After several phone calls, pictures sent we bought a TC ~2,000 miles away. Paid with a Cashiers Check from a local to him Wells Fargo Bank, after inspecting the TC.
The one nice thing about Craigslist was that you could see the ad price history using google. Since he wasn't getting much interest at the various lowered prices, we negotiated the price down by the price of diesel to drive there.
Since I had max'd out the number of vacation days I could accumulate, and had been losing new ones for a year (too many >60 hour weeks), taking the time off was not an issue. Nor a big deal if the TC wasn't what it appeared. We had a nice trip there and back. Road trips without or with the TC are always fun.