Buying a motorcycle and having it shipped

[Snapping]

Hi all, I have been a bit of a lurker, did some posting a while back on other parts of PH but life is busy.

I have had the offer of buying a motorcycle near liverpool, I live in Northern Ireland. It is a project motorcycle and for something I am paying £980 for I cannot justify travelling out to look at the bike myself. The bike runs but needs work and has no MOT.

Given I am just wanting a project and as long as nothing is majorly wrong I will be happy is there any way for me to pay this man without the risk of receiving nothing back in return? Anybody saying I should look in Northern Ireland the market is tiny and the prices are probably double.

I was hoping there is an answer beyond "dont do it", I am going to need to courier it to Northern Ireland but once at the port I could arrange a trailer myself for it, but it would be worth at least a few hundred pounds for a courier for it to be brought over.

Thank you all

[AceOfHearts]

If you have someone collect the bike can they not hand th mony over to the seller for you on collection?

Im sure iv had this happen to me in the past when selling

[Snapping]

I would be using a courier to collect the motorcycle, I have no plans of collecting this motorcycle myself.

[S2r]

I bought my current one unseen - I asked for additional photos and explained that I wanted to buy it but was a bit wary of transfering £3+k to some random bloke off the internet.

He emailed me a copy of his driving license, V5, photos of him with the bike and something random (custard proof) showing the reg and I called him on his land line. I then transferred £50 to check I'd got the right bank details, he confirmed back by email that I had, then I sent the rest across.

2 days later a courier picked the bike up and dropped it off to me.

It was a bit of a faff and to be fair, the seller was a nice chap however had it all gone wrong, I had plenty of evidence should I have needed it.

[stevep944]

I've bought a couple of bikes this year from the mainland and had them couriered back to NI, although they were from dealers not private. I would have thought for that fairly small sum you'd find a courier who would pay the cash on collection for you if you gave it to them first. If you like I can pm the details of the guy i used and you could ask him, he will deliver door to door too.

[Snapping]

I think a courier is the answer, yes I will take the details if you PM myself. Makes it easier on everybody. Thanks for the help.