I've bought some gear on Talkbass before, but never an instrument. I confess I was a little nervous spending so much money on something that could end up damaged in transit or simply not as good as I expected.
Now I'm very happy! The bass was advertised as "near-mint condition." I've seen basses in stores being sold as "new" that weren't this nice. It shipped in its case, inside a cardboard box with packing pillows. The box was slightly torn, but the case was untouched as far as I can see.
Steve shipped as soon as humanly possible after receiving payment, provided full tracking details, followed up to make sure everything was good after seeing it was delivered, and answered some of my questions about the bass.