I didn't see this post until now but I am happy to see you made an extremely wise decision by following others advice, Brant.

I will still post my words of advice just in case someone reads this in the future that it might help. I have sold $$$$$ worth of gear over the last couple of years via craigslist, paypal, Chase, you name it. Many scammers have tried various techniques and so far, I've been lucky to not have been ripped off.

There are a few rules I follow now no matter how legit the person seems ...

#1 If dealing with paypal, I always make sure the person has past dealings as a buyer where I can check their references by contacting other sellers myself. I don't put full faith in just the posts of other sellers on a buy/sell board. In the beginning, I did fall victim once to a "college girl" who just set-up her paypal account to buy my lens and even asked me to walk her through the process of setting it up. I received her payment but shortly after, I received a message from paypal stating it was a stolen account and they took the $ back. Thank goodness I hadn't mailed the lens yet!

Which brings me to Rule #2 - Always wait out the mailing of the gear for a few days. Better safe than sorry. Also, only ConUS mailings.

#3 - In person sales are only done one way. Cash only and we meet in my bank parking lot where there are cameras everywhere. The buyer pays inside so my bank clerk can make sure the $ are good and again, a camera is on him (her) at the counter. It gets deposited in my account instantly ....then he gets the gear. I've had a person who owns a business in my city say he needed the lens Sunday morning for their kids soccer game Sunday afternoon ....sorry, my bank isn't open on Sunday.

#4 - This probably should really be #1 - If it doesn't feel right ...it probably isn't. Go with your gut instinct, if you're questioning if it's a safe sale, it probably isn't.

I know #3 may sound a tad paranoid on my part but for one, I'm not just worried about my gear being stolen, I'm worried about my own safety meeting someone elsewhere or having them come to my house and it's amazing how fast the some decide they are not interested once they find out how the transaction will go down.