Gumtree - Legitimate?

downuno

I've been looking around the gumtree classifieds for electronics out of curiosity - and there appears to be some pretty good deals on there.

Take for example the new SE Satio smartphone which only just came out in October. It's £472 on Amazon and ~£300 on ebay, but a quick search on gumtree sees prices like £250/£270/£280/£220 with most of them being pickup only [not a problem] - hence most of them are cash only deals.

Is buying from people on Gumtree a good idea (i.e. is it reliable and legitimate)?
Is paying by cash [which is fine for me] going to be ultimately problematic?
When meeting up, should I make them sign a document (i.e. a receipt)?
Has anyone bought from Gumtree before - how was your experience?
Lastly, is there anything I should know before going ahead with a Gumtree deal?

Thanks.

Snakeeyes21

Its a bit of a scammers paradise (as you would expect from an ebay company), ive lost count of the stories of people getting scammed on there, a favourite it the students looking for a place to rent whilst their at uni, sending a deposit to the landlord, turning up when their about to start uni to be told the place isnt for rent and the owners / renters know nothing about it.

Id avoid buying any phone off there if I were you, unless its from a legitimate company, no doubt most of the phones are on contract that people have taken out with no intention of paying, and you find it becomes locked after a month or two.