I gotta agree.I gotta disagree. If I'm selling cigars, and I don't know the person who is buying from me, they gotta send their end first. I don't care how long they've been here.
I've dealt with members who've had join dates going back as far as 2003. They've registered for a long time but don't participate much and so they recognized that the right thing to do was to send their end first...without even asking if I'd want that. Now those are guys who understand and "get it."
As an aside, a might not know or have interacted with a guy, but if he has a presence on the forum, then that figures a bit. Then it can become a point of negotiation. I have to say that I have never had a problem sending my end first when asked or asking for it and getting it when I felt it was appropriate. If you get pressure or an uneasy sense, that's probably a clue that you ought not to proceed with the transaction.
Wilkey