(Business related? Please move if not in correct forum)

I am looking at a camera in the private classifieds, but the seller has < 10 posts since joining in Jan 07. Am I overly paranoid to be worried about a $1700 purchase from a low post member? The member has also only ever posted to the classifieds; not in the camera's dedicated forum, or any other section of DVI.

This amount is roughly 2/3 of my entire business account, so I cannot afford to get burned. I fully realize that it isn't a fair assumption to make, but at the same time I do need to take some steps to protect against fraud.

Thank you for understanding my paranoia ;-) and for any experience you have in similar purchase / sale situations.

Send me a private email with the exact link you're looking at.

Always communicate with the seller by telephone, and if at all possible, in person would be even better. In our six-year history there have been only a handful of rip-offs, but once is too many in my book, and I'm always looking for ways to improve the transaction process.

Also, I've always advocated buying new gear over used. The only reason I added that forum to our line-up was due to demand from our members. If we're going to have a classifieds forum, it's going to be the best of all the web sites in this market.

Jason - Rule #1 in online transactions - communicate with the other party until you're sure they are OK, if something seems funny, back away.

Rule #2, equally important if not MORE important... when paying, use a method that protects you - PayPal, Google pay, something which allows you to use a credit card is preferred, so if you do get burned, your CC backs you up.

ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS use a method that protects you when paying - you wouldn't give a $100 bill to someone on the street so they could go run and get this watch they want to sell you...

That said, while I've had to call the ol' CC company a few times, most of my online transactions have been really great, with good honest people on the other side, whether I'm buying or selling! There's just a few bad apples out there, some true crooks, and some flakes, and they make it bad for the rest of the transactions that go perfectly smoothly...

By and large I can't afford NEW shiny toys, so buying slightly used and generally just as shiny toys has worked fairly well for me... YMMV