Well, as an admin on another forum, I accept there's members to whom you'd entrust your life, some that may not be quite so straightforward - for someone who's a relative newbie thinking of shelling out cash, I'd suggest extreme caution is not a bad place to start......
And yes, I would include myself in that - honesty works two ways, and the vendor can be open to being ripped off too - "I sent you the money, where's my goods?"......
My sarky comment about Paypal is based on several friends who've been let down really badly by them - they have a nasty habit of suddenly freezing accounts for no apparent reason, which can be very embarrassing and can lose you a lot of money.....