Members with No Feedback

What does it take to "clear" an international MO? With the USPS, I get cash and no bank is involved. USPS told me that I could simply cash the USPS MO at my local bank, but if it is fraudulent the bank would deduct the funds from my account and I lose. I would wait to clear unless I had cash in my hand and no possibility of my bank taking the money back. Is that possible? Is there another part of this that I don't understand? I have never taken in international MO before.

OK, confession time. I have roughly 100 transactions with perfect feedback from both buying and selling. I have never had a problem on either end. I lose money ever time, as I just like to try different equipment and don't look to make a profit. Now the jack-ass part. A while back I won an auction from someone with zero feedback for a pair of mono blocks and I knew as soon as I bid that I had been had. Nothing added up, my emails were ignored and I was just plain f**ked. While I was thinking of a way to get out of the transaction, which I had NEVER tried to do before, my amps showed up at my door step BEFORE I had even paid for them. I felt like a complete zero with no high ground what so ever to hide behind. The moral of the story, if there is one, is none of us really know who we are dealing with and sometimes those of us with lots of great feedback are no more reliable than the new guy.

Good story Mags. Never had too much of a problem with the seller only with the delivery (USPS and UPS; none with Fedex). In the same vein as your story I once sent something to Canada before recieved the MO. No MO. Wait, wait, wait... at least the guy was still answering email but not too quickly. I sweated that one. It turned out the MO was lost at the local post office but after I went up there they eventually found it. Said I'd never do that again but I did it once again with no problem.

Tgrisham, I'm not sure, but I don't believe you can buy a USPS Money Order in Japan. That's why I assume it will be drawn on an International bank. He did not mention USPS MO. My banks have told me it could take up to 30 days for an International MO to clear.

Yes Grant, obviously a wire transfer or Paypal are the way to go, and that is how most of my International transactions have been conducted. A no feedback member may be a youngster that doesn't know how to send money through International channels though. So, is he just a financial novice?

I did e-mail him and recommend a wire transfer over a MO, mentioning that it would get him his 'goods' much quicker, but I have not received a reply yet.

Cheers,
John