Posted By:
WPAIn regards to the gentleman who is the dealer in question. There are a lot of collectibles dealers that operate out of their homes, with a PO Box, that don't take credit cards, that don't operate on the internet. Its a second part time job for most of them.
While it can seem a little bit tough to understand, they 1. enjoy their privacy. 2. Don't insure their business as its really a second job, and thus don't want nor need the public around them to know what they have. 3. These are the dealers with "old time" collectors who pass away and they buy the collection back from their spouses or family members. These Old time collectors aren't using ebay, they go to the same monthly or quarterly or yearly show or visit the same shop to buy material...."kick the tires" so to speak. 4. these are the dealers that take a check from collectors at a show for 1/2 of the amount with a promise to pay the rest at the next show.
This may not match up with ebay, paypal, 20% auction commissions....but that doesn't make it wrong. I wouldn't have signed the contract mentioned either. I would think that a phone conversation where you point out that you've never met and your a little bit concerned about sending 10K to someone you've never met would have gotten a much different response.....Its difficult to commit that amount to someone you've never met...but from his perspective he probably usually conducts his deals in exactly this manner...just with people he's known for 5, 10 or 15 years.
Regards