[QUOTE=qspencer;1655680The most frustrating thing I see is reasonably priced tandems from sellers who aren't willing to ship (which is understandable, really), and overpriced tandems from sellers who are.[/QUOTE]
I was thinking that the best way to buy a tandem from someone far away who won't ship is to enlist the help of a local (to the seller) bike shop to take care of the shipping. It might be possible to make all of the arrangements with (and payment through) the local bike shop. Using Internet search, you find a few bike shops that are local to the seller. Contact these shops to find out how much they will charge you to box up the bike for you (hopefully not more than $50 to $100) using boxes and packing materials that come off of their new bikes. You pay the bike shop by credit card (assuming the seller doesn't take PayPal). The seller drops the bike off at the bike shop and gets paid. The bike shop boxes the bike, ships it, and you pay them whatever price you can negotiate for this service. In this way it's a hassle free transaction for the seller, and hopefully you don't lose so much in boxing and shipping charges that it sours the deal for you.