Buyer Beware

As somebody who retired from USPS your dead wrong. First of all the Post Office Insurance is a Joke. The individual post offices no longer handle claims. You have to call a 1-800 number which will take MANY MONTHS to resolve.  There are also very strict SIZE and WEIGHT restrictions at the post office so you can forget about sending larger speakers or Amps. There are also Insurance limits at the Post Office. Have you done any homework???

EBAY and Paypal now report to the IRS so the Seller of an expensive piece of gear is going to get a 1099 Form the following year.  Why would the seller want to lose 10-15% to EBAY Fees anyway???

The Post Office has also closed more than 100 Distribution Centers since I retired. Priority Mail packages can still take 1-2 weeks to arrive as Opposed to FEDEX or UPS whose Ground service only takes 5-7 days to go from the East Coast to the West Coast.  So it gets to its destination FASTER and CHEAPER using those alternatives.   Everything about your scenario is wrong from a practical business standpoint (and safety)

Not an issue for me.

NEVER buy from any seller on any site with less than a handful of feedbacks. I have turned down no feedbacks buyers left and right and sold a dozen items to multiple positive feedbacks only customers and never had a single problem.

I report these ads constantly.  There's a "button" at the bottom of each ad to report it. Do it when you see a fake ad. It usually takes a few hours to see it taken down but at least they're aware it's there and can see the zero feedback seller's other ads.

I buy local on Audiogon it may limit choices but no hassle. Both were big purchases for me both sellers were top-shelf people and a pleasure to do business with. I might add everyone on here that I've interacted with have been great.

 Another good form of payment is using United States Postal Service money orders. This requires the buyer to go to the post office to purchase and when you deal with the USPS your you are dealing with the government. When you receive a USPS money order you take it to your local post office, and they can verify it before you cash it. I have never had a problem and it's nice to know the Feds have got your back.     And no PayPal fee!