I'm definitely going to be even MORE cautious dealing with buying things on the internet now.
I'm still sticking with face to face transactions in public well lit places.
Well, it depends a lot on whom you're buying from. It's not just an internet issue. Buying from an established company with a credit card always leaves you an out in terms of disputing the charge in one form or another; but more importantly, it reduces your risk of bad or at least fraudulent transactions to as close to zero as you can get. I don't think Midway USA is going to cheat me. And if somehow they do, I think they'll make good on a challenge to it. And if they don't do that, then I can at least dispute the charge. Same for TOW, etc., etc.
It's these PRIVATE sales with virtually no reliable information about the seller (or if you're selling, buyer) that are the problem. But little one-man/craftsman-type companies can be problematic. However, even then, if it's a REAL company, the same approach will work. Hatta Services is a good example of that. So is TOW and other such companies in the shooting area. Otherwise, someone with no public "footprint" or verifiable reputation -- and of course especially private individuals -- substantially raise the OBJECTIVE risk, and you need to not let your SUBJECTIVE desire for something overwhelm that (which we're all subject to at times
).
It's interesting to me that I see so many problems of such sales complained about on this forum. I participate in two forums oriented to brass musical instruments in which there are frequent sales and purchases among individuals and on Ebay. Those transactions look a LOT like the ones I see here -- except that in those cases there are virtually NO complaints of broken deals or scams. And these purchases typically involve relatively fragile instruments being sold for thousands of dollars, and often involve critical packing and shipping methods, and intercontinental sales including import duties, etc. I don't know why there's such a difference regarding these kinds of sales in the two domains. My only speculation is that in the case of things like BP firearms, buyers and sellers are just not thinking about the risk, are unreasonably trusting in people they don't know, and just don't want to take certain types of precautions. Again, one approach to guard against losing a big chunk of money would be to set up some sort of escrow arrangement -- either with an online escrow company (these are out there) or even with a local gunshop that for some small fee might agree to act as an agent. I haven't tried this, but I'm pretty sure I know at least one shop within about 45 minutes of me here that would do this.
Otherwise, I don't understand the extent of the problem as it's been described here -- except it seems to involve people sending money to other people they really shouldn't trust, and then complaining when those people weren't trustworthy. I also wonder (though I haven't made an effort to investigate this) if it isn't age-related.
In terms of face to face transactions in public places, at this point in time I would even be very careful of that since all three of the cities around here are having continuing incidents of robberies and shootings on a daily basis -- and this includes locations such a large and well-lit shopping mall that used to be perfectly safe, parking lots of food markets, gas stations, and Walmarts, etc. If I were to do such an exchange, I'd do it in a local Police, Sheriff department, or State Police parking lot.
