So, I've been noodling this for a good long bit. Between washing a blanket, taking pictures of cheese sandwich positively crushing a Sunbeam, and having a shower, I've come to some thoughts.
1- none of us are op. I checked. I am not op. It's definitely not Cleveland outside. I've been to Cleveland.
2- that's really about it.
It sounds like he's got multiple valid reasons why carrying that amount of cash isn't feasible for him. I've carried that much cash before. Sounds like several of us have. It's not the most comfortable feeling. Maybe op isn't down with it, can't say I blame him. It also sounds like ops bank of choice (USAA?) isn't exactly wells fargo, so they aren't as readily accessible to acquire a large amount of cash in excess of what one could pull out of an ATM. This can be a problem. He offered the seller what THEORETICALLY should have been a valid alternative, but for whatever reasons that are presumably only known to the seller (and I'm assuming also valid, we're still talking a 10 stack in Cleveland here) were not viable. Frustrating, but not the end of the world.
This brings me to my next thought. I think the most OBVIOUS reason to not want to carry 10 large on you, with someone knowing where you're fixing to be at an approximate time is the idea of that being liberated from you by force. Now, I don't know how many of you have had your lives threatened. I mean really, truly you are going to berkeleying die threatened. I can say that it's happened to me more than once. I don't particularly enjoy the experience, and it's made me wary of situations where that might be an occurrence. Having 10k in cash on me going to meet a stranger sounds like a potential for that to happen. Now, were it any of the myriad of you that I've met in person before? No problem. Reasonably sure Patrick isn't gonna stick me for my $$$. But they taught us stranger danger for a reason and that E36 M3 stuck with me. Maaaaybe op has that in his head too.
We can go back and forth all day espousing the virtues of cash vs electronic payments, checks, wampum, or the philosophy that currency is only as valuable as everyone agrees that it is. (which is true- a dollar is only a dollar because everyone agrees it's a dollar. )
I think however the point everyone is missing is, there isn't a right or a wrong here. I noticed a lot of CASH IS KING IS THE ONE TRUE ANSWER type posts and that simply isn't true. Just the same as there is no one true king in automobiles, or pie (except it's key lime ya heathens) there's no WRONG way to handle the transaction as long as everyone gets what they need. If rico decides he'll take my PS5, my pink new balances, and my dryer for his excursion, is that any different than a cash deal? He got what he wanted, I got what I wanted, the end. (Only problem is swmbo is gonna be pissed I traded the dryer for a truck).