I would be suspicious I was helping a friend sell a car last year and had quite a few of those ," I will arrange shipping and send a check" .. so they are buying the car with out physically looking at it? I just said no in person transaction only. I met a guy in a parking lot to sell a car once, it was only a few grand , cash deal but before I gave him the title I took the bills into the bartender at the nearby Applebees and had them check to make sure the bills weren't bogus.

I've done it several times with a certified check. Put it in the mail then asked the seller to contact me when they received and deposited it. The sellers have told me it would take X days to clear. That is fine as chances are if you call a hauler today, they won't be able to pick it up for several weeks. Yep, you want the car for sure but there is a process and it takes time. Doesn't sound like the buyer is trying to rush anything so that is great. I had have always had more issues with the shippers than the sellers.

Heck, every car I have bought I didn't look at. Now most were projects in one form or another but the Cyclone came from north of Seattle and I live on the east coast. Diego had talked to the guy and turned me on to him. I talked to him multiple times and got about 50 pictures. No problems.

Nope - even the bank can't verify a bank check or CC. Guy in my golf league sold a late model to a guy from Chicago. Two guys drove in, they all met at his bank, his bank said the check was good, he paid off his loan, they released the title lien, he handed them the keys & they drove off. Two days later his bank calls him & tells him the bank check was counterfeit & he owes them like $18,000. It was on him even though the bank said the check was good. LUCKILY, the police found the car in WI. that an older couple had bought for $9,900 cash from someone in Chicago. He got his car back, the couple in WI. was screwed.

My advice is either do a wire transfer or accept CASH.

Buy some version of a Counterfeit Money Detector or meet at a bank - let them count & validate the money.

A friend of mine sold his Harley a few years back and took a bank check for it. His bank said it was good so he released the bike to the buyer. 2 weeks later he gets the call from his bank, check was counterfeit. He got lucky, his bike was insured with State Farm and they paid out for theft.

When I bought mine last year .
all was done via wire transfer

I have sold a few cars out of state and even out of country.
I recommend wire transfer, by far the safest type of transaction.
I have also done a bank check transfer.
Basically the buyer and I used the same bank. We met at the bank. The bank issued him a check in my name. I then endorsed the check and deposited it in my account.
Of course this only works if the buyer and seller use the same bank.

Now that's interesting. The guy in my golf league who found out 2 days later the check was a fake, called the police first & they started looking for the car. Then he called his bank whose employee said the check was good - so what - so she couldn't tell if it was legit or not. Then he called his insurance co. - they asked him if he handed the "buyers" the keys - he did - they told him he was on the hook for "giving" them the vehicle. His insurance company would not back him - he was out over $18k unless the car was recovered. I certainly learned a lesson in selling anything from this!