Hayduke1- sorry, dude, but you are barking up the wrong tree. I know that it sucks to pay big $ for an amp repair. I did a dumb thing w a tube integrated and it cost me close to $1K for the repair, but it was my mistake so I took my lumps. You tell us that the spades were over-sized for your amp's binding posts, that you couldn't snug them down properly, but you powered up the amp anyways? And they "might have touched", and you want the cable seller to pay for your damaged amp? IOW, you made a mistake, shorted the outputs and you want someone else to pay? Couple this w Stefanoo's nonsense in this thread
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&1330019170&read and it's easy to see why brick and mortar retailers are a dying breed. Can you imagine having to deal with this face to face? I know this sounds harsh, but a little reality check is in order here.