What should be the EMT protocol?

News: Welcome to the Canadian Paper Money Forum.

I'm wondering, what rules do you have with EMTs when trading on this board?

Do you provide the answer to the EMT until after you've received the product, or do you let the seller receive their funds beforehand?

I'm curious, since this is the first time I've been asked to send the notes before getting the answer, yet I'm extremely hesitant to do so, since EMTs can be cancelled by the seller at any time before I deposit it. To add to the dilemma, this member is basically new and does not have a long posting history (otherwise, I would be happy to oblige).

What would you do in my situation?

In my experience, payment has always been made prior to shipping, whether we're talking about EMT, PayPal, cheque or otherwise.

Personally I always send the password for the emt right away to the seller.
Like you said, without a password the buyer can easily cancel the emt after receiving the item and you are out of luck
If I have dealt with a person before or know that others have dealt with them without problems I never have an issue paying for an item before I receive it
In most cases I think sending a newbie an item without payment can be taking a chance if you don't know who you are dealing with....I am not trying to generalize here but no one wants to be out of pocket.
I think in the case of newbies on the site I would tend to expect payment in full prior to shipping anything. 
Only my opinion...good luck.

I would never send an item to someone prior to receiving payment if the person is not well known to me.  No buyer should ever expect to get the product before paying (except under very specific circumstances).  Being asked by a stranger to send the goods first should set of alarm bells in your mind.

A person that wishes to purchase any item from a store or from an online business/website has to pay for it (in some manner) up front before they are able to take the item home.  Can you imagine if the stores didn't ask for you to pay first? 

It should be the same for this banknote purchase.  The risk should not be borne by the seller.  Have you ask the individual why they are requesting this?  Maybe they are concerned that they may not like the note.  I suspect that you would provide a refund if they were not satisfied....all details that could be worked out prior to them making the purchase.

Everything turned out fine. I just politely explained to the buyer that they were an unknown quantity, while I have a track record here and on eBay, and that if he was not comfortable letting me have my funds guaranteed before I sent the item out, then no deal.

I was just curious if this was commonplace, since the few times I've done sales with EMTs, I've always received the payment first, and likewise while buying, I always make sure the seller gets their funds before they ship. In theory, EMT could work as an escrow, but the fact the sender can revoke it at any time doesn't make it so.