Hey Cowboy,
You've got lots of good advice here already. There are positives and negatives to online sales as well as local like CL.
The obvious negs you've noted already about selling is true of commission on a store listing your guit, or the amassing fees you get nailed with through Reverb and ebay. Having bought, sold, traded some over the decades, I will no longer ever sell a guitar online again as the costs and risks (particularly with shipping) simply kill it for me. It wasn't always this expensive, but for whatever reasons, it has now become quite costly to sell/ship online (anything large and/or heavy, that is ...clearly I'm not referring to small gear).
The positives with a live sale is obvious: you save dough and it's a one and done. But it is still not without its headaches, like someone showing up and trying to barter down after you've struck the deal, the gamesmanship of hemming and hawing ...ugh. But each person has their own tolerance level for that sort of thing, so I'll leave that up to you to decide.
The bottom line with either method is to be super clear, redundant if need be, and obey your gut! Anyone giving you a flakey or otherwise "iffy" vibe, simply cut bait and move on. Personally, I don't mind buying a guit online ...do your due diligence and you'll do well. Selling large gear is no longer anything I care to do which has created another plus for me: I'm even more discerning now about what guit or gear I may buy knowing that selling later will be a pain.
Edward