PayPal funded with a credit card is still the easiest and safest way to deal with a stranger. Personal Checks, money orders, cashiers checks, etc. will not provide you any protection at all. With credit card funding through PayPal, you can be pretty sure of recovering if merchandise is not sent, although it is usually the credit card company that will be reimbursing you.

The only thing safer is to use an escrow account where your funds are not released until you agree merchandise is as agreed. This is probably not practical for amounts less that a few thousand dollars though since there are escrow fees involved.