Sounds very much to me like the "jungle telegraph" may have done you in on this deal - similar to a "loose lips sink ships" type of deal, if you know what I mean.
I lost a screaming GHE Parker 16 ga. 32" gun about 15 years ago when, after I had made the seller a bona fide cash offer of $7500 and arranged a meeting place convenient to both of us. Three days later, the day before we agreed to meet, he called me up and said that after "consulting some Parker gun experts", he felt the true value of the gun was $10,500 and that was what he would accept, cash money only.
I told him that if they were the same Parker gun experts that had called me up fishing for a value on a gun they were "looking to buy", that they could all enjoy their $8000 gun together.
Same thing in reverse happened when I tried to buy a great 12 ga. 32" XE Fox; offered the buyer his stated price cash as we spoke (way north of $10K) after he told me the gun was not for sale, but "may be in a couple or three years." Three years shrunk into 3 months after the seller experienced a "downturn in personal finances" shortly thereafter, winding up virtually giving the gun away. By that time, I had found a better gun. 'Caveat venditor"!
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