I just had another of my crazy thoughts. I am looking for a backup empeg unit but I am nervous of getting screwed.

What if we set up some kind of escorow / validation service on the BBS? A buyer and seller could complete a transaction. Then, the seller could forward the item to a person who is trusted by both the seller and buyer. That person would verify that the unit was in the condition as advertised. If so, it would be held in limbo until the buyer paid the seller. At that point, the verifyer would send the item to the buyer.

Ok, so getting a single person who is trusted by the buyer is easy because the buyers would be from this board (and I'm sure we trust some of the people here). But to get the seller to buy in would be tough.

I don't know, but I'd sure feel good if someone who knew empegs would look over the unit I bought (before I paid for it) to make sure that it's not a rock in a box or a stolen unit or something. Thoughts?

I doubt that any of us would want to get in the middle of a potentially nasty potential dispute. Third party services already exist to do this, anyway, and it's not like anyone here is going to do it for free, or even for much less than the commercial services will.

Agreed. Nobody is getting his little grubby fingers all over my empeg without him having payed for it, dammit!

It's a shame that you're right though...there's a lot of trustworthy and knowledgable people here.

I would gladly pay someone to work as an intermediary for my sale. Pay for shipping of the unit to me and pay for inspection. I just don't know how the money would work out. Unless the seller could trust the third party somehow.

Sure, a escrow business could do it, but can they verify that the unit is working and that the package is complete as per the sales description?

I'm about to purchase a second unit and I'm scared to death of getting jacked. I left myself wide open on my first empeg purchase but luckily I bought from a trustworthy seller. This time... I don't know... I have to make the call.

Check the rules at www.escrow.com.

<poking fun at myself> Haha, is asking a seller to use an escrow service like asking your fiancee for a prenuptual agreement? Don't both end with a smack in the face?

Thanks for the link.