buyer beware of late

Getting a headache from all this.keep up the good work men,I am trying to do a little policing[I hate that word] myself as this site is too good to lose to scammers.Have many good deals in the past in a variety of ways.I just keep that phone conversation as my litmus test,good luck,Bob

I bought a fairly expensive cd player many years ago thru audiogon, COD. As I recall, the Fedex guy told me I was not allowed to open the box without giving him the money order first, and if there was a big rock in there, then I just bought a rock. I found all that sorta scary. I wonder if that is still the case with COD.

Anything over $1,500 - I always buy locally, pay cash and see what I'm getting by picking it up. Anything else is too risky. But mostly I buy through my dealer. His advice and support is worth paying retail or slightly below.

Last year a lady in TN was "selling" speaker cables at a very good price. I bit, even though she had no feedback. She had a nice voice over the phone when I talked to her at her place of employment- a bank. I sent a money order for $600. After a couple of days, the ad had not changed to sold, or pending (hint to all scammers). So I called her again. This time she was rude and had no time to talk because she was at work, etc. Another call was even more rude and short. Then someone posted a scam warning beside the ad (thanks to the member who took the time to warn me/us). Anyway, I got in touch with the other member and he gave me her home phone # which I called, now the weekend. She was more rude and angry, I won't say low class because it would it would be an insult to low class. On Monday, I called the bank and spoke to the manager, he asked me to explain. Then he said that she called him at home the day before, Sunday, to resign from the bank. No explanations from her. He intercepted my letter which contained the money order and returned it to me. I got 3 emails from members who had been scammed by this same person. The only ones who got their money back, to my knowledge, were myself and the guy who posted the warning.
In the past year I have made it a policy of mine to request that seller send me the item, or one piece (one speaker, for instance), then I send some of the money, to be paid in full only when I get what I've paid for. I do this if the person has no or few feedback. This has worked well. Most of the time the deal falls through, the seller somewhat pissed that I would make such an outrageous request- I understand. But, if you can't trust me, then who can you trust, IMHO?
Have fun and be careful!
P.S. I've noticed an increase of shady audio "deals" coming out of the U.K., especially on eBay.

Several days ago, I made an offer to buy from someone with no feedback. I told them I would only do the deal via UPS COD. Fortunately, I know our UPS guy and he will let me look at the item and even quickly power it up before handing over the funds. I never heard back from the seller. Either the item is sold (although it is not marked sold), they didn't like my COD terms, or they didn't like my offer, which was a little below the asking price. Either way, no problem. I will wait for a better opportunity. I think part of having good luck with these transactions is sticking to your terms, and knowing when to walk.