When you buy a used guitar from an individual, do you ask for a receipt?

[Mr Bojangles]

A receipt is a good idea if you ever plan to insure the guitar. My carrier wants either a bill of sale or a professional appraisal.

[Silly Moustache]

Once, long ago, I did a deal with an American guy in London. I was later contacted by HMRC who impounded the guitars that I bought from him as he had smuggled them, and many others into the UK without paying duties and taxes.

I finally got them back by turning "Queens evidence" advising (truthfully) that I had repeatedly asked him if they had been duty paid and taxed which he had (untruthfully) confirmed.

Many valuable instruments of interest to me are made in the USA - i.e. a foreign country outside the EU. Therefore to buy an item imported illegally is an offence punished by confiscation plus fines and to pay duties and taxes.

I have a standard receipt which I use for all purchases and sales declaring all aspects of the trade and basis of sale/purchase. I do this for any deal, ebay, direct apart from reputable dealers who always give you a valid recite anyway.

Such receipts are useful for insurance issues, and should anyone sell me an illegal item.

[Tony Burns]

No receit -no sale !
typically as part of the sale , I require a written receit -
As is is OK -

[Irish Pennant]

No receipt from a known source or for a low end production guitar. For a "to good of a deal to pass up" on a decent guitar from a stranger, yes I want a receipt and I'll take a photo of the seller.

[Slim]

Originally Posted by Irish Pennant

yes I want a receipt and I'll take a photo of the seller.

That's certainly an idea! Do folks usually let you take it without a fuss?

[djg]

Yes. I'm not sure I've done this enough to have an established practice -- it's probably been 10 years, to tell the truth -- but yeah, in the very few instances that I've sold a guitar I've written a receipt and the last time or so that I bought one from a private (non-commercial) person, he wrote one out for me.

[Dru Edwards]

Irish Pennant posted:

Originally Posted by Irish Pennant

No receipt from a known source or for a low end production guitar. For a "to good of a deal to pass up" on a decent guitar from a stranger, yes I want a receipt and I'll take a photo of the seller.

Slim replied:

Originally Posted by Slim

That's certainly an idea! Do folks usually let you take it without a fuss?

+1. I can think of a few people who wouldn't want their pic taken.

[Jim]

Small claims and sometimes higher courts are chock full of people who did not get and keep a receipt. They almost always lose their case. It is smart to do about 60 seconds of research on the internet's many free legal forms websites and print out a well worded receipt that will protect you and make pretty much any subsequent legal case a slam dunk for you, but just about as good is to take a crayon and a dirty paper napkin and scribble out a basic receipt that you both sign saying that you paid X for object Y in condition Z on such and such date. That is all there is to it. Make two copies - one for yourself and one for the other guy and you both sign both copies. Believe it or not there are actually scammers out there, and crooks, and fences, and all kinds of low life. But there are also people who are ordinary non-criminal types who may be your friends or family or acquaintences who may not strike you as someone with whom you would ever have a problem in a deal, but if you do not insist on a receipt you are taking the chance that those people that you like or trust might wind up angry at you if they later decide they got the short end of the deal. I would rather keep my family and friends and acquaintences liking me and I tell them that when I make sure we have receipts.