How popular is Wire Transfer.....

Coltrane1,
I think Buconero117 has a point. For any decent turntable, I ALWAYS go to pick it up myself (except in one case where I got it shipped from overseas, but in that case, it was completely dismantled for shipping to me). That gives me the assurance that it will be transported safely - the TT is the most sensitive of any component I know of (when compared to its weight/inertia to micro shocks. I must have driven 3000+km for TTs this year.
That said, I have made many purchases from people far away, and I have never once gotten scammed. I have had a little bit of damage from bad packing, and about half of that has been covered. I have sucked up the rest to bad luck and the cost of buying things more cheaply than otherwise. I have made it a habit to deal with people who know how to pack, or to pre-build packing materials, send them to the person, and pay COD in those cases.

To ms it cuts both way. There are dishonest sellers and buyers. I will never use any method of payment other than paypal unless the sellers or buyers are regular posters in audiogon or they are from a reputable company or from a company that do business regularly in eBay or audiogon. So far my experience has been very positive with audiogon seller. eBay got to be more careful. In my hundreds of transaction only 2 turn bad and not recoverable and both fr eBay. 1 from purchase of lousy reel tape from a guy kostas in Australia and 1 from Ireland whom I suspect did not post the item I purchase. Audioxell? Is another set up you got to be careful. A seller posted technics sp10 mk3 for sales. Gave me photos , sent tracking nos which is address to malaysia but not my address . Even after I inform Audioxell ( not sure how it's spelled) they don't bother to remove his posting - fr Indonesia) . if u pay thru paypal and cant get resolution thru paypal, you can also try credit card chargeback. The few incidents I was conned ,I was able to get back thru paypal protection or credit card charge back.
However if amount is large and the seller is reputable , I would rather pay thru wire transfer which is much cheaper than paypal unfavourable currency conversion and 4% charge

I agree that PayPal and feedback are good ways to minimize, but not eliminate, risk. So is communication with the seller (the more common scammer, IME). If something seems off about the person, move on.

One thing to watch out for (especially on eBay) is that some people hack into legitimate accounts that are inactive but have good feedback, and run their scams from there. Watch for: prices that are too good to be true, a time lapse in the account's feedback, ads that claim they'll take PayPal but the seller refuses to when it's time to close the deal, any mention in the ad of contacting the seller by email (i.e., outside of the eBay system). In general, a refusal to accept PayPal is a dead giveaway -- IME, no legitimate seller on eBay will refuse PayPal.

If you spot these kind of ads/sellers on eBay (or Agon), make sure to report them to eBay's (Agon's) fraud department.

How do these people live with themselves?