I see your point, Rich, but I think that to a degree trust must be earned. If I were dealing with someone I knew (such as yourself) I would have no problem sending the goods as soon as the deal was made. The same goes for Club members, because we are all bound by the Code of Ethics and there is an implicit trust involved there as well.

I would not, however, send out anything to a stranger until payment was finalized (in this case, when the check has cleared.) Though I would like to be able to trust everyone, I think that there are some bad people out there and there are opportunities to be burned. For multi-thousand-dollar deals, I would tend to be very cautious when dealing with someone I don't know.

I wonder how dealers cope with this issue. I'm sure people they don't know from Adam walk through our convention doors and offer to pay for items by check. I think that their situation would be a good analog to yours.