How do I pay?

Don't try to pay him. Just ignore him. There's something wrong here.

I've done many transactions with relative strangers. In all cases I was aided by 2 things:

-- their feedback on relevant audio boards (if zero feedback, watch out)

-- the transactions were protected by Paypal.

Paypal is an invasive species of a company. I kind of detest them. Their rates are confiscatory/borderline silly. BUT...I rely on them to save my ass during arms' length audio transactions.

mitch2

It was a very bad experience. a long story, and took a few weeks. I got the full refund. It easily could have finished poorly.

I found another TT81 in 2 arm plinth, in great shape, discussed packaging with seller. Vlad from Canada packed it amazingly. Bill later bought another setup from Vlad. We highly recommend him.

Aside from everything else, what a shame to see such a rare beautiful plinth and dust cover destroyed. The 7082 tonearm and spinner TT81 survived the shipping.

While waiting, I spoke to my credit card company. they said:

1. they put the charge on hold
2. I did not have to pay the charge until resolved
3. started a countdown in their system, then they would open a case against PayPal.
4. PayPal will notify the seller: resolve it, or we will close your PayPal account.
5. informed of this, the seller hurriedly processed the refund.
6. of course anyone could just open another PayPal account, so seller has to be given credit for accepting responsibility, especially when UPS clarified the improper packaging.

I've done something similar to this 3 times but all with respected dealers, i had to send a bank wire transfer because i live in Canada and all the dealers were in California. once to Robert Lee (Acoustic Zen) for  Absolute speaker and interconnect cables, once to Scott Walker (Scott Walker Audio) Synergistic Research powercell10 UEF power conditioner and once to David Weinhart (Weinhart Design) a pair of REL G1 subs, these were all expensive transactions and they all went smoothly and everything arrived as if it was brand new (actually cables were) but i would have never in a million years done this with a private party sale.

the problem with buying used is often between shipping, PayPal and sometimes listing fees there’s no incentive. Personally if the value is enough to include PayPal fees offer it otherwise wait for a local sale.

Run don't walk.