I will answer to the best of my ability:- Where are you located (country)?
USA- How much are you looking to sell?
Just 5 or 6 coins- How soon do you need access to the proceeds?
a few days would be good. But all depends on whats best. I do need it rather soon is why i am selling some. If you mean as far as me taking a chance of losing my coins .Yes You have quite a few options, you'll have to take a look at the exchange rates and decide which is best and most convenient for you.
If you want to use one of the more well known currency exchanges, you can create an account at
BitFloor.com, BitMe.com, or Coinbase.com and sell your bitcoins there.
All three of those options will need your bank account information to transfer your money to you, so if privacy is important to you you'll want to consider other options. They each will take a few days to validate your account as well, and they each have various exchange fees and/or withdrawl fees you'll have to consider.
https://fastcash4bitcoins.com/ can pay you with ACH (Direct Deposit), Bank Wires, PayPal, Dwolla, Company Check, Silver Bullion, or Gold Bullion. Their exchange rate is typically a bit below the current MtGox rate (the last time I checked it was about 2.8% below), and they may have some fees as well.
If you prefer something more peer-to-peer, you can look at
https://localbitcoins.com/ Depending on where you are located in the U.S. you may find someone who can meet up with you and exchange cash face-to-face. You can also find people who are not local who are willing to exchange for you, but the biggest issue you'll run into in that case is that the person you deal with may be a scammer who either fails to pay you after you send your bitcoins, or pays you with a reversible method such as paypal and then disputes the charges after they have your bitcoins. Paypal is then likely to reverse the charges and you get nothing.
If you are anywhere near Chicago, I can meet up with you and buy the bitcoins off you with cash in the next few days. If you are anywhere near Las Vegas, I can meet up with you after Friday, as I'll be in Las Vegas for a while starting on Saturday. If we meet up and exchange cash, I'll do the exchange for the current MtGox "Bid" price at the time of our meeting (currently $46.59). If you trust me, I can do the exchange for you any time in the next 12 hours with paypal for 1.5% below MtGox "Bid" price (currently that works out to $45.89). I can also send you a postal money order if you prefer. In that case I'll deduct the money order expense from the funds after exchanging at 1.5% below MtGox "Bid" price. Obviously you'll have to wait for the postal office then.
EDIT: As of 2013-04-17 BitFloor has ceased all operations.
