Buying used or sight unseen speakers a bad idea?

Maybe I'm missing the point but isn't most everything sold on Audiogon "sight un-seen”? I live in the Chicago metropolitan area, point being “lots of people”, but whenever I have $$$ burning a hole in my pocket, I rarely find what I’m looking for locally. Everything I have was purchased on Audiogon, “sight un-seen”.

Here’s the proverbial local rare exception… I’m right now chasing a guy in the Chicago area who has listed what might be a too good to be true cable (emphasis added)… the only payment option identified in the ad is “Money Order”… and the member has 0 feedback. As fate would have it, the seller has failed to respond to my E-mails. In this case, I would not buy the cable "sight un-seen", and I'm close to taking Kira's “ten foot pole” advice.

I would not buy the cable "sight un-seen", and I'm close to taking Kira's “ten foot pole” advice

I would not buy any speakers without plenty of pictures. I just don't "get" guys who list speakers with no pictures.

yes plenty of pictures(close up) and may be video would be helpful.Why close up?when i was buying dyns c1 in pictures speakers looked fine.But when they arrived ,during unpacking stright away I noticed that bafles of both sides had cosmetic factory defects because of sandwich layering.At first came idea may be it is faked,then i checked up drivers, crosovers.Were original.Seller sold them 400$ cheaper for this reason I think....

Wow! I read very response. One word...Invaluable. Thank you all.

Which reminds me. The ONLY time I ever got screwed on A'gon in 10 years was by a guy with no feedback, new to the site. He got kicked off after I escalated the issue, but could of course easily set up a new account with a different email address.

How does one escalate an issue? I have one right now on a purchase.