A few thoughts.
1. Was the vendor even aware it was gutted or was this an estate sale pick up, untested and just moved along?
2. Did the vendor mis represent the item? The buyer said I'll take it. If that was the extent of the exchange then there was no scam
3. Not taking a credit card, so what. Its essentially a flea market, cash is king and legal tender.
4. Reporting to the show? Again, I didnt hear him say it was mis represented, so he was an uninformed buyer.
5. Test every powered unit, i sold one once, the buyer came back not pleased with the performance despite my disclosure it would need some tlc, happily refunded his money on the spot. Similarly i bought a 60 trolley once, failed to run on the test track, vendor asked what i wanted to do, got half off and repaired it.
6. Sell it as a dummy, recoup part or all of your costs.
7. My pet peeve, why does this generation need to air out everything on social media? Are we supposed to form a posse on his behalf? Work the problem in silence. And it is entirely possible the sellers will be at york. If they are, deal with it discreetly and politely, you might be surprised. In my experience the number of scammers in this hobby are few.
