What would you do about a sleazy buyer??

Kinda glad to see the last few posts, cause where the guy was wrong to do you that way, a couple of things done on your behalf might have prevented it, as those described above. Regretfully its part of the learning process. And though I doubt it, maybe the guy thought he was backing out of the deal in a polite way, rather than just tell you he didn't like it for whatever reason(I mean after all, he does own the Boulders, gotta have or had a little money)
And by the way, this guy was NOT a buyer, as he did not buy. He is what a lot of salespeople call a lizard, whether it be the store lizard or the car lot lizard, they are all of the same family, genurus troublenotneedus, and they habitate the world. You see them every few days, scurrying around your store or lot, and about the moment you think you have them pinned down on something, they scurry away.
At least he didn't pull your chain farther and tell you he didn't want them after possibly succeeding in getting you to leave them for 3 days.
I would tell you as I would a friend over a beer, forget about the anger and stuff(and hard to do right now I know0, it will just make us all older but remember the deal somewhere in your mind, that way it won't happen again.

I'd invite a prospective local buyer over to my place for a listen, that way if he didn't want it well..no time or effort lost, I woulda been listening to music anyway. I'm with Jvia, "don't sweat the petty things, and don't pet the sweaty things".

To me, Lawyer indicated a professional. Typically a financially solid prospect with good intentions.

I have several friends who are Lawyers, and feel those attributes apply. My take was that he was more disappointed than normal, having been let down. Like most verbiage in print, it is difficult to know the mood of the writer.

As for the situation, I understand the disappointment as I have had similar experiences. I allowed a friend to take a piece of audio gear before he had the money to pay. He did make partial payment, but never paid the balance. It is if nothing else, an example of how things could have been worse. However, I am not going to let it spoil my enjoyment of audio, nor should it for Charles.

I agree w/ Griswold, you jerked someone around and then you got jerked. Is it justice? Probably not, of the three people involved you definitely got the worst of the deal. In direct answer to your question, you should do nothing to your local non-buyer, instead you should look in the mirror.

Onhwy61, nice comments...you must be a lawyer too?

Please allow me to interject before you take this overboard. I NEVER jerked anyone around. I had 2 emails in my inbox at the SAME time. One read, "I'm interested in your amps for XXXX dollars". The other read "I'm interested in your amps and I live within 15 minutes of you." I wrote the "Out of State" offer an email that I had a strong possibility of a Local Sale which I wanted to pursue first as it was a local deal. I called the Local party who agreed. The local party wanted to have them for 3 days to demo. I TOLD the local party that I cannot do that as I have another interested party waiting on us to complete this negotiation.

In the meantime, on the day of getting both offers, I told the "Out of State Offer" that it was not right for me to play 2 buyers against each other for the max price, nor keep him strung along. Rather, I wanted to pursue the Local deal first for many reasons (No shipping, Less chance of Fraud, Less chance of breakage during shipping, etc.) I was completely up front and honest with the out of state offer that IF the local sale did not work out, and he was still interested, I contact him within 2 days, which was the scheduled time of the Demo. That is why the "Out of State Buyer" went to buy someone else's gear!!!

I am not the least bit mad at the "out of state" offer, I feel bad that I couldn't have had the chance to given him a BETTER deal than what he got. He was completely right to find the same product somewhere else! We all would have done the same thing. My concern is that I could not have negotiated with the ONLY genuinely interested party FIRST.

This has taught me a few lessons. I believe that I will no longer be doing local sales as I would rather have the troubles of mailing 360 lbs of speakers for a clear deal over dinking around with "unverified" buyers! In the end, this will only hurt the buying market of used equipment by people who are less than honest or up front. This used high-end audio market is tough enough without unreputable people participating. We are not in the business of doing this for a living. This is our hobby where we give up our
time on the weekends as a favor for someone who wants to
buy them.

Secondly, I loved a few of this ideas such as charging $50-$100 up front for a demo! How about making it $200 which is refundable with a closed deal??? I also like the idea of a credit check. My father suggested the same thing. The "buyer" actually lived in one the highest priced housing areas. Heck, he was bragging to me about just having bought a new engine for his Porche! Who would ever have thought he was penniless??? $2900 is not a LOT of money for people who own Porche's.