Scam dealer on Ebay?

+1 Geoff and Dill. Because that Japanese seller is not a scammer, seems to me he´s nothing but a seller. It´s his business to sell for the prices he wants. Buyer buys or does not. And life goes on.

I just wonder if OP has been mistreated in some way by that seller. Well, he apparently has already because this thread is against his business. Has he earned it for any reason I just wonder...

As for vintage/used Hi-Fi gear (or anything else) all succesful transactions goes to the point when a buyer and a seller DESIDE to agree, then the final price is practically irrelevant. When both are happy nothing else matters. If I want a certain item for a certain price, be it low (suits me well) or high (suits seller well), I will get it... one way (from seller 1) or other (from seller 2). If a seller wants certain price for his items, be it rare or valuable or not, or the price high or low, it´s OK. If you don´t like his prices you go elsewhere. This is a free world and free market, thank goodness ! And I do believe most and almost all are honest on selling forums, according to my ten years+ experience on eBay. I had ONE scam buyer who actually tried to get a full refund (nearly 2600 € + registered shipping) for my perfectly working very expensive and rare Luxman TT even BEFORE he would have shipped it back and even after my friendly gesture to pay a half of the expensive shipping but luckily eBay eventually sided me after month´s painfull asking and waiting. Well, that jerk left a negative fb and tried to fool both me AND ebay. That was his final mistake LOL. eBay also removed that negative fb. This time I was lucky but it won´t happen again. I´ve learned my lesson. My advice to all sellers on eBay: Be extremely careful with them and PayPal especialy as they almost every time side buyer, be they scammers or not.

^ My advice to all honest sellers, to be exact (edited). Just be extremely carefull with eBay and PayPal. Take lots of very very accurate pics of your item and get a proof of shipping and you are safe.

Some very expensive (and also lower priced) High End stuff stay unsold on eBay for a year and even more... then they disappear. So perhaps an appropriate offer was accepted or maybe a right buyer (who dearly wants the item) at right time buys it.
Some years ago I bought NOS Factory Sealed Audio-Technica ANV150 cartridge from Japan for a good price. I had too many carts to listen at the time and I just had no time to try that new AT of mine. So I never opened the sealed box and start selling it on eBay for the same price I had paid for. It stayed for more than a year unsold with few watchers... Suddenly a gentleman from England bought it and instantly paid using PayPal and asked nothing. I received the money I had wanted and immediately sent the unopened factory sealed box to England. A few days later I noticed my buyer had left a full positibe fb w/ a nice comment. I did the same thing for him.
One of my rare vintage prog LP albums stayed unsold for seven years on another selling site. Suddenly a guy from a foreign island bough it and paid it and couldn´t be more happy as he had been waiting for that certain album for years for a reasonable price. A nice transaction for both of us.

All comes down to when seller´s and buyer´s interests unite. That is real business. Everything else is waste of time and just irrelevant. Best of luck for selling and buying :)

@harold-not-the-barrel

I just wonder if OP has been mistreated in some way by that seller. Well, he apparently has already because this thread is against his business. Has he earned it for any reason I just wonder...

I’ve already stated that I have not dealt with this person. Nor have I ever been ripped off... except that one time in Paris... Nor have I any ax to grind other than to alert unwary folks to this seller.
Some of the respondents get it but others appear to support a caveat emptor free market philosophy. Each to his/her own.

Alert of what ? High prices ? And who ? Lazy communists ? Audio is full of high prices both new and vintage, have you noticed... So you have not been ripped off on selling forums/sites ? You have been very lucky so far.  Because there are unbelieveable nasty folks on forums/sites waiting for the right time... to scam naiive people for no reason. You are living in a world of illusions. You have already harmed that Japanese´s business with your ignorance and prejudice. Japanese culture is very different in many ways, thank God. Actually you owe an apology to him. Otherwise you start sounding more like a little troll. Take my advice: do yourself and the Japanese a favour and delete this ridiculous thread and move on.
And hell I´m here to defend all honest and sincere sellers. Keep that in your mind. Long live free world, long live free enterprise :)

LOL. You are something else.