I never thought of that, but do we really want to involve the police in such a trivial matter? I wouldn't, I'm sure they have more important things to do than to mess with an A-hole changing his mind on a drum sale.

Well, unless I REALLY wanted them, I'd just walk away and leave him with his drums. There's always a chance he'll come back and accept your offer.

Sometimes sellers get greedy once they have a buyer "on the hook". I'm guilty of offering additional items (outside the original deal) to try and get more cash out of a buyer. But, I never go back on a deal. And, I never scuttle the original deal making the additional items a new requirement of the original deal.

It's bad business, and really bad negotiating skills on the part of the seller.

My point was, for the sake of teaching others, if it's in writing, it's binding (in most states anyway). Verbal agreements are worth the paper their written on...

But, his name was not in the text message. Could he not say that someone else could had texted that?

It's not a criminal matter. It's a civil matter, therefore the police have nothing to do with it. You could file a civil lawsuit, but there have been no laws broken for which a person could be arrested.

The police wouldn't do anything, other than keeping the seller "honest".

It is never a bad idea to meet a stranger to exchange money in a bank, or police station. It just gives the seller pause to go through with a scam. Buying vintage watches, where it is a small item and can be a LOT of money, this is standard practice. Obviously you can't drag a drum kit into the local PD but they generally have parking lots. If an officer come over to see what's going on, all the better.*

Regarding the name not attached to the texts- the phone number is, and that number has the bills paid by someone. Not a stretch although if it were a larger case, they would try to prove that their phone was "hacked" or some crap.

Then there's the original listing, and who listed them, etc.

*I recall a story of a meeting to buy a vintage Patek Phillipe watch (six figures) and the deal happened in a hotel room. Seller was stabbed (he lived fortunately) and his watch stolen...

I have often wondered if text messages would hold up in a court room. I like to keep all of text messages from customers of mine until the job is complete and 100% paid. If anything it could one day solve a dispute without legal action and its handy to look back if you forgot something.

That's too funny. I doubt that the cop would know which person to arrest.

In order for a text message or other electronic communication to be admissible in court, one would have to prove who the sender was. That's not easy to do, since there are so many variables involved, like spoofing, hacking, etc. It's like in the "old days" trying to identify who made a threatening or obscene phone call. It's one thing identifying the phone the call came from, but another thing to identify who made the call.