Selling Tv to friend, suggestions? (1 Viewer)

[Keith_R]

Hey all, I have a friend who is interested in buying my 1.5 year old television from me. I would then be able to take the money and combine it with my other money to buy a nicer television. I went looking yesterday and have basically narrowed my search between two televisions that are both on sale for this week.

My friend is still very interested in buying my set and is willing to pay the amount that I'm asking, though right now he doesn't have the money but could pay me back totally by the end of January if I really would like to get my new Tv now with the sales. I like this idea but I have a slight concern about totally getting paid back. I have known this person for 15 years but I still feel a little edgy as this is a lot of money. My thought was that I'd could get it in writing and have him and I sign it but I'm not sure if that is the right thing to do to ensure neither one of us gets screwed over.

Any suggestions or tips? Thanks.

 

[Elizabeth S]

Money matters between friends can be hard.

Not really sure having a signed agreement between you two would amount to much without getting attorneys involved if it came to that. I did that once, and long story short -- I took the person to court, he knew he was wrong and didn't show, I won and garnished his pay. But of course, I had a huge cut taken by the attorney.

It sounds like you want to buy your new TV while it's on sale this week, so I presume you can swing that. I guess I would do that only if I want the new TV regardless of what happens in January AND you could manage it if your friend was unable to go through with the payment for your old TV. Otherwise, maybe you could wait until January, get the money from him, THEN buy a new set for yourself? There always seems to be good TV sales.

Good luck.

 

[Carlo_M]

Yeah it basically boils down to if you can trust this friend.

I am one of those that has many friendly acquaintances, but my circle of friends is rather small (no more than 20 true friends) and those I've known for many years. But with each of those true friends, I'd completely trust in your situation (and more). However if the situation makes you edgy, that's probably your Spider Sense tingling, and I'd think long and hard before risking your friendship over money.

 

[MarkHastings]

Here's the deal - Tell your friend that you want the money before giving him the TV - If he's a TRUE friend, he'd understand your concern. If he doesn't understand, then it's his fault and he's not a good friend to begin with.

 

[CRyan]

I hate selling that kind of stuff to people I know. What will you do if the TV breaks in a week or month? I know it is an as-is sale but it would likely ruin the friendship if you did nothing about it.

Just something to think about from the other side of it. Not if he pays, but if something goes wrong with the set.

 

[ThomasC]

Like Mark said: If he's really your friend, he'll understand if you don't want to sell the TV until he has all of the money to buy it.

 

[Bruce-E]

I always ask myself this question - Would he do the same thing for me ?

If he would then sell him the set.

 

[Bryan X]

I'm with Mark. Tell him you need the money up front.

 

[Steve Schaffer]

I recently went through a similar situation. I wanted to upgrade and sold my old set to a former brother-in-law.

My main concern was worry about my old tv crapping out on him prematurely. It was a 5 year old crt based HD rptv that had never given me a momnent's trouble. He really wanted it after seeing it a few times in my setup, and readily agreed to a price of $500.

I didn't absolutely need the money to swing the new set, so told him to keep it for a week or so to decide for sure if he really wanted it before paying me anything. He loved it so much that he sold his old set two days after getting mine, and has already made the first of two installment payments on it.

 

[Shayne Lebrun]

Just tell him the truth; you need the money up front so you can buy the new TV; no money, you can't buy the TV, and therefore you can't sell him your old one.

I believe the old adage, however, that never loan money to a friend unless you can live with never seeing it again, applies.

 

[Jay H]

Personally, unless the TV is going to be discontinued on Jan 1st, I'd simply wait til the end of January to buy the set. I mean TVs go on sale a lot for the Superbowl, which is always either the end of January or the very beginning of February. Just like electric razors go on sale before Father's day and Black and Decker advertises heavily on TV before Christmas/Hannukah.

The sale on the TV will most likely be repeated somewhere by the Superbowl...

Jay