My opinion is to get to know who you’re dealing with before you buy. Find out who their friends are in the hobby and who have they bought or sold from. Get references and check out those references. I agree that most sellers wouldn’t have interest in escrow, myself included. Be wary of a seller that doesn’t want to talk about their machine in depth, isn’t willing to text lots of pictures or doesn’t want to talk about pinball in general. If wire transferring money, talk to a bank employee that knows the seller and can vouch for their integrity. It’s not uncommon to offer to pay a hobbyist local to the seller to go check out the machine. With all this being said don’t lose sight of the fact that a “con” is short for confidence.