Handing over money to a stranger is something we do on the daily, but when you’re handing over money for second hand goods you’ve just bought the process is a whole load more stressful.

Of course we’ll pop the shoe on the other foot as well, the person selling something never sure the deal is going down until the money is in the hand.

The bottom line remains – no one likes that process where you somehow have to facilitate the transfer of money with a complete stranger you don’t know, especially when everyone has heard a few horror stories about being shafted by a con artist.

We’re more into the buying thing though, so when Seth decided he needed some extra length off the tee he turned to Gumtree first. Check this gem, should do the job.

Just there, down in the bottom right, what was that Shepherd thing we wondered? A few clicks later and we were signed up for Shepherd Trade Secure, no hassle or fuss.

With everything in place to make the purchase sanity prevailed, proud father Seth deciding to spend the money on his daughter instead.

Enter the Magimix Food Processor, because that makes far more sense than a golf club that is really just a weapon in the wrong hands.

So we were on board with Shepherd Trade Secure, now how do we work it from here? This video gives you a pretty decent idea:

See that, we just had a quick word with our food processor pawner and we were done and dusted. Our goodies were delivered, Seth was happy and he tapped for the money to make its way over into the hands of the other party.

Say hello to my little friend.

What if something goes wrong though, how does it all play out then? Let’s use the example from that video we showed you earlier:

If the item is not as advertised, Kim sends it back with RAM and gets her money refunded – less the return courier fee. RAM returns the camera to Raj and Shepherd waives the transaction fee.

That fee itself is very reasonable because, as it turns out, Shepherd have negotiated bulk deals with RAM. You can also track your parcel online, making it easy to be in the right place at the right time.

Anything that takes the awkward out of online shopping is welcome around these parts. You can get to grips with Shepherd and how it all works over on their site (HERE) or their Facebook page (HERE), and if you’re not on board and you get fleeced don’t say we didn’t warn you.