It's been a long time since I bought anything off ebay but never any issues with it. Once the seller was Home Depot getting rid of lawn sprinklers in the fall - $40 sprinklers for ~$8. I bought two of them.
The only thing I bought off CL was a high-end Nikon flash unit (
SB-900). Met the guy in a shopping center parking lot, lots of cameras around and mentioned that in the E-mail. I think he was more comfortable with it that way too.
I wasn't too concerned because he was familiar with the operation of the flash (there is a learning curve to it for off-camera use) and what accessories came with it and listed them. Some dirtbag selling a pretend or stolen one wouldn't be that detailed.
Oh, and his punctuation/grammar was all correct as well. That always ads to credibility. I'm astonished at the lack of literacy in some of these ads.