Providing info to a ODT buyer?

[BLIP]

This was a first... I had a gentleman PM in response to a posting with his phone number to call him... Fairly low feedback number and an occupation I found "red flaggish"...
Very quickly we agreed on a price and a time (I dropped the price 10 for the day) and he asked if I was the original owner, which I am not so I told him so.
He asked for the serial # of the item so he could check it...
I have never been asked that question, and even the quickness of the comment was already raising that flag higher. I responded "No I would not do that"...
Do you see any potential problems with providing any info; phone, serial #, etc.
Thanks in advance...
Your person experience counts...

 

[rOmiLaYu]

Some folks ask for it, some don't. Some believe that some ask for it so that they can report it stolen to LE and get you in trouble, some don't. Some say they are asking for it because they are going to have LE run it to see if it's stolen; others say LE won't just "run" a number for you.

From where I sit, if you already have red flags...don't play ball.

 

[BIKER13]

dont give that **** out over the phone or the net

 

[Hayata]

From what I understand, the police will not run a number unless they have said item in their possession.

Probably innocent enough but I wouldn't give it out. Not to someone I didn't know.

 

[TheGman]

Only reason I ask for a PARTIAL serial number on occasion is to roughly date a milsurp for example

Never asked or have I been asked for a full SN

 

[DerekB711]

F*** That. Don't give it out

LE can't run it unless its in there hand anyways because if they do and it was stolen they have to confiscate it, and if they don't have it they cant do it and questions begin to arise.

 

[rOmiLaYu]

I have been asked for the serial number before and I gave it to the person. It was an older model S&W and the buyer was looking to date it so in that context I didn't mind. Now if someone is asking for the serial number off of my Ruger SR9, that's another story.

 

[Realtor]

thats odd

 

[Horsehat]

I will give information to someone I feel good about that I won't give to someone I get an icky feeling about. May not be the wisest course, but I have a pretty good radar for bad situations.

 

[Realtor]

nothing beats the situation where i had a guy that was robbing people in the atl apartment complex pm me about my scar and my pistol and said he wanted both with no questions asked or haggling - huge red flag .... the guy robbed someone at gun point off here