Serial numbers of gear in regards to selling?

[pulse_divider]

Just wondering why people are sometimes hesitant to disclose serial numbers of gear in their for sale posts and auction listings?
I'm not suggesting that everyone *should* be doing this, but whenever I see a FS/FA listing that says something like "I won't post the serial number for fear of scammers" I want to know what the reasoning is behind it.
I can't really see any way that this would hurt. As a buyer, I like to have as much info as possible about the item so I like to provide this info when I'm on the selling end. Is there any reason I shouldn't be doing this?
Sorry if this has been brought up before, but I haven't been hanging out here much lately and don't think I've ever seen a post on this subject that really explained the logic behind this.

[the finger genius]

Yeah, I'm not sure. I'm always a little skeptical of those sellers, in case the gear is stolen.

[Marc Alan Goodman]

Yeah, I don't get it either. I suppose they're worried that if some scammer learns the format of an expensive/rare items serial number they'll just start making up their own numbers in that format and people will believe them. And by that same token there's not really any reason to post the serial number. if a serious buyer contacts you then you can just take a picture of yourself with the number.

As for the people that say "Serial number 41XX", I just don't get it.

[Nate Dort]

On the flip side, there is gear out there where you're pretty much required to post the serial number if you want to sell it, Travis Bean guitars being the example that jumps into my mind.

[sears]

People are concerned with people taking out insurance on your gear and then reporting it as stolen. Is that fair? I don't know.

[daveg62]

I would not be inclined to release the serial # of items I am selling. There's too many dishonest people and scams out there just like the insurance one posted above. All the gear I have bought , I never needed to see the serial # before buying anything that I can think of. Maybe possibly for some vintage gear that you need to find more information on, I could see that but that's about it. Maybe I am being too cautious, I don't know.

[psinglet]

If you have a complete serial number, someone can report to the police that the item was stolen from them, and it is now up for sale on Ebay. For that reason, many musical instrument listings will list the serial number something like 123XXX, to give the general information that it is in the 123000 range without giving out the exact number.

[Marc Alan Goodman]

If you have a complete serial number, someone can report to the police that the item was stolen from them, and it is now up for sale on Ebay. For that reason, many musical instrument listings will list the serial number something like 123XXX, to give the general information that it is in the 123000 range without giving out the exact number.

But really, who does this? What would be the advantage of picking out some random person on the internet and reporting them to the police? I suppose you could use it for insurance fraud purposes, but it would only take about 30 seconds for the cops to come to your house and figure out that you've had the item for a while.

Not totally unreasonable, it just seems a little flimsy to me.

[Knights Who Say Neve]

There are scammers out there, and everything on an internet forum is public information, forever... so I default to giving out as little personal information as possible. This is just normal operating procedure and not specific to serial numbers. I'm not posting my address or my car's VIN number either. I might email or PM a serial number to someone I've communicated with, but I won't post it. Just common sense to me.