Dave-Kat.....please do not take any offense by some of the posts you may receive, as there have been an inordinate amount of scammers on here as of late, and you may look ready for the pickin's, being new and all.
If you find someone willing to do a trade, do yourself the favor and spend the few extra bucks, and use an escrow service, like FAST_N_LOOSE aka Marcus Solt. If the preson willing to do a trade is legit, they will have no issue with splitting the escrow cost with you. I say this, because as a long time member, there are very very few members on here that I would trust to send out a cue to first. With escrow, both members involved in the trade ship their cues/money to the escrow service first. The escrow service then will inspect both cues, to make sure that condition given is factual, and that both members are completing their end of the deal, in good faith. If all is as it should be, as determined by the escrow service, then the service will forward the cues/money to the respective members. If all is not as it should be, the escrow service will return your item to you. You may be out the few dollars you spent for the service, but you won't be out your cue.
Typically what will happen is that if the prospective trader is in fact scamming you....they will balk at using an escrow service, and attempt to get you to go some other course...all in an effort to scam you out of your cue/money as quickly and as easily as possible. Getting satisfaction at that point is typically nil.
We have a few prolific scammers here that change monikers as often as they change their underwear...and while we try very hard to keep track of them, we can't always stay on top of it. If you are unsure about someone contacting you, feel free to start a thread and ask...or even PM a long time member directly. We're usually pretty helpful.
Oh yeah...as far as I am concerned, iTrader guarantees NOTHING. We have had members here with great iTrader ratings...and then they sting someone HARD. Better to ask than to put blind trust in iTrader ratings.
Best of luck!
Lisa