Phony buyers on Audiogon

You SHOULD be worried. If someone just offers to buy at your asking price without asking questions about your amp, then tells you that he has no money, I reckon he is after something else. The problem with Audiogon is they allow non-members to make offers so you have nowhere to trace back to the phony buyers or leave negative feedbacks because they are non-members.
As far as I am concerned, if a buyer makes an offer and the seller accepts his offer, then it is a binding contract. I know in reality a lot of buyers opt out of their offers after they find out the bottom line of the sellers. This is something that Audiogon should enforce to allow sellers to leave negative feedbacks on phony buyers or non-serious buyers so that the sellers are aware of them before they start negotiating the deals.

Belfran; I'm sure management has plenty else to do, than concern itself with "deals-that-don't-go-thru". As a buyer or seller your job is to know the game and proceed with intelligence and caution. Always check the feedback of a buyer---AND---seller.Wait for funds to clear before shipping. BTW,an out of state check from a small bank "can" take up to 14 days.(not the commonly thought--10-days.) I would NEVER do a COD,unless the buyer has at least 15+'s. The feedback system is there for our protection;and about as good as it gets--use it.

You could state in your conditions that buyers must be A'gon members and even have a certain amount of pos feedback. while it may cull some out, if they really want it, it is up to them to convince you to sell it if they do not meet the conditions.

I agree with Belfran.

Nothing unusual about this. Unfortunately, people, for whatever reason, will want to buy or possess something and out of impulse they will "buy it!!". Explains why a lot of us are in credit card debt. Anyway, it is not uncommon, as another example, for people to bid on your auction and not come through if they win. Apparently, they think they win the item as a prize if they're the high bidder. It's the same with buying - the desire is strong but the money is not there.

If someone should offer me what I'm asking asking with no questions asked or without a lower offer, I would either suspect that either (a) my asking price is too low, (b) they're just kicking tires or (c) they actually want it. If they don't come through, so what. From where I sit, there a plenty of decent folks on this site - one potential buyer who didn't come through shouldn't worry you.