[londons_explore]

I am aware of some people who would trade a few thousand dollars on local bitcoins, and then, once trust was gained, they would then trade a few million dollars with the same person off localbitcoins. That avoids the fees, and leaves fewer records...

Some trading partners would also have a 10x or 100x multiplier - ie. 10% or 1% of a trade would be done on localbitcoins, and then the remaining 90% or 99% would be done offline later at the same exchange rate. The way the feedback/reputation system worked, you could still ding someones reputation if they didn't follow up with the offline part of the trade.