Help in the Boston area

Good luck.  

@flipwils11 Just an idea ...

There's a great audio shop called "Q Audio" in Cambridge.  If I recall correctly, the owner was once and maybe still is an electrical engineer.  Pretty sure he does repairs on audio equipment and still handles/deals in vintage high-end audio equipment.  Perhaps you could talk with the owner and arrange a meet-up at his place and pay him a fee to examine & evaluate the equipment in question?

Ask  for ther Audiogon ,or US Audiomart user name ,or Ebay

if none then Waay to shady , there have been a lot of robberies 

how about a cell number .?  Waay to risky , unless you bring  a few friends  with at least a defense weapon , , I would personally decline  

Thanks for the advice, this is very helpful.  I'm waiting to hear today from my friend who is local about scheduling some time with the seller and seeing the equipment in person and testing it.  I'll mention the Q Audio option as a neutral ground place to bring the components in and plug them in (and I'm definitely willing to pay a fee for the shop's time to facilitate this).

Will see how the seller responds and if more red flags come up or objections that seem to hint at something being not quite right.