Thank you for your expeditious reply.

I'm such a noob in Paypal. I have used Paypal for making small purchases but I have no knowledge or experience in receiving money in Paypal particularly a large sum of money such as this. So the first thing I did was to read through the website which you provided to me.

The first thing I noted was the huge transaction cost of 2.5-3.4%. What concerns me more is the charge-back/stop payment rule of Paypal whereby within 45 days after payment you have the right to request for a charge-back or stop payment if the product is not up to specification.. I understand from your email after payment to my Paypal account you will instruct your Australian Shipping Agent in Thailand to ship the car out of Malaysia. This is where I'm concern because within 45 days I would not know where my car will be in the world. Car specification, unlike products transacted over the Internet is very subjective and if one makes a charge back or stop payment, it will indeed be very messy albeit almost impossible for the seller to reclaim the car from overseas. Unless you can suggest ways to overcome this you will understand the difficult situation that I will be put in.

What normally been done for foreign purchaser of cars which is even safer for both buyer and seller is this method. Since you have a Australian Shipping company in Thailand, it will most likely have a counterpart or agent in the northern region of Malaysia. The car can be inspected and tested according to your specifications/instructions. If it passes the scrutiny of your appointed agent, they will inform you where upon you can bank transfer the money to the seller's account. It may take 3 or 4 days for the bank transaction to go through. Pending this period, the car will be left at the agent's premises/custody except for the title deed of the car. Once the bank transaction has gone through, the title deed will be passed to your agent and your agent will have custodian and title of the car where they will proceed according to your instruction to ship the car to the final destination. This is the safest and most generally accepted way of transaction. In case the Shipping company doesn't have a local counterpart you can have the option of using a trusted friend or business associate in Malaysia which comes to the same conclusion.

I would be pleased to hear your suggestion of how best to go forward in this transaction.

Best regards

But the Shipping Agent will be instructed to hold until you get the money down into your bank account, what about that? and once you have the money in your bank account then they can come ver for the pick up

If you do it this way you will not be protected because if the car is not as advertised, the money would have passed to my possession. For your protection, I would suggest you ask your shipping agent to come down one day earlier to inspect the car (they are coming down anyway) and report back to you whether the car is as advertised (maybe take their own photos), inspect and test the car thoroughly that it is in perfect running condition and email back to you a report with photos. Only when you are satisfied with the car, only then you make the payment to me, not before! I don’t mind handing over my car over to your agent while payment is being arranged. If that were the case, you will be fully protected as you have custody of the car and I would be prevented from selling to any other person since you need the car urgently and would like to cement the deal. I would not have suggested this or let my car to be in your possession if I am not confident in the perfect condition of my car and my honesty in concluding a genuine sale.

The second thing is that I felt, for the little work that Paypal has done in mere exchange of funds, they should not have deserved the hefty commission of 3.5%. A normal bank would have charged less than 1%. Anyway if you can agree to ask you shipping agent to hold until the money has been transferred from Paypal to my bank account, I see little difference if you could transfer direct to my bank account by bank transfer bypassing Paypal. That way it would not only avoid duplication of services and incurring more fees, it would also greatly speed things up as you need the car urgently. If you have implemented the above safeguards, it make no difference if you make payment through Paypal or bank transfer. Going through two financial institutions is indeed wasteful and involve more bureaucracy not to mention more fees.  

In fact, bank transfer would speed things up greatly and save a bundle of money for me quid pro quo for the discount I have given you and the already cheap price of the car. It may be that you have to incur a little bank commission for bank transfer whereas Paypal has no transaction cost to you. In that event, I’ll be willing to cover your bank commission by set off of the bank commission with the purchase price of the car (i.e RM30,000 – bank commission).

It’s a win-win situation. How about that?