He explained his situation and requested that I change my neg to a neutral, but he wasn't threatening and was polite throughout the entire exchange.
Since you asked for opinions, I'll give you mine: From the moment I saw the red tag on OP, I thought it was a bit harsh. I don't think he deserves it. I don't think OP should be labeled the same as Newbies who sell hacked, farmed or even non-existing accounts. OP didn't try to hide who he is, like most spammers/scammers do.
This is a good and well known example of a bought account that turned into a valuable member:
The person who controls
Avirunes account had bought it and made his name, point being not all account buyers are
trying to game the system or whatever, but since you tried to sell an account to a random person, its hard to conclude if you really wanted to sell it to a non "red-tagged member".
Of course you can never know for sure someone isn't going to abuse an account though, even with the best intentions.
That one was a very tough call, because I did look at his trust page and I didn't then and don't now think iluvbitcoins is a scammer, just that selling accounts is untrustworthy behavior. I made the call to be consistent in giving feedback, but I waffled on it for a bit. I'm fine with the feedback he left me--believe me, I'm the last person who's going to complain about getting negged, even if it's by a DT member, but this case was one where I second-guessed myself a couple of times and I regret that it's come to this.
You were put on DT for good reasons: most of your feedback does this forum a favour. I think that should be the main criterion for leaving a red tag. In this case, when you're second-guessing yourself, I'd say give a user the benefit of the doubt.
On the other hand, you tried to be consequent and not make exceptions for high ranking accounts. That's worth something too.
I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't at this point. If I were to remove my feedback now, everyone would accuse me of doing it for my own interests, and if I let it stay in place I honestly feel like I'm not being fair to a member who probably deserves to have the neg removed by now.
I can think of only one solution that solves your dilemma: you remove your red trust on OP, and OP doesn't remove the red trust he left you. It's not a solution I prefer, but it would prevent any self-interest accusations while you get to be fair to OP.
Thinking outside the box: you could counter your negative with a positive