I bought a Kala Cedar top tenor from Mike.. I remember he emailed me his phone number, and said to call, but it was like 4 AM in the 808...
I replied to the email, and he responded immediately, saying to call, he was up anyway.
We talked about anything and everything for about 20 minutes, then talked ukuleles, then talked budget... I trusted him without ever meeting him, and gave him my credit card number.
Within a week, the uke had arrived, and it was wonderful.
I finally got to meet him at the Napa Ukulele Festival (I think it was Napa...) It was over 100 degrees F, but I took a workshop from Sarah Maisel, another from Ken Middleton, and had Rick Turner add strap buttons to my Donaldson Concert uke.
But Music Guy Mike remembered our phone conversation (3 years later!), and we had a great talk, although we were both dripping from the heat.