I called him and sent him a couple texts and no replies yet. I was just trying to get some other people's thoughts.
The only safe and secure "not in person exchange of funds" is the "wire transfer".
Every other instrument, from Postal Money Order to Bank Cashier Check can be "stop payment" dishonored or NSF.
As a seller, the wire is either there or it's not.
As a buyer, the wire went to the account where you sent it or it didn't.
Pretty simple, clear record of payment or receipt.
The funds have to exist to be transferred.
The owner of the funds has to authorize the transfer.
The receiving account shows the receipt of the funds.
Anything else is a crap shoot, including cash, obviously.
Accept no substitutes.
Wire transfer or nothing.
If the buyer is a poor, offer to adjust the price to split the transfer fee or add the wire transfer cost to the negotiated cost of the goods or services.
I'll never understand why brokedicks want to use "PayPal friends and family" to cheat PayPal (even though they are despicable cocksuckers)......
......get cheated themselves in the transaction and then cry about the greater of lesser dishonesty of the cheat who cheated the cheater.
I believe the Niccolo Machiavelli was right, "It is double pleasure to deceive the deceiver."
Your post here is just to get confirmation that you already knew you OBVIOUSLY believed you were being scammed, so what are you going to do about that?
"Never assign evil intent when stupidity will suffice to explain the problem."
Maybe the buyer is an idiot and sent double?
Probably not though, this is a huge red flag, why don't you simply write "VOID" in huge bold letters on the check, take a picture of it and send it to the buyer and tell them to send a "wire transfer"?
That will either be the end of it and the sale will go through or not.....
....or the game is afoot.