This whole thing reminded me of the major danger of international independent trade, which is that in most cases there are no laws to protect and no recourse for a scammed buyer when dealing internationally.

There are trade finance systems in place, but generally you need to be dealing in much bigger figures than the price of a pair of pieds to make it worthwhile for the fairly long chain of financial institutions you need to deal with.

In any case, thanks for the reality check. It's hard not to get a little starry eyed when you see a deal that looks as good as that one did.

Respect,
Dan