My husband has bought and sold bikes long distance on Craigslist and I've actually sold a car that way. In the cases where we sold the items, we arranged for a face-to-face meeting of some type (us travelling, them travelling, friends stepping in, family, etc) to do the exchange in cash. In both of those cases, we were talking multiple thousands of dollars though (the car was over 20K so we did the exchange at a bank).

I bought my Terry Classic from a woman I found on the Terry site who was no where near me (she was in upstate NY and I was in NC at the time). She actually sent the bike through her bike shop before she'd even received my check! It all worked out fine for both of us, though. Multiple phone conversations helped a lot in that transaction.

I've also bought two bikes long distance from TE women, too. In both cases, lots and lots of photos were exchanged. In one case, money was sent before the bike was shipped and in the other, my H paid by CC through their business account (her husbands).

We've only been almost scammed once - selling a laptop. Other than that, admittedly we've been very lucky.