A wire transfer is not safe. Once the money is transferred, its gone. There's really nothing in place to help you in the event of any type of fraud. Assuming its not an international sale, I would pay a little extra and ship COD. Not only that, if you know your UPS or FedEx driver, they may let you open the box before you pay for it. They're not supposed to do that, but if you know them or they like you, they may overlook it. Another useful trick is to find out the shipping weight from the manufacturer. All packages are weighed when the shipper first gets the box. You can use the tracking number to find out what your package weighs before you get it. If there's a big difference, you may not want to accept the shipment.
Buying from first time seller
Every seller has a first time selling so this is nothing against first time sellers. Still, a positive rating inspires more confidence when buying than no rating at all. Is there any way to at least somewhat protect yourself when buying from a seller with no rating? I would assume that a direct wire transfer to a seller's account would provide at least some protection from complete fraud since the seller would have to go through at least some kind of identification process to establish their bank account and this would be discoverable in a criminal or civil case. I do not know if this assumption is true.