OGR Does a good job but

It's simple. Don't send money via phone transfer.

OGR provides this forum free of charge to members.

I suppose they could start policing members but then that would most likely involve fees.

They aren't going to do it for free. With that in mind ebay is already set up for buyer protection, including the fees.

Buyers need to be cautious about who they purchase from. There are plenty of folks on this forum that have established a good reputation.

Having said all that. I'm sure there have been a few folks scammed by LCCA and TCA members. Especially by unsuspecting newcomers to the hobby at shows that bring home a doa Loco because the LCCA /TCA member "knew what they were taking about, and could be trusted".

OGR does a good job period.

Many moons ago a coffee shop in downtown Chicago had a slogan,

As you ramble through life brother, whatever be your goal.

Keep your eye upon the donut, not upon the hole.

In any transaction, a little bit of common sense goes a long way.  John in Lansing, ILL

I'm sure we can all recall a used car purchase that we regretted later......

WaynePa posted:

I think OGR does a good job veting new potential forum members but it is not fool proof. That was evident in the recent post about a transaction gone wrong. An attempt by the moderator to locate the individual was fruitless. That was because the individual did not correspond via the forum where he might be identified but rather via e-mail which allowed him to be anonymous.

One way to avoid this situation in the future is to require a response via the forum in the form of a private message and not via e-mail. That way the individuals involved can be identified by the OGR staff. Of course payment via PayPal is nearly foolproof but not everyone has an account.

I like to deal with TCA or LCCA members when buying and selling since you can look up the individual via the member directories. I like to pay via a personal check as I am one of those members who do not have a PayPal account. If there is a problem I can stop payment. I also like to use USPS since they will aggressively go after fraudulent individuals.

I also think that OGR should allow postings that warn other members of these scammers so that hopefully no one else will be taken advantage of. While there might be some concern about litigation that is rather unlikely given the circumstances.

I’m sure this post won’t last long and that is unfortunate.

 

Well Ed.....Some of your comments above make sense but I don't think you or most folks realize how we verify new members (and are currently going through the 20,000 or so older accounts) to make sure they are real people with real addresses.  You are correct that the process is not foolproof because OGR can't determine if an individual has malicious intentions.  I would like to think that everyone on this forum has nothing but the best of intentions when it comes to transactions but I live in the real world...  If one is not willing to, as I like to say,  "do their homework" when making a purchase, then please don't blame OGR.  The recent post about a transaction going wrong could actually have been perpetrated by a member on this forum.  The buyer did not list their email in their want to buy post so a non-member would not have been able to get that email from this forum because non-members can not see member's email information....so I believe it was a member that ripped off the buyer.  It would not be hard for a member to simply not use their forum name and to use a private email to contact a buyer on this or any other forum.  OGR can not protect you from that kind of situation.  Just so you all know....the buyer in the transaction we are talking about made a bunch of mistakes in the purchasing process not the least of which he did not check out the seller's identity as to his member name here on the forum until after the transaction!  If he had done just that one thing, he would have found out in fact with whom he was dealing and he would have been able to compare the address he was being given by the seller to the one in the seller's profile.  Not only did he not confirm he was really dealing with a forum member, the method of payment the seller required would...or should...have been a warning going off in his head.  Regardless, the buyer through a series of emails to me let me know that he blamed OGR for his problem...and relayed that years ago he quit buying our magazine because he had a problem with one of our advertisers concerning a transaction and also blamed us for that problem...assuming that we should have stepped in and got involved between him and the shop in question.....or kicked the advertiser out of the magazine.....Yeah...right!

Finally Ed....a PayPal account is easy and free.  Writing someone a check has its own problems not the least of which if cashed before the stop payment, then you are SOL.  PayPal or payment options like it offer a quick and easy and mostly safe way to pay for both the buyer and seller.  If the other side doesn't accept that kind of payment, then walk away.  Don't let your desire to own something overcome your common sense.

Enough said about this....topic closed.