"Cash is king. If you are buying a non running classic car and have a tow vehicle and trailer ready you can drive a hard bargain in the moment."

If I send a 10k payment to someone via bank transfer it's in their bank account in 10 seconds. Maybe you live in a country where there are much harsher restrictions?

I live in the US and UK/Europe. The vast majority of older people at a swap meet or similar are not going to trust smartphone app transactions. Cash is king.

They don't trust a smartphone app provided by their banking provider but they trust a random bloke they've never met with 10k in their back pocket. Right. Makes sense.

Scenario one - Person A bank transfers Person B $10,000 for their classic car at the car show. Person A leaves, and then several days later the money is clawed back from Person B's account as it turns out it was sent from a stolen/compromised account. They now have no money and no car.

Scenario two - Person A gives Person B $10,000 in cash for their classic car at the car show. Person A leaves, and Person B could give a shit about anything to do with Person A as soon as they are out of sight.

In scenario two, person B goes tries to use the cash, turns out it's counterfeit. They now have no money and no car.

You don't need to trust the person when they have cash

How do you know the cash isn't fake?

UV lights and checking the safety features?

It is about speed. If someone offers 10k in cash and someone talk about wire transfer blahblah, sellers will always prefer the buyer just paying in cash.

We are talking 10s bank transfers here in EU, how much faster do you want it?

I would not feel at ease walking around with 10k€

In fact I would find it extremely suspicious if someone told me it's their preferred method to get paid. I would totally expect a mugging.

If they pay by transfer they can charge back, the bank might cancel for some credit reasons, might flag it as they want to verify first why it was made, and so on. Cash is problem free if you live in a low crime area.

I do myself all higher priced purchases in cash, even go to the bank and withdraw the money to go to the shop next door. For the same reason I use a VPN. My provider and my bank have no right know what I do or not do.

None of that can happen with instant bank transfers. If the bank says it's cleared then it's cleared and it cannot be charged bank anymore.

Charge backs don't really exist in Europe. The bar to clear for your bank to reverse a payment is extremely high.

I'm always taking the wire transfer any day of the week. Nowadays, I generally straight up refuse payment in cash. Far too much of a hassle to handle. I think there is a major cultural divide between some parts of Europe and the USA on this subject which is partially due to how behind its time the USA banking system used to be.

I would not. I don't want to be concerned with whether any of this is fake money or how to detect it and hugely prefer an electronic transfer.

If someone would offer me 10k in cash instead of a bank transfer I would assume they are a criminal anyway...

nonsense - if i get cash i will have to deposit it myself. I suppose that part comes depending how cashless the society has gone.

You must be very slow using your phone.

I bought a somewhat rare car with cash several years ago. The seller had a buyer lined up across the country (and showed me evidence), but said that if I could bring him cash he’d sell it to me instead. I went to the bank, brought him an envelope of $100 bills, and it was mine.

> I went to the bank [..]

Would a certified check so the same trick?

No, that's actually a popular scam at the moment. People think certified/cashiers checks or money orders are trustworthy. They can be faked.

Then perform the exchange in a bank, under a similar arrangement as the cash transaction of the scenario I was replying to.

Cash can be faked too

Agreed, transacting in a bank is the best way.

Cash can be faked but it has good anticounterfeiting features, unlike checks.

The seller can turn around and spend the cash instantly, anywhere, whereas the cashier’s check takes at least a day to clear, and in theory the bank could hold the funds for some period of time while it investigated the transaction for fraud. https://www.helpwithmybank.gov/help-topics/bank-accounts/cas...