I bought my 72 New Yorker off Craigslist....as has been said, its all about picking the phone up and speaking with the seller to get a feel for them. Ask them to email you pics of all the usual rust areas. If they send you good quality close ups then you are onto a winner usually. I had loads sent of all the usual areas and the guy sent more than enough. We also swapped ebay IDs so he could satisfy himself that I am genuine and a prompt payer etc. Likewise, I could see he was genuine.
It is a risk but you will get a feel for who is helpful and who isnt. I asked a guy some questions about a 72 Newport and all he said was that it was showing 60k miles....end of conversation.
Its important to get the conversation going as you will be asking for bank details etc when you come to pay for it so there needs to be a bit of trust there. I almost bought a Newport from Chicago last year, got to the payment stage and as soon as I mentioned Western Union as an option, they got cold feet and backed out!! Stick with bank transfer during conversations.
Im in regular contact with the seller of my New Yorker in Texas (Keith). Nice guy and very genuine....
Good luck
