I'm selling speakers for the first time and concerned about fraud

Personal checks are actually safer these days because they are not counterfeited. Just make sure they clear first.

The only problem that I have with that is that no bank that I have dealt with, Chase, Wells Fargo, or TD Bank, can tell me anymore when a check actually clears.

Most banks will make the funds available to you within 1-3 days, but all of these banks have told me that it could take 30 days or more for the checks to actually CLEAR.

There is NO way to transfer money that is 100% safe. Even cash and carry deals can be carried out with counterfeit cash.

The worse the global economy gets, the more sharks there are in the water.

Andrew,  yes we lost the speakers that were worth $6,000.  There were other cost involved in time spent.  hours on the phone to try and get our money back from the banks. But we never did get it.  

I have a situation at the moment where I bought a subwoofer on ebay. The seller described that the subwoofer was in "perfect In perfect working condition and sounds great. It has some cosmetic wear" but neglected to mention that it was missing a cable that is not an off-the-shelf item, is unique to the system and without which the subwoofer does not perform in "perfect In perfect working condition". The manufacturer no longer makes the sub or the cable.

It also had a small tear in the surround, which I was not as concerned about, as it is repairable, but that tear was not mentioned in the listing and only shows up in his photo if you blow it up 200% and then only if you know to look for it. There is an anomaly in the image that is near the tear in the surround that suggests that someone was trying to retouch it out but did not know what they were doing and not only did a sloppy job, but missed the spot.

I am disputing the transaction. Would you consider the description fraudulent? Thx to all beforehand for your responses.

Yes. I would think so. Just for the missing cable alone. I'm quite sure this guy knew that sub needed the cable in question.

It's a big problem that there's really no safe way to do it.  You just have to rely on the buyer being a good person and the only way you can get an inkling of that is based upon feedback but that's no guarantee.  For very high value items, the only real safe thing to do is to trade it in to a local dealer but that means you have to find a dealer willing to take it, get less than you could get privately and buy something from that dealer.