OT: European Banking / Ebay Payment Question

[Mark Cassino]

I recently completed an auction ni which I sold a bit of Pentax gear to a 
buyer in Italy.  For a variety of reasons, each of which sounds legit, he 
cannot PayPal the funds and cannot use BidPay. He's asked for my bank 
account number so he can do a wire transfer, but that sounds suspiscious to 
me and I'm not inclined ot give it out (as if my wife would tell me what it 
is anyhow...)

I told him to just send me an international money order, but that concept 
seems to be foriegn to him. I do know that it seems to be difficult to 
transfer money from Europe to the US ((I once had a guy send several hundred 
dollars in cash in a greeting card to pay for a camera lens, rather than 
deal with paypal or send a money order. He was willing to do that at his 
risk and to trust that I wouldn't just pocket the cash and claim it didn't 
arrive (which of course, I did not do) - so it must of been a major hassel 
to otherwise transfer the funds.)

So what's the deal?  I can go to any post office here and buy an 
international money order for a reasonable fee. Can't that be done in Europe 
as well?

At this point I've told the guy that the auction terms are clear (PayPal, 
money order, or cashier check) so he needs to come up with one or be NPB. 
But I wonder if he is having legit problems or if this is some sort of ruse.

Any comments from folks in the EU?
- MCC
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Mark Cassino Photography
Kalamazoo, MI
www.markcassino.com
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