I bought my old 1G off DSMTrader. It was in Nevada and I lived in Arizona, so I had it shipped to me.
I more recently bought my SC300 off ebay. It was in Illinois and I live here in the twin cities so I had it shipped to me.
The more recent one, I gave the guy a downpayment via paypal, and sent him the rest of the money as a Cashiers Check from my bank. Once he had the money, I then set up shipping with a local shipper that Momin (speedfreak) on here knows. The guy dropped the car off at the shippers local hub. They delivered it and I picked it up at there local hub here in New Brighton, and paid them the shipping costs at that time. Sounds like that is just how that industry is. If you want to ensure a "fast" delivery, be prepared to pay extra for that. If you go the cheap or medium route, you better be ready to play the waiting game, and be ready for their 1 week expected time frame they tell you at first, to turn into a 3-4 week time frame. From what I've gathered, that's simply how this industry is unfortunately.
Here's the local place I went through:
http://www.lakevillemotor.com/ContactUs.html
The gentlemen I dealt with was Tyler.