When I started my Instagram account @thee.social.nerd I noticed a large number of people that had Buy/Sell/Trade accounts. Naturally I started to follow all the ones selling retro games, action figures and comic books.

Now, it’s hard to fully trust anyone that you don’t personally know and with Instagram it’s no different. I have followed numerous accounts with people selling items and never made a purchase. Like anything or anytime you’re looking to buy something you need to do some checking around. I found an account who openly shared his eBay information which I was able to check. Plus, I followed him for a long time and watched his auctions and responses from other buyers all of which were great. 

So I made the move and made my first Instagram purchase! What did I buy? An NES Box with Styrofoam and Nintendo game sleeve for BASE WARS! My next purchase was the game BASE WARS and manual! So I was pretty excited to be getting a CIB game off of 2 separate purchases through Instagram. 

The last part of any deal is payment and shipment. Preferred payment for most sellers is PayPal which is also the preferred payment for most buyers as well. I have also seen numerous people accepting cash or checks. So just for fun I tried a cash transaction to buy a couple of Power Ranger pins. They were $6 so I thought “eh, why not see what happens” well what has happened is that 6 weeks later I still haven’t received anything. Now on the opposite hand the 2 transactions for the CIB copy of BASE WARS I sent payment the same day it was agreed upon. From there I received confirmation and tracking information within 2 days and within the same week received both packages.

Ultimately with anything that you’re buying and it is not coming from a store proceed with caution. Do your research and take your time getting to know the seller and his or her other buyers. 

Hope this post helps some of you out if you're interested in buying something off of Instagram or any other social media site for that matter. 

Here is my CIB Base Wars I bought through Instagram sellers!