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Buying and selling used sim gear safely

What to check before you pay, how to pay, and what we can and cannot do when a deal goes wrong.

Last updated October 19, 2026

The Marketplace is where members buy and sell used golf simulator gear with each other: launch monitors, projectors, screens, enclosures, mats, PCs, cameras and accessories. It is United States only.

Almost every bad deal in used sim gear follows a handful of patterns, and a handful of habits stops them. Read this once before your first deal.

How a deal works

Classifieds. You and the other member deal directly. You agree the price in messages here, and the money moves outside My Sim Setup by the method you choose. Listing is free and there are no fees. Because the money never touches us, we cannot get your money back if a deal goes wrong. What we give you is the facts about who you are dealing with, a safe place to talk, and action on every report.

Who can do what

• Anyone can browse listings and sold listings.
• Any signed-in account can message a seller.
• To list, you need a member account: your account linked to our Discord, you in the server, a complete profile (name, city and state, photo), and an account at least 14 days old.
• A new seller's listings are checked by us before they go live, until that seller has a completed deal here or enough vouches.
• Listings show the seller's city and state. Never an address.
• Hardware only. Software accounts, licence keys and subscriptions cannot be sold. The full list is at the end of this page.

Before you pay

Read the seller's card

Every listing shows the seller's standing, built from what the site already knows:

• Member since, and whether the account is linked to our Discord.
• Deals completed here: deals where both sides confirmed on the site.
• Would deal again: what people who dealt with them said, including any "no" and the line that came with it.
• A published build and tournaments played. Not proof of honesty, but months of history are hard to fake.
• Vouches, explained below.

What a vouch means

A vouch is a member saying, on the record, that they would deal with this person. The card shows it as a sentence, for example "Vouched by 6 members, 4 of them dealt with this seller here." The vouches their authors chose to make public will be listed on the seller's profile once that page shows Marketplace standing.

• A vouch from someone who dealt with the seller here counts most.
• A vouch from an established member who has not dealt with them counts less, and a plain member's counts less again.
• A brand-new account's vouch counts for nothing until it is 30 days old and has a deal of its own.
• Accounts that only vouch for each other count for nothing, and they are flagged to us.

A vouch is a member's word, not our guarantee. Four people who dealt with a seller here tell you more than twenty who know them from Discord.

Check the timestamp photo

Every listing has one: the item, the seller's handle handwritten on paper, and the date. Check that:

• the handle is theirs, and handwritten, not printed;
• the item is the same one as in the other photos (same marks, same accessories);
• the date is recent. If the listing is more than a week old, ask for a new one with today's date. A real seller can do that in a minute.

Ask for a video

A 30 second clip, sent in the message thread, shows more than any photo. Ask for:

• a launch monitor powered on and reading a real shot in the maker's app;
• a projector showing a plain white screen, then a plain black one (dead pixels show on one or the other);
• a mat in a slow pan across the hitting strip;
• a PC starting up and showing its system information.

Ask about plans and add-ons

Launch monitor plans usually belong to the person, not the unit. SkyTrak plans, Bushnell Launch Pro tiers, and Rapsodo and Garmin premium plans do not transfer, so budget for your own. An add-on licensed to the unit itself, such as club data on a GC3, stays with it, and the listing has to say so.

Ask the seller whether they have removed the unit from their own account in the maker's app.

Ask for the serial number

Sellers give us the serial number privately when they list, and we check it against units reported stolen or disputed. You can ask to see it before you pay. (In classifieds the seller chooses to share it in the thread; there is no button, by design, so a serial never leaks to a browser that is not party to the deal.) If it does not match the unit in the video, stop there.

Compare the price

Every listing shows the new price from our retailers beside the ask, and sold listings for the same product stay on the site with their date. A price far under both is the first sign of a scam, not a lucky find.

Post a deal check

One tap on the listing posts this to #deal-check on our Discord:

Deal check: @handle is selling a Foresight GC3 for $1,200. Anyone dealt with them here?

Members who have dealt with the seller answer there, and the ones who mean it vouch on the site. No answers is not a bad sign on its own: plenty of honest sellers are new to selling.

How to pay

Pay with PayPal Goods and Services. It is the method we recommend because the buyer can ask PayPal to reverse the payment if the item never arrives or is not as described. PayPal charges the seller a fee for it. Agree who covers that before you pay, and build it into the price.

• Pay the PayPal account the seller gave you in the message thread here. Never one that arrives by text or email.
• Pay the agreed price, once. Not a deposit, not half now and half later.
• Keep the conversation on the site. It is your record if anything goes wrong.

Never pay with:

• Zelle, Venmo or Cash App
• PayPal Friends and Family
• gift cards
• wire transfers
• cheques of any kind, including cashier's cheques and money orders
• crypto

These all work like cash. Once the money is sent it is almost always gone for good, and we cannot bring it back. That is exactly why scammers ask for them. A seller who offers money off for Friends and Family is asking you to give up your protection to save them a fee. Say no, and if they insist, walk away.

Paying at a meet. Pay only once you have seen the item work and it is in your hands. Paper cash at a meet is still cash. Nothing can reverse it, so it changes hands only after the test, and a seller who wants to check the notes can meet at their bank.

Meeting in person

• Meet in a public place, or at a police safe-exchange spot. Many police stations have a marked parking space under a camera for exactly this; call the non-emergency line to ask.
• Go in daylight.
• Bring someone.
• Test before you pay. Power it on, pair it with the app, check the serial against the one you were shown, and hit a few chips into a net if you can.
• Count the parts against "what is included" before any money moves.
• If the meeting place changes to somewhere private at the last minute, do not go.

Big items that come from a house. An enclosure, a screen or a whole bay usually has to come apart where it stands, so the pickup is at the seller's home. If that is the deal: take someone with you, tell a third person the address and when you expect to be back, and pay only once you have seen it set up or working. Sellers: move the item to the garage or the driveway before they arrive if you can, and have someone home with you.

Shipping and packing

For both sides:

• Tracking on every shipment.
• Signature confirmation on anything $750 or more (PayPal's seller protection line).
• Insurance for the full price is recommended on every shipment. The seller buys it, and a claim is between the seller and the carrier.
• Screens and enclosures are local pickup, unless the seller has a freight quote in hand.
• Sellers ship to the address on the PayPal payment, not a different one sent in a message.

How to pack:

• Launch monitor: in its own hard case if it has one. The case goes in a box, and that box goes in a second box with at least 2 inches of padding on every side. Nothing should move when you shake it.
• Projector: in its original box and foam if you still have them, lens cap on. No original box: wrap it, box it, and double box it as above. Let a lamp projector cool completely first. Take it off its ceiling mount and pack the mount separately.
• Mat and turf: rolled, never folded. A fold leaves a crease in the foam that does not come out. Roll the stance mat separately, wrap both in plastic and tape the ends. Mats are heavy, so get the shipping quote before you agree a price.
• Screen, when there is a freight quote: rolled on a tube, never folded.
• PC: take the graphics card out and pack it in an anti-static bag, or pack foam around it so it cannot flex in its slot. Then double box.
• Cameras and accessories: each in its own bag, cables coiled, all in one padded box.

Before it goes:

• Sellers: photograph the item working, then packed, then the sealed box with the label on it. Keep the receipt.
• Buyers: film the unboxing in one take, from the sealed box to the item powered on. It is the single most useful thing you can have if something is wrong.

Scams to know

A fake payment screenshot. The buyer sends a screenshot, or an email that looks like it came from PayPal, saying the money is waiting until you send tracking or pay a fee. Open your PayPal app yourself, never from a link. A real payment shows in your own account, sometimes marked on hold for a new seller. The money is in your account or it is not.

Overpayment. The buyer pays more than the price, by cheque or a "mistaken" transfer, and asks you to send the difference back. Days later the payment bounces and the money you sent is gone. Never send money back to a buyer. If a real overpayment arrives through PayPal, refund the whole payment through PayPal and start again.

"My shipper will collect." The buyer says a shipping agent or a mover will pick the item up, and asks you to pay the agent's fee, to be paid back with the price. There is no agent. Ship it yourself with tracking, or meet in person.

Steering you off the site. "Text me", "email me, I never check this app", "let's finish on Facebook", or a link to an escrow or payment service you have never heard of. Fake escrow sites are built to look real. Keep the deal in messages here and pay by the methods above. Links to outside payment pages are not clickable in messages here, for this reason.

A price too good. A two-year-old launch monitor at a third of what the same model sells for is not a lucky find. Scammers price low to make you hurry. Compare it with the new price on the listing and with sold listings here.

Pressure to decide now. "I have three other buyers", "send a deposit to hold it", "today only". An honest seller with a real item can wait while you check. Never send a deposit to someone you have not dealt with.

A brand-new account on an expensive item. A seller with nothing else on the site listing a $4,000 unit, or a buyer whose account is a week old asking to buy one, deserves more questions, not fewer. So does an old account that has been quiet for a year and suddenly lists something expensive, because accounts get taken over. Ask for a fresh timestamp photo and a video, and post a deal check.

For sellers

• Before you ship, open PayPal yourself and see the payment in your account.
• Ship only to the address on the payment.
• Tracking always, signature confirmation at $750 or more, insurance recommended.
• Never send money to a buyer, for any reason, except a full refund through the way they paid.
• Check the buyer's standing. You can turn down a brand-new account on an expensive item, and you do not have to give a reason.
• Remove the unit from your account and sign out of the maker's app. For a PC, wipe the drive and reinstall Windows.
• Keep the serial number out of your photos. You give it to us privately when you list.
• Keep the conversation here. If a buyer goes quiet after you ship, the messages and the tracking are your record.
• If a buyer keeps pushing a lowball or will not take no for an answer, block them. If it turns abusive, report it.

What we can and cannot do

In a classifieds deal

In a classifieds deal you and the other member deal directly. Money changes hands outside My Sim Setup, so we cannot get your money back. What we can do: tell you who you are dealing with (their standing, their vouches, their completed deals here), give you a safe place to talk, take your report, and remove people who break the rules.

We answer every report within one business day. When the record shows a scam (nothing shipped after payment, a fake payment proof, steering off the site, a stolen serial), we ban the account, take its listings down, withdraw the vouches it gave, and post a warning in our Discord's marketplace channel naming the handle and the pattern, never the person it happened to.

If you paid with PayPal Goods and Services, open a claim with PayPal as soon as you can. Their time limits apply, not ours.

We never

• hold your money in our own account;
• show your address on a listing;
• tell you to pay by Zelle, Venmo or Cash App.

Fees

• Classifieds: free. No listing fee and no selling fee.

How to report

• Every conversation has a Report option in its menu. Use it on the thread that worried you, and we see the whole thread with it.
• Or email tbg@mysimsetup.com with the listing link, the other member's handle, what happened and when, and anything you have: payment proof, tracking, photos.
• We answer every report within one business day.
• If you lost money: open a claim with PayPal if you paid that way, tell your bank, and report it to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov and to your local police. We give the other account's details to law enforcement when they ask us through the proper legal process.

What cannot be listed

You can list used golf simulator hardware you own and have in your possession. You cannot list:

1. Software accounts, licence keys or subscriptions. GSPro, TGC 2019, E6, Awesome Golf, FSX and every other simulator title licenses a person or an account, not the box it runs on. Selling the login or the key breaks the maker's terms and leaves the buyer with nothing when it is revoked. A launch monitor add-on that is licensed to the unit itself (club data on a GC3, for example) may be named in the listing; a plan that is tied to a person (SkyTrak plans, Bushnell Launch Pro tiers, Rapsodo and Garmin memberships) may not be sold and must be declared as "does not transfer".
2. Anything you do not own outright. Items under financing, a lease or a lien, items belonging to someone else, items "found", items you are selling for a friend without listing from their own account.
3. Stolen goods. A serial number on our reported list, or a unit a maker tells us is registered to someone who did not sell it, freezes the listing and the account.
4. Counterfeit or relabelled units, grey-market units sold as official, or units with the serial removed or altered.
5. Recalled items that have not had the recall remedy.
6. New in box, unopened or multiple identical units from a member account. That is reselling, and resellers will list as Pro sellers later. One open-box unit you bought and did not use is fine; say so in the listing.
7. Anything that is not golf simulator gear: clubs, balls, bags, apparel, trainers, rangefinders, outdoor nets without a simulator use, and anything unrelated to golf. Clubs may come later.
8. Listings that are really adverts: a listing that sends people to another site, a payment page, a shop, a Facebook post, or that offers a service (installation, repair, consulting) instead of an item.
9. Weapons, hazardous materials, anything illegal to ship or sell, which should not need saying and is said anyway.