I've recently been burned by a dealer who is well known to the G.I.Joe community and after asking the advice of leading figures in the Joe commnunity I've decided that the individual in question should be named.

The name of the individual is Lawrence Hines, AKA 'Arbcotoys'

The items in question were not G.I.Joe items, but rather toys from the M.A.S.K. line, But I feel such events could repeat themselves for a G.I.Joe collector, simply because he sells a good deal of G.I.Joe items.
 

(I realise the following is rather protracted, but in the interest of clarity, it seems best to give full details.)

The speciffics of this transaction are that in February I purchased some Mask toys from him on Ebay,  (those were received) I also asked him if he had any further mask items, and he told me he could complete my collection for $1030.  No pictures were provided as he told me that his camera was broken, I was inclined to beleive him as his auctions no longer had pictures at this point.(And still do not.)

I sent him two payments totaling the $1030 mentioned, - $400 on Febraury 12th, and the remaing $630 on March 9th. Once he had payment in full contact from Mr Hines became intermittent, and then stopped completely. However he clearly had intenet access as he was listing auctions on Ebay.

About four weeks later (about two weeks back) i got an email from him saying his Grandmother had died and that he had been busy (yet he was still listing auctions in that four week period) tying up her affairs. I was told that the items would be shipped the next day, and that he would foward me the tracking number.

I got no further response from him until the following thursday when i asked him for the tracking  number, he assured me that he would send the tracking number the following day (friday) and that is the last i've heard from him on the subject.

It's now six weeks since he received payment in full and i dont have the merchadise, or even proof that it was shipped, I've little choice but to conclude that I'm not ever going to get the MASK toys I was promised.

I was always somewhat skeptical about the deal from the start, but his ebay feedback was good (and is still not bad I guess) and thought that maybe for once, as a toy collector I'd made a good find. It looks like it WAS too good to be true after all.

You might want to bear this anacdote in mind before you enter into a deal with Mr Hines.  I think he checks this newsgroup from time to time, so if i get any response from him I'll let you all know.