I was following then bid on a 2018taceuchi tb280 digger

did not think i would get it as I was being tight with bids --

anyway i stopped at 9K--it went on to 12 k--still sounded cheap 

auction ended 

then I get a message from seller saying winning bid was from polland and it would be 4 weeks before he could pay 

"would I like it?"

How much says  me

 £8750 says seller 

please send me chassis number so I can check its clear of finance 

 

 no suprise thats the last i heard  from them . and he had 100sales +100% rating 

 WATCH OUT BOYS 

plenty of scammers out there 

The safest way with stuff like that is don't pay with paypal, pay cash on collection.

 

I bough my digger from ebay, the other end of the market, a very old 3t Komatsu that I won for £2500.  I corresponded with the seller, agreed a collection date, organised transport for it. Turned up a bit before the transport was due, checked it over handed him the cash and loaded it onto the truck and followed it home.

Still risky if you end up buying something that’s stolen I guess. We bought a large twin axle Ifor Williams trailer before we moved up here. Advertised on eBay, collected it and cash paid. We used it extensively throughout the build for collecting things, disposing of rubbish etc and then sold it after about 8 years for more than we paid for it. No idea if it had a dodgy history or not TBH but it may have done. 

2 hours ago, ProDave said:

The safest way with stuff like that is don't pay with paypal, pay cash on collection.

This is how I would have done it, do your pre checks on line to make sure it’s legit and then verify numbers and condition on arrival before parting with cash. 

I came across a few scams when looking for my digger, mainly people trying to convince me if I paid by Paypal I was protected, but that's not the cause. The old saying "when it's too good to be true it normally is" really applies.