Local pickup for speakers - should I let the buyer in the house or use the the garage?

......some really good responses here. I sold my Esoteric Grandioso K1x to an Audiogon member who drove 6 hours to come into my home. I asked for photo's and driver's license prior to the sale. I took 50% down on Pay-Pal first ......so get a down payment and then when the buyer saw that it was as advertised and in good working condition, he sent me the other 50% through Pay-Pal while listening. I think the buyer does have a right in listening to it first, I know I would. If you are new to the area , call the local police and see if there is an off duty officer available after hours to stop by and just be there and pay them accordingly. I agree I would be really careful but the buyer does need to listen to them first. I also would ask for a deposit before you go through all that work and then have the buyer say they do not like them.......that also could happen. Good luck on your sale.   

Don't take this the wrong way but why wouldn't simply make this decision rather than posting it on a forum for strangers (53 of them) to opine on? Do what feels right, safe and smart. Good luck. 

@hotei  +1

Most of the robbers will not pick a speakers that big, or sacrifice to be identified.Talk to him about his audio experience what is favorite artist? You can tell if he is really legit. He can’t give you the right answer if he is not audiophile or he has wrong motives.To be fair since you have his address to him you can also for his driver license, if he has no bad motive he will surely give it to you. Make sure it’s daytime when you meet.

I've done probably 50 sale transactions out of my home. Never had a bad experience. Probably the worst thing that ever happened was a guy who stayed 45 minutes, talked up a storm, then told me he wasn't going to buy... he was definitely an audio person, and there was no 'ulterior motive' - just, don't waste that much of my time; you usually know within the first 5 minutes if you are going to buy or not...

And I have met close to 50 mostly very nice folks and gotten to share audio info / stories / etc. with them; a couple it ended up I bought something off of them later on because I found out they had something I wanted when they came to my place.

While I can certainly understand that WHERE you live might have some bearing on how cautious you feel you need to be... this does show that there are a lot of paranoid people out there. And (full disclosure) I say that as a 60-year old white guy, fairly clean-cut, living in UT (a gun-friendly state) and owning firearms myself. I have never felt the need to carry a firearm when selling anything out of my home. I HAVE gone to a few homes and had that done to me (homeowner answered the door packing and making it obvious) and, quite frankly, those particular folks weren't the same "very nice folks" I mentioned earlier. Instead they acted nervous, suspicious, and quite frankly if I knew what I was walking into - I would have decided against being around them, as I felt like A) they seemed to be generally 'angry' individuals that were almost looking for an excuse to use their weapon; and B) seemed like at least a few of them probably had legitimate mental issues with paranoia, etc.

But, in the end, I do agree with others who have said you should do what feels best for you and your situation. The only thing I would add is that I think it would be extremely rare that someone is pretending to want to buy audio equipment as an excuse to either rob you or 'case' your home.