..."He said he would send the rest when the item was shipped."
And what guarantee or assurance do you have?
None.
Is this a scam?
I would appreciate some help with this, which has happened to me in the last few days. I listed an item on a site, not Audiogon but another one, and got an offer within a few days. The offer was lower than asking price, but reasonable, so I accepted. All of this happened with an exchange of emails. The buyer wanted to send me a deposit which was about 1/4th of the total sales price, and that amounted to a few thousand dollars. He said he would send the rest when the item was shipped. I thought this was a little strange, but agreed to it -- today I received his deposit via Paypal Friends and Family. Somehow I wish now that the money transfer hadn't happened. But the good news is, I have not yet sent him the items.
The guy has very little purchase history on the site that was used to contact me.
He says he has a Freight Forwarder and and will have someone pick up the items. All of this seems suspicious to me. I fear that perhaps I have been paid with a stolen credit card number, for example. Of maybe there is another angle here that I cannot perceive. Has anyone else been through a process like this? I think he is a scammer but don't know for sure.