The guy who had it was a nobody. A garagesaler that didn't know anything about cues. I put a warning in another thread because he had a palmer on ebay and to watch his description.
As far as to what happened. I had many high's and low's in this sting. One moment the law can help, one moment it can't. In the end, it was a backroom meeting where he came to his senses very quickly.
Every time you think you have the solution, a monkey wrench is thrown in very quickly. You must plan every conceivable variation. You must be willing to go to plan b, c, d, e, f and g without a moments hesitation.
I had to phone Barry, send him pictures I had on file of the cue. The setup was as follows, Barry gave him the numbers of two "collectors", Ken and Tom, one collector was going to bid a hard number, the other a greater hard number. His greed cost him, he went with the high number. The confrontation was very short, he succumbed to his guilt handed the cue over and promised to make good on paypal, which he did the moment he got back to Philly, he is going to the police to squash the complaint against me that I sent him an empty box. I won't press any more charges unless he doesn't hold up his end of the agreement. Believe me, he is going to do the agreed upon resolution. Imagine your disappointment when you drive with the anticipation of hitting a very big score, to find out that you have been set up. This swing of emotion, not to mention about 10k, will weigh very heavily on him for a long time. But don't worry, I have already spoken to an attorney in the Philly area if this had to go that way.
After he left, he called me on the phone, continuing to apologize and explain his error in judgment. I asked him why, as a power seller with over 300 positive feedbacks would you risk your reputation and do something like this? Turns out that since our original transaction was around the holidays, he had spent the money on presents and such. I told him, hey I ain't a bad guy I would have worked with you. He said sorry a hundred times. I think he just made a snafu under pressure many of us have felt when an unexpected bill comes and you don't know where the funds are going to come from to cover it.
I truly believe that I would have gotten more help from the cops if someone desecrated a box of krispy kreme's than a lowly pool cue. What I had to deal with on that level IMHO is and was disgusting and to protect and serve, to me now, should be underwritten with "when it's easy for us, and we don't have to do much work". I mean I had to recover my own property even though there were TWO police reports on the incident.
I don't know who scroogemcduck is but he actually helped by honoring my request not to contact or tip him off when the original thread went awry. So don't hold ill towards him on this issue.
JV
