[AT] Selling tractors abroad

[John Hoffmann]

LeRoy,

    I am usually just lurking on this list but I have had experience in 
selling abroad. I sold an 8N that went to Ireland last year and it was a 
good transaction. When I was originally contacted I noticed that his 
email appeared to be a business address and when I checked out their 
website it turned out that I was dealing with a Ford New Holland dealer. 
Do what ever internet searching you can on your buyer. If the email is a 
hotmail or gmail account that would be a red flag in my eyes.
    Next, go to your bank and ask them if they can accept overseas wire 
transfers and if they can they will give you a list of instructions of 
how to have them send the funds. To do an oversees transfer the bank 
needs to have what they call a SWIFT code or in other words it is the 
routing number to accept foreign transfers. If your bank doesn't have a 
SWIFT number they will likely deal with a regional bank that serves as a 
receiver for them. Be sure to find out what the fees are for this 
service and add it to the selling price. If the buyer is legit they 
won't hagel with you over this because they have done this before and 
they know that  theses services  are not free. When I talked to my 
banker about the security of giving out the account numbers he assured 
me that through these channels the money can only travel one way and 
their is no way that the buyer can use the information that you supply 
to try to extract funds from your account. That why I say to see the 
banker to get the wire transfer instructions from them.
    The next thing that I asked of the buyer was to arrange to pick the 
tractor up at our farm. He was buying a number of tractors in the US and 
he had an auctioneer in Kentucky that picked up his purchases and 
consolidated them for container loading. If your buyer is actively 
buying he knows how to get it home so let him do the work of arranging 
shipment. You should have the money in the bank before you arrange to 
turn the tractor over. In my case it was almost two months after the 
purchase and payment before they came to pick up the tractor. The 
process could take some time I would be more comfortable with it taking 
more time instead of having it take less time. If they are pushing you 
with short deadlines be wary.
    Bottom line, I agree with the others that money orders and paper 
documents can be forged. Wire transfers are the common transfer of funds 
through out the world and they are safe and secure. And as the others 
have said our dollar is weak and we are going to see more and more 
tractors going overseas because the tractor collecting hobby is 
worldwide and with the internet we are truly part of a global market.
    I wish you well and feel free to contact me on or off list if you 
have questions.

John

LeRoy Price III wrote:
> Has anyone ever attempted selling an antique tractor abroad?  I have a party interested in my Allis B Cane
> in England.  Apparently, he is a AC collector and has contacts to haul a tractor to Canada where its loaded into
> a container and shipped across.  Payment is through something like paypal.  
>
> Anything to worry about?
>
> LeRoy
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