Safe audiogon transactions; lowering the bar.

Hi again Swampwalker,

We seem to be getting closer on our ideas. I wonder why you think that I don't trust buyers/sellers with substantial feedback. If I read correctly, that's Bishopwill and others. I personally have 270+ positives with no negatives between here and Ebay while doing deals for well into 6 figures. Me?
I trust anyone with virtually all positives, who sounds and acts solid. Act flaky and scare the hell out of me. I don't need to buy or sell so, make me nervous and we've got no deal to do. Easy. Your personal choice to look only at recent feedback doesn't work for me. I care about character and history and subtance. I buy substantial items regularly and work to be cost effective but not be scammed.

I'm certain that Audiogon could expand the verification system and combined with verification and documentation enter into an insurance arrangement with a 3rd party provider to insure transactions.

BUT and I really mean BUT, if a thief wants to steal, it's going to happen. Maybe to me, maybe not, but certainly he'll find willing participants.

I'd really like to see the feedback include the amount of the sale, if buyer or seller and type of payment. It makes evaluating the prior transactions more effective.

Lakefrontroad, I'm not sure what the point is in your ad hominem argument. As to my negative feedback on ebay, I make no secret of it, or the reason for it. In fact, I made that reason clear a while back.

Email me privately, if you're interested, and I'll fill you in. In the meantime, attack my arguments if you like but don't attack me.

Fondly,

Will

I agree with Lakefrontroad that if buyer or seller is out to rip off their counterpart, it's going to happen. Furthermore, as his $16K example shows, if it does happen, don't kid yourself that you're going to somehow use the arms of justice to rectify the situation. You're going to find a way to deal with losing $16K.

I lost $1800 to DSSMAN last summer with the phony COD check. It taught me that 1)a phony COD check looks pretty darn good if you only glance at it, 2) that anybody who wants to pass off a phony cashiers check for COD can, and 3) if you receive a phony cashiers check as payment for COD, the only real retribution you have is to spend a lot of time talking to law enforcement agencies about how they can't do anything for you. Mind you, they were very attentive and responsive, they just truly couldn't do anything about it.

I probably won't do COD as a seller again, based on the fact that I have positive feedback here and on ebay established over a couple years and that I'm easily contactable and verifiable that I am who I say I am. That said, I might do it again as well - in retrospect, I probably broke every rule about insuring a positive transaction that I have ever defined in getting burned. Almost any of them, if self-enforced, would have allowed me to avoid that. IOW, shame on me.

I didn't have a transaction for many months after DSSMAN, largely because I didn't want to buy or sell anything, but partially because it left an obvious bad taste in my mouth. Recently, I both bought and sold items over $1K and both transactions went totally smoothly and were very satisfying. Once again capturing the good feeling of getting great performance for a fraction of the cost and remembering that I've saved oh so much more than $1800 through this type of transaction.

The bottom line, for me, is protect yourself every way you can, recognize that there will always be risk, and never make a deal that puts you in a situation that you can't absorb if you do happen into a rip-off. -Kirk

I just bought a very expensive piece of gear on Audiogon. I sent a personal check and after it cleared drove a couple hundred miles to pick up the pre-amp/
CD player and had a great day in the seller's listening room. We both brought some of our favorite music and both of us learned some new music. The equipment was exactly as sold. Brand new/un-opened and the experience could not have been more of a pleasure. Too bad the world is not always like that.