What would you do about a sleazy buyer??

Onhwy61, nice comments...you must be a lawyer too?

Please allow me to interject before you take this overboard. I NEVER jerked anyone around. I had 2 emails in my inbox at the SAME time. One read, "I'm interested in your amps for XXXX dollars". The other read "I'm interested in your amps and I live within 15 minutes of you." I wrote the "Out of State" offer an email that I had a strong possibility of a Local Sale which I wanted to pursue first as it was a local deal. I called the Local party who agreed. The local party wanted to have them for 3 days to demo. I TOLD the local party that I cannot do that as I have another interested party waiting on us to complete this negotiation.

In the meantime, on the day of getting both offers, I told the "Out of State Offer" that it was not right for me to play 2 buyers against each other for the max price, nor keep him strung along. Rather, I wanted to pursue the Local deal first for many reasons (No shipping, Less chance of Fraud, Less chance of breakage during shipping, etc.) I was completely up front and honest with the out of state offer that IF the local sale did not work out, and he was still interested, I contact him within 2 days, which was the scheduled time of the Demo. That is why the "Out of State Buyer" went to buy someone else's gear!!!

I am not the least bit mad at the "out of state" offer, I feel bad that I couldn't have had the chance to given him a BETTER deal than what he got. He was completely right to find the same product somewhere else! We all would have done the same thing. My concern is that I could not have negotiated with the ONLY genuinely interested party FIRST.

This has taught me a few lessons. I believe that I will no longer be doing local sales as I would rather have the troubles of mailing 360 lbs of speakers for a clear deal over dinking around with "unverified" buyers! In the end, this will only hurt the buying market of used equipment by people who are less than honest or up front. This used high-end audio market is tough enough without unreputable people participating. We are not in the business of doing this for a living. This is our hobby where we give up our
time on the weekends as a favor for someone who wants to
buy them.

Secondly, I loved a few of this ideas such as charging $50-$100 up front for a demo! How about making it $200 which is refundable with a closed deal??? I also like the idea of a credit check. My father suggested the same thing. The "buyer" actually lived in one the highest priced housing areas. Heck, he was bragging to me about just having bought a new engine for his Porche! Who would ever have thought he was penniless??? $2900 is not a LOT of money for people who own Porche's.

You paid $50 for their trouble! Wow, I want to do business with you. You're a man/woman among men/women! It really does beg the need for a discussion on offering our time to a sale and how MUCH time.

If the buyer would have just told me, "Hey, I don't like the sound. I'm not interested", I would have been happy and left. That's part of the sales process. It's saying "Wow, I really love these and would LOVE to own these, but I don't have any money. Thanks for your time and here's a copied Soundtrack to My Cousin Vinny for you", is what got me twisted off. This is compeletely true!

I'll have to give the buyer credit for being too honest, when he felt it was the right time....

Onhwy61, thanks for the apology. It has been graciously accepted!

I've really enjoyed the many comments to the threads. It's been very enjoyable seeing how many people see me as the manipulative jerk in this situation when my intent was to get a survey of this very thorough learning experience. I think a few folks need to go back and reread all of the facts very carefully again. I still read resonances of misinterpretations. I think that it shows me a culture of distrust, spin, and caution pervasive among high end audio. My last sale was sooo shocked becuase I sold him an Aerial CC5 center channel and I described it as a 9/10. He told me that he was floored when he got it as he EXPECTED an 8/10 but it showed up as a 10/10!!

Am I also one of the few people that thinks it's a bit odd that I actually use my REAL name??? Exactly why do most people hide behind their internet pseudonym? To me, it adds to that bit of creating an untrusting culture. What are we all hinding from? Maybe a stretch, but who knows. I clearly have nothing to hide. I don't know, maybe I'm missing something here? Hi, my name's Charles and I'm an internet audio seller!

This has been a wonderful learning lesson to me. I too am quite passionate about my hobby. One of the best comments is that people that buy here should already know exactly what they want. There are a half dozen stores here that carry Bryston. Most of us who sell here do not do this for their PRIMARY INCOME nor is it our business, rather as a way of upgrading when we have more $$$'s in our pockets. We all need to be cautious and yet respectful of others for their time. Like Ronald Reagan said, "Trust the dealer to the fullest extent, but always cut the deck"!

Thanks for the great support from the 95% of the replies. I'm not going to be as naively willing to extend my trust, but I've also gotten a renewed faith that 95% of the folks on here are wonderful outstanding people. I was very bitter from being jerked around, but this thread has shown me that it was a "rare" instance and has restored my faith that people are generally good in the world.

I'm glad that I found Audiogon.