I know, I know, SCAM SCAM SCAM......... With that being said I have my Yellow 73 listed on thesamba and a few other places. I received a email from my samba ad for a person in Belgium:

"Good evening, I'm interested in your 914. Is the price negociable ?
Is there a possibility to bring the car to the nearest port to ship to Belgium ? Of course with help from a compan !
Thanks in advance for a reply
Best regards,"

So while my spider sense is going off this email has me wondering. I am ok with selling the car to someone outside the US, but what is the correct process? I would assume someone on the board here has done it. So any tips?

Thanks.

via one of the great lakes and the st. laurence seaway? you never know, could be legit.

I sold my old 6 to someone in Finland and it went well!

First they had to trust me by direct wire transfering the money to my account and wait until the money was able to be moved to another account! I waited two weeks before filling out the pink slip and e-mailing and mailing it with a recipt to him. He made the shipping details and I sent a change of ownership to DMV. My car was not running so I couldn't deliver it to the dock so he sent a transport company to take care of that part! He then sent me a link to follow the ship as it traveled from Los Angeles to Finland!

It was kind of cool to watch!!

The key was to use an ACH service or SWIFT since the person is required to go down to thier bank branch to initiate the transaction and directly transfer from thier account with available funds!

http://berlinmotorscarshipping.com/

I sold my '87 Carrera to a buyer in Germany. Wire transfer then wait a few days. Not a big deal since they had to arrange for a shipper from Charleston to pick up the car so I had plenty of time for the check to clear. I required them to send me a photo id.

Lots of buyers from Europe these days

Details please

Companys like berlinmotors.com deliver a full service package, like money transfer,
car inspection in the name of the buyer with photo documentation, insurance, full transfer, if wanted, to garage front ow the buyer, taxes and so on....

Do you have a banker?

Um yes I do.

Thanks for the input guys. I will research http://berlinmotorscarshipping.com/ and forward the info along to the possible buyer. Stay tuned.....

Both ACH, SWIFT and Fedwire are FDIC approved methods of transfering money and used by many overseas banks to send billions of dollars back and forth! My wife works for the company that owns SWIFT so when I received my transfer she had one of the employees watch it pass through the system.

You won't know which one your bank uses unless you ask them but I think the European banks prefer SWIFT.

Only accept direct bank wire transfer, a process that has been in place for 50 years or more.

The Europeans know how to do it.
They walk into the bank and fill out paperwork and transfer the money.
they are on camera so it has a considerable audit trail.

Get the money, thn send the car.

Buyer initiates all shipping, it's brokered, you just be home for the local ramp truck.

Being on the tomhet side I can give my experince when Shipping Car out of The US.
I live in Norway and have imported some cars to Norway.
I try to get familiar with the seller, as scam can go both ways.

When emails with pictures etc has been viewed, I transfer money to the sellers bank.
Title and bill of sale signet and countersigned.
When seller has confirmed the money transfer, I have the car picked up, or seller help with transport to port.

When shipping from west coast I use california shipping.
Shipping from east coast I use a small company with great support called strait lines to to the paperwork.

Imported 2x 930 and one 914-6 GT project bought from this forum.
Helped friends with other cars, 993 C4S,

All purchases has gone with no issues

And so the scam emails begin.

"Good to have your reply. I am Cody from Saint Paul, MN. and would have loved to come and inspect this at your place myself, but I am a marine engineer and presently off-shore I do not have access to phone facilities. I am buying this for my son in Washington as a surprise gift, and he is a mechanic,My son will take care of any minor fault the vehicle may have. I'm ready to pay your asking price and to be honest and pls just make sure it is in condition described. I will appreciate more pictures if available and will be sending your money asap. My shipper will be available to pick this up as soon as payment its made. My only quickest payment option is PayPal as i can send money via PayPal anytime. Since I'm requesting this transaction to be done via PayPal, i will be responsible for all the paypal fee/charges on this transaction and if you don't have an account with paypal,its pretty easy, safe and secured to open one. Just log on to www.paypal.com its good for business payment. Confirm sale to me and remove the add from posting. So i look forward to hear from you.

Your PayPal e-Mail Address :
Full name:
Firm Price:

Many Thanks"

I sell complete cars with three forms of payment.

Cash, simple
Personal check, simple
Bank wire transfer.

I am new to 914s, so please tell me why so many Europeans buy cars like the 914 that are made there and assume are in many numbers?

Run!!!

There are few junk yards, fewer barn finds, and the dollar sucks versus the euro.

So, they buy our rung and stock cars, ship them over and fix them up over there.

It will flip around again if the dollar ever climbs back up in value.

RUN!!!

You will get emails from people that English is a second language.
They may be real buyers, so talk with them.

Sold many cars overseas, it's actually fun and kinda cool.

Sold one to Norway. One to Germany. Norway was handled by an international wire transfer. I had to give him a little information which my bank assured me was safe. Transaction went well. He had me meet a truck down the block from my house to truck it to Long Beach Harbor. Last I heard from him, he was having trouble getting the door unlocked which I couldn't help him with as I never locked the doors so never had the problem.
The one to Germany went even smoother. Buyer sent a buyers agent to my house to see the car. They talked in German and agreed to my price. We went to the agents bank and got a cashiers check, then across the street to my bank to deposit it. I assisted the agent to load the car on his trailer and off it went to Germany.

I didn't read all of the copy paste emails from potential buyers but we have friends who are merchant marines. They make good money and can't spend it until they're in harbor. He could be legit. Imagine going to work for six months and not being able to spend anything until you get home. I wouldn't do Paypal but a wire tranfer is safe and quick.

I don't know how you can get hurt setting up a Paypal account and letting him fund it. Guess I'd be worried if he asked you to send money to him for some bull whit reason. I've been using PayPal for years and haven't ever had a problem. But, much lesser amounts.

I have had a paypal account for many years now. I did respond, just incase it is not a scam, but I for one would NEVER buy a car that have NEVER seen & driven in person. I would at least have a good friend check it out then find a near by shop do a PPI for me.

Told him it would have to be by a bank wire transfer, no paypal.

All the European buyers will want to see lots of pictures, hear all the stories, and then they take a chance....

when my motorhome was being sold recently I had several persons respond with e-mail to purchase at full price, unable to use phone, off shore, military... etc. all were some kind of scams or not serious buyers. we were direct in our response that all funds must clear our bank before title transfer or possession. after we said that the buyer vanished.
isn't the paypal fee for your purchase price pretty high? (on top of full asking price)
Gary

Can only speak for myself.
- Availability
- US cars have less rust
- Price much cheaper in the US

And with shipping cost at about 1000-1300 it is a good deal

In the VW world the complaint is that every split window bus that's been sold in the last ten years has gone to Europe. An exaggeration, of course, but on a sunny weekend in the U.K. you see them driving around all over the place. They even have at least two VW specific "resorting the old car" programs on weekend TV, a bit like the one that shows here of the guys flipping cars.

I guess those cars all rusted away over there, or in the case of the 914 they never sold that many back in the day, so it's more rare there than here. When my sister's here (lives in France) her husband will inspect old muscle cars for a neighbor in France who restores and sells them. The last one I saw go over was one of those boat tailed Buick Rivieras. It was HUGE, but over there they evidently loved it and he made a huge profit. Weird.

I would never trust a Paypal account transfer for a large amount of money on a questionable deal. . . Paypal can automatically retirve the funds any time they want. . . all the seller has to do is file a claim and Paypal will impound the funds pending a complaint resolution. . You have no say. . It's Paypal's 100% decision to arbitrate any disputes. .
I lost over $500 on an Ebay sale when a minor kid used his Grandmother EBay account and her stolen credit card for the Paypal Transaction. .
PayPal's decision was that the kid was a minor and if I wanted my funds back, I had to drive across country and file a local police report.

Seems I have a real buyer from Belgium. Been exchanging emails, lots of question from him, lots of pictures from me. Only thing to work out is how it gets to a shipping port. He plans to use Marlog.com to handle the shipping to Belgium.

I setup a separate bank account to receive the wire transfer. So we will see how things turn out. I'm not counting my money just yet.

It should be fine Garold. I sent 50 pictures to the buyer in Norway for the Bumblebee Racer. As far as shipping, the only thing you should have to do is meet the truck that takes it to the port, hand them the keys and walk away...

Your assumption is wrong. Most 914s were sold in the US.
And of the few that were sold in Europe, most have since rusted away beyond repair.

I grew up in Germany in the '70s and i see more 914s here in CA in a week than in my entire 35 years i spent in Germany.

German laws about condition of the vehicle make it very hard to keep a car that is old. Whereas most US states will allow you to drive a car into the ground, literally till the wheels fall off, a rust hole in Germany makes the car unregisterable.

Buyer is responsible for shipping.
They can work with the import company they hire to get your car.

There are a few companies in the process.
Local from you to a larger cross country shipper.
Cross country shipper to New Jersey.
Staging yard
Export control guys
Boat company
Importer
Import duty. and process

All of that is handled by the Buyers shipping company.
If the buyer would like to do the process without using a broker who has been through this a million times, well good luck to him.

You responsible to get the car on the local truck, take pictures of that,
Document who takes it, name contact details etc.
send all of that to the buyer within minutes of the car leaving.

Buyer send that to broker...everyone else will then switch on and track the car through the process.

You are then done with the transaction.

Do not take ownership or responsibility of any part of an international shipment...there are too many clocks running and scheduled departures...


rich

Well just like I thought after days of pictures, email exchanges, more pictures.......
NOTHING O'Well, it's still for sale.

I'm in the UK and bought my 914 from the US. Ended up paying by Paypal as the sellers bank was a small local one that couldn't be found by the major banks this side. We'd spoken on the phone a number of times and emailed to and fro. I first paid a deposit then the seller sent a bill of sale. I then arranged a shipper who started to make arrangements for collection so this helped reassure me that the seller and car actually existed! Then I paid the balance prior to pickup of the car and Title.
All pretty straight forward. I was let down more than once by sellers who agreed a deal with me then sold to someone in the US I guess for ease or piece of mind so the emails just stopping works both ways.
The transaction side of things won't put me off doing it again but I will certainly either fly out to inspect or have a PPI done next time as 'repaired' can mean different things to different people, a hellhole repair done with sheet metal and glue doesn't work over here for our MOT test ( legal road worthiness test ) also any welded repairs must be continuos welds not just a series of tacks.
HTH and good luck with the sale!