Any type of escrow service to provide protection for buying higher priced items on gumtree and sending in post?

I boycotted ebay some years ago due to their shit treatment of sellers. Yes of course that shit treatement means it will be better as a buyer but I stand by my principles.

I have since used gumtree, which is a level playing field both for buyer and seller, with no protection on either side. I have been ok with this for items about £50 or below but now I would like to get a 2nd hand laptop and am wondering if there was some trick to allow some protection that the seller would be willing to engage in.

Most avoid issues by just stating 'collection only' so it couldn't be too complex to make them not want to do it.

I don't live near any major cities where collection is useful.

Hmm actually maybe it is better to just buy from a dedicated shop that deals with 2nd hand laptops like Cex which will have the reputation such to trust doing an online purchase.

Why don't you get the laptop from a local directory where you met face to face
Or from a popular seller on directories

Not sure gumroad is made for this use case

why dont you just buying from a reputable refurbished retailer instead of a private seller.

ads studio said:

why dont you just buying from a reputable refurbished retailer instead of a private seller.

Click to expand...

That is exactly what I didn't, been playing happily for the last couple of days.