How to buy from Audiogon?

I bought a $4000 pair of speakers from an Audiogon seller. I used the escrow service I-escrow. You send the money to I-escrow. I-escrow notifies the seller payment has been made. Seller ships merchandise to buyer. Buyer inspects merchandise and notifies I-escrow to make payment to seller. The fees are reasonable and worth it for major purchases. www.iescrow.com Good luck

Has anyone used paypal.com? That seems like a good way to go, and it allows purchasers to pay via credit card. Is there a downside to Paypal that I'm not aware of?

I too have used Iescrow and have been satisfied with the result of the transaction. The seller was also happy with the results . Iescrow is probably the safest way to make a transaction. Paypal is ok but it does not guarantee the quality of the item purchased. Also I believe the seller must be a verified user with paypal in order to have any fraud protection coverage. I am too paranoid to use C.O.D. Seems like there is no protection for the buyer.

Tom- iescrow is fast and easy as described above. If seller has limited feedback and/or if $ is high, that's probably the best way to go, COD is next. However, I have done about 15 transactions here in the last year (2 @ 900, rest less) and all have worked well. Also, seller should be willing to talk to you on phone, esp. if big $.

I couldn't be happier with all of the transactions that I have conducted on Audiogon.. I sold and bought about $15K worth of equipments all from audiogon & did not encountered one dishonested person...(thanks to the good hearts of audiophiles), I have used all methods (palpay, cod, check up front), and happy everytime. Yes, trust is a good thing sometimes.