ShipWreck,
You are very correct in being cautious about buying off the internet. I have used several of the internet auction sites and can confirm that it is in fact very risky. What makes the problem even worse is that that the auction sites such as gunbroker make their money off the sellers so my experience has been that are are not very responsive to requests for assistance from a buyer that has been ripped off, as they make their money whether the seller was honest or if the seller was a thief, they still get their cut. My personal experience has been that gunbroker is the worst of all of them. While their graphics seem the nicest and have a great deal listed, my experience has included getting some nice deals from that site but also been ripped off by thiefs and gunbroker seems to defend sellers that have aquired even huge amounts of negative feedback, they still support them and let them continue to peddle garbage. So, could not agree with you more about being skeptical of buying something without being able to handle it first. I now use the auction sites just to shop around then I order from a reputable local shop that adds only a modest profit onto the item which is usually comparable to what I would have paid in shipping anyway if buying off the auction site, and he incurs all the risk of getting the item to me exactly as represented.
