re: Best way to not get shot while making large cash transaction

When I have bought and sold vehicles, I always want a cashiers check. When I bought my Jeep, I gave the guy 5 $100 bills as a deposit, and we met up the next weekend (he lived 2 hours away) and I gave him the check for the rest of it. My wife drove me up there, and we met at a Cracker Barrel halfway between us. She was in the drivers seat of her car with a pistol in her lap. Of course the guy shows up with his whole family, wife and two kids, they're great people and we end up having breakfast at Cracker Barrel like 2 tables down from them after we completed the transaction, but you never know.

When I sold my old truck, the guy ended up coming to my house to pick it up. I had met him after work for him to test drive it, since I was still driving it to work and back. I took a small deposit from him, showed him the title in my possession and he came back on Monday after going to the bank to give me the check. Same thing when I sold my wife's old car. Took a small cash deposit, like $200 or so, and they came back a day later with the rest in the form of a check. There's just no reason to deal in cash for anything over $100-200 in a person-to-person sale. You can go get a check from most any bank for such a small fee that it shouldn't matter to the buyer or seller if that is how you pay.