The only thing that raises a red flag is the buyer’s suggestion of avoiding eBay fees.
If the buyer pays cash, that doesn’t mean that you don’t pay the FVF fees. The item is sold, and only if you were to lie and claim that the buyer didn’t pay and sale is cancelled would fees not be payable. eBay’s algorithms are good at picking up this type of behaviour and it would mean sanctions and possibly cancellation of your account - so the buyer is not doing you any favours with the suggestion!
However, paying with cash is absolutely fine. As said, eBay will take their FVF nonetheless; being signed up for Managed Payments means of course that eBay can take their fees from your nominated bank account.
A buyer wanting to inspect the item before handing over cash is fine. (They can’t inspect beforehand: not permitted under eBay policy.) If the buyer isn’t happy to proceed because the guitar doesn’t look as they’d expected from the description, then you can cancel the sale on the grounds of buyer requesting cancellation.
There are a couple of issues that I think may be worth considering.
• I suggest not giving your address details as to the buyer, but rather nominate a safe place such as next to a police station as the pickup address. If you get a bad feeling, you can always move things into the police station foyer.
• For pickup items, eBay provide a way to prove pickup - using a QR code - but from a recent thread on the forum, it seems that this QR code is only available if the buyer pays with a method eBay can verify. In lieu of that, have a receipt ready for the buyer to sign, and the buyer can scan a copy of it while you retain the original.
These simple things can make it go smoothly.
