lot of time
and energy into this. I've always sold cars using a nonrefundable deposit
policy.
Above all else, have the funds wire transferred to your bank account from the
buyers account in Japan. There is a small fee involved (probably under $100)
but it's the only way to make sure the funds are legitimate. Ask your bank to
take the extra step of auditing the transfer just to be doubly sure. Never,
ever accept a cashiers check or money order from an overseas source. They can
appear to be authentic but will tie up the bank's clearing process for weeks
because they are drawn on a foreign bank. Banks handle these foreign cash
checks
in various ways and sometimes will release funds to you without an adequate
holding period. Ultimately if the "cash" check turns out to be fraudulent, your
bank will take action to retrieve the funds back from you.
Just use common sense. If this guy is legit and wants the car bad enough,
then he should be doing most of the work in spite of the language barrier. I
regularly do business with the Japanese and believe me, they are well versed in
international commerce, especially with the USA. There would be plenty of
resources for this guy to avail himself of in order to efficiently facilitate
the
sale. Probably only 25% or less (my guess) of the Japanese population would
have
the financial resources to go auto racing and that would indicate to me that
this person should have the monetary means to be able to organize an
acceptable purchase transaction without much help from you.
Just my 2 cents.
Dennis Reed
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