Bitcoin Purchase Question

[evansearle42]

Sad thing is there are 0 People within say a 300 mile Radius of My location selling BTC on localBitcoin

Where do you stay? You can be the first one who do the selling

[tdad3]

I bought my first BTC on Coinbase with a straight-up bank transfer. I opened an account on Bitstamp at the same time to compare, but went with Coinbase because they're based in the U.S. The significance is that I didn't have to provide photo ID to get verified. Also, I thought if there was a dispute, I might have better chances of resolving it with a U.S. company than a foreign one. I might buy my next BTC from Bitstamp, which is based in the U.K., if there is some advantage to buying BTC there.
I opened another account at my bank to use for transfers with BTC exchanges, and transfer money between the two. That way if the account is somehow compromised (user/pass hacked), my paycheck and rent money are safe. I check both Coinbase and my bank account every 1-2 days to make sure everything is the way it should be.
Now that I've got a little experience at buying, I'm looking at selling to those who can't or won't do the bank transfer process. It looks like there's a market out there for that, from what I've seen on sites like localbitcoins.

[MAbtc]

I would like to purchase $50 USD worth of bitcoin, but the whole process is confusing, can anyone give me a rundown of the possible ways to complete this?

I always felt like the easiest way was P2P. Post in the marketplace, or localbitcoins, and make an offer in exchange for whatever payment method works best. It always worked for me.