In general, how do transactions with Forum members go?

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Posted By: Gary B.

I've bought card(s) from Brian (shammus) two or three times, and all transactions and communications were outstanding. I'd buy from him any time. I've had other people offer me items (Julie being one) that were a bit out of my price range at that time, so those transactions never occurred, but always they were very friendly and professional.

I had one not so good transaction, but since he didn't actually rip me off, I won't mention his name. He doesn't seem to be much of a regular contributor to Net54 anyway. We were negotiating on something I was going to buy from him and everything was going very well. It got to the point where he even gave me his paypal info and I was ready to pay for the card, but, to my intense regret later on, I e-mailed him with one more question before paying. He then told me he had previously made an arrangement with someone to sell a bunch of his cards including that one, but that he thought it wasn't going to happen. In that window of time, he received money from that person and then retracted his offer to me, even though we had sealed the deal. It was an item I was VERY excited about (as he knew), and it seriously pissed me off when he did that. Why would he offer something for sale that he had already sold? If there was doubt about that previous transaction, he should have made sure it wasn't going to happen before offering it for sale again. He came to me to offer it for sale too, I didn't even go to him - he was just responding to a post of mine. I tried to see if he could make other arrangements with the other person and sell the other cards without that one, but he said he had to keep to his word and wouldn't budge or answer any e-mails after the first one. Problem is, he didn't keep his word to me, so it was hypocritcal, and very upsetting, especially since it was a rare item that it could take years to come across again. I found later he had a cancelled ebay account with some negative feedback. Anyway, no point mentioning his name as I know others here have had positive interactions with him, and he didn't actually steal my money or anything, just acted unprofessionally and irresponsibly. It wouldn't stop me from doing other transactions with Net54 folks, but it has made me more wary. I would never have expected that kind of behavior, and it was after I had checked this person first as well.

Can't win 'em all I guess...