Tonykay it's a little hard to buy the gear you want used locally. I'm vey trusting and before PayPal was popular I was sending large sums of money with USPS money orders buying off Audiogon. Luckily I never got burned, there are good people out there. Motoman is right. My dad was an attorney and his advise in a situation like this was always get a lien on there property if they have it. It becomes a waiting game to get funds. There now trapped with there property. Hopefully it will be a deterrent and don't want the hassle and send you your property back, good luck.