I've never made a bitcoin transaction so this will be my first, need some advice!
i need to pay in cash, $500 worth of USD to buy bitcoins
is this the way i should do this and standard?
we meet in public place
i show him the cash
he transfers to my wallet
i verify it's in my wallet
i hand over the money
please let me know what you suggest is the best way to protect myself
if you do that you need to wait until your bitcoin get confirmed because you don't know when your bitcoin transaction will failed and back to the sender due to few factor,1 confirmation is enough but 2 confirmation is better
If it is a funded transaction, the sender will be localbitcoins. I prefer a funded transaction as opposed to one where the seller sends you coins directly from his wallet. That way if there are any issues regarding non-confirmation you can take it up directly with localbitcoins support instead of having to hunt down the seller.
For example, once the seller releases the transaction from localbitcoins escrow and the buyer sees the tx broadcast to his wallet, the buyer can give the cash and both parties can walk away immediately.