I decided to switch from Nikon to Canon so I've got a pile of gear to sell on the B&S forum (D4, 35 f/1.4, 24-70, 70-200, 85mm and a bunch of other stuff).
I've not really used the B&S forum here before so I have no feedback. Also, I hate shipping equipment. For both of those reasons, I'd like to restrict sales to local people in the Bay area in California. What's the etiquette around that ? I'd like to avoid getting yelled at on B&S!
I'm no expert on local sales. However, you can certainly in your ad say that you will only do local sales, offering to meet up with interested buyers at a public venue. Given the high-dollar value of the items you're selling, and your proximity to Oakland , you might want to consider hiring armed security to accompany you, or at the very least, meeting a prospective buyer in your local bank - assuming they'd allow that sort of stuff.
There's no prohibition on local sales. It's not commonly done, probably because it definitely restricts your target audience. But people have done it. I did it a while back when I was selling a large printer.
Fergus, I'm a fellow SF East Bay resident and I've done several B&S postings on FM for local pickup only. I've never gotten any flack for it and it's always worked out well. In fact I'm meeting up with someone tomorrow morning to hopefully sell a Canon 600mm f/4L IS. We luckily have a 7 million large local population so it's a great market to buy and sell in. I often cross post to Craigslist with a link back to my FM B&S photos. Craigslist brings in more hits but I also get a lot of Nigerian Scammers on Craigslist which are just for the most part annoying. Why are they always telling me they are buying it as a gift for their nephew? Can't they come up with something more original?
, you might want to consider hiring armed security 
