Am I nuts?

I sold some rare but not terribly expensive tractor parts on another forum. The buyer had to drive almost 5 hours and cross from the States into Canada in order to pick the stuff up. We couldn’t work out a time so I just left the stuff inside my shop door and told him to leave the money on my parts washer. He told me that he thought I was nuts to do such a thing. I’ve done it with lots of stuff and never had an issue. I’ve also picked stuff up using the same method. Is this really that rare and outlandish of a concept?

In reply to Wayslow :

For anyone in/from a city, absolutely. Or anyone from the meth/heroin-filled parts of rural US for that matter now. 

In Canada probably not. You guys seem to have a handle on the whole civilization thing.

If someone comes to my house to buy something I make sure all the roll up doors are closed and meet them in the driveway. There's no alarm on my shop and tools are expensive to replace. After I meet them face to face that may change based on my read of them.

Pete Gossett wrote:

In reply to Wayslow :

For anyone in/from a city, absolutely. Or anyone from the meth/heroin-filled parts of rural US for that matter now. 

This was a long way of saying... anywhere in the US this seems nuts. 

ultraclyde said:

If someone comes to my house to buy something I make sure all the roll up doors are closed and meet them in the driveway. There's no alarm on my shop and tools are expensive to replace. After I meet them face to face that may change based on my read of them.

This. I meet them in the alley next to my house and make sure the garage doors shut. Mine does lock but it's not a hard to defeat lock and usually I'm selling stuff cheap enough to get the occasional shady buyer.

In the US, yeah pretty nuts. But if someone is willing to drive 5 hours for something, they're probably pretty cool. 

I used to live in small town Ontario. You could walk through the mall parking lot and 20-25% of the cars had keys in the switch. Many more had them visible in the console. My administrative assistant came to work every day and didn't bother locking her house. Now I lock the house when I'm working in the garage. The distance between the two is 5 feet. Different worlds.

​​​DeadSkunk said:

I used to live in small town Ontario. You could walk through the mall parking lot and 20-25% of the cars had keys in the switch. Many more had them visible in the console. 

If I ever go back to auto  repossession, I know where to move. 

In reply to rustybugkiller :

They probably pay their bills early too:(

I've done that many times. Even sold a Jetta that way once. Left the ownership in the glove compartment, he left $500 in my mail box. That kind of thing is not out of the ordinary around here.

I only recently got a key for the house.  Wife locks the door now when I'm on nights since our dog died.

Yes, you are nuts 

20 or so years ago I was looking at buying a Taurus SHO. Same thing happened, the guy told me that he would leave the garage door open and I could help myself to the car/test drive it and if I liked it call him. He had to be at work. I got to his house and the car was in the garage next to an Acura NSX, both had the keys in the ignition. Even back then I thought he was nuts. 

Did not buy the car lol

Suprf1y said:

I only recently got a key for the house.  Wife locks the door now when I'm on nights since our dog died.

My wife locks the garage door if I’ve been working in the garage and have to run to the store.  

Ive bought several cars with personal checks.  What were those people thinking?

Yes, the correct answer is Yes 

I got burned trusting somebody on a deal with somebody who was supposed to be a  friend of a co-worker. I learned my lesson. I think you're nuts. 

Closest I came to that is i had a grand prix spoiler on Craigslist and was sick of flakes.  Guy wanted to come get it so i told him it would be sitting on the hood of my plow truck and if he wanted it to put $10 on the seat.  When I got home the spoiler was gone and there was $10 on the seat.  I wouldn’t try it with anything more valuable and definitely wouldn’t leave my shop unlocked for someone.  

No problem. I do it all the time. 

Don't really want to live any other way. 

I sold a guy a motorcycle helmet one time.  We couldn't agree on a time that worked with our schedules so he left the cash in an envelope in a truck in his driveway, I brought the helmet by and left it in the cab of the truck and took the cash.  This was near Baltimore, MD. 

Coincidentally, this is also how moonshine transactions take place in South Carolina.  So I understand, that is.