Audiophiles are usually anal retentive and take good care of their gear. I've bought stuff off of Audiogon with no problem. Just check the feedback to make sure transactions went smoothly. Beware of sellers with little or no feedback in foreign lands that insist on wire transfers (basically, use common sense.) Buying used is a great way to stretch your dollar. But, keep in mind if you pick the brains of a dealer and audition stuff and use up his time, the right thing to do is buy from him. A good dealer can help guide you on your audiophile journey, and shouldn't be dismissed too easily.

I agree with Jeff and have also bought and sold stuff on Ebay and Audiogon.

The best advice I can offer is to actually read the feedback of the person you are buying from. The ratings mean nothing due to the retaliatory nature of leaving negative feedback for someone...you'll get it right back, deserved or not. Reading the actual feedback will give you some insight into whether or not the seller packs well, ships promptly and accurately describes his offerings.

I would also avoid sellers who have an axe to grind with Paypal. It's usually because they had to give a refund for screwing somebody.

Some gear is simply built to last, and will ship well without damage.

Audio Research equipment is particularly well-made, and if the shipper has the original carton there should be no problems there.

CD players and transports are subject to mis-alignment and other problems due to rough handling, which you can count on UPS to do (FEDEX may be somewhat better, in general). Power amplifiers are often quite heavy, and should always be shipped in the original box if possible, and they are more likely to have been repaired also, so ask for a repair history.

Most of my gear was purchased used. You can save a bundle of money on speakers and amps. As was already said "audiophiles tend to be anal about gear". Usually the "higher" the gear the better it has been treated.

I've bought a lot of gear used off eBay and A-gon. There's a bunch of good used gear out there at good prices. If you want to be extra careful, buy local used gear, that way you can check it out and maybe even audition it before buying.

Jason, I really like Tedrick's suggestion, that is to buy locally, even if your shopping on ebay. Audio nut's are so widespread geographically that, if your patient, just about anything you can think of will eventually show up in your area. That will save you on shipping and since you can drive everything home, shipping damage is a non concern.

Now, as for what can go wrong with used gear. BTW, this is based on my personal experience and I am a bit "rough" on some of my gear. I was a smoker and my kitchen is reight next to my living room. CD players do NOT mix well with either smoking or cooking. If exposed to smoke or cooking fumes' the lens in the CD player will eventually get so dirty that mistracking results. So if you buy local you can actually see if the person is a smoker or has it installed near the kitchen. If so, give it a pass. Amplifiers all have capaciters in them and capaciters have a limited life span. My Yamaha amp started to pick up police cruisers in the neighborhood after about 15 years and I am sure the cause was a capaciter that had not aged well. So if the amp is more that 5, or 7 years old, plan on having it serviced or just look for a newer product. If you want a decent budget turntable I would recomend that you look for a Dual. In their day, Dual turntables were considered the best of the "consumer" grade turntables and are still pretty good. Course if your feeling a bit flush you could also look for a Thorens TD-160 or 190, they were the entry level audiophile turntables when Dual was king of the consumer hill. As for speakers, I would suggest that you try and avoid buying any speaker more than 5 or 10 years old. One major problem with any loudspeaker is that eventually the foam surrounds for the woofers deteriorate and that either means having them re-foamed or buying a new speaker. There are enough good cheap speakers now available that you should be able to afford them new. Stereophile rated the Infinity Primus 150 pretty highly and they only cost about 80 dollars a pair. They'll be weak in the bass but you could think about suplementing them with a subwoofer to fill in that area. Subs that hit 45hz are pretty cheap and actual response down to 45 hz is pretty good sounding.