How good are '80s Raleigh rod brakes?
What you have there is a replica of a WW2-era bike. That doesn't look like a traditional rod brake (see the Wikipedia link above). It's hard to tell what's going on, but I don't see any braking mechanism at the rim. So the brake must be in the hub (the oversized hub could be holding a generator - except there's already a generator on the other side of the fork).

If the bike was made in the 1980s, they probably put in something that stops the bike effectively while still looking "vintage". This is pure speculation though.

My advice is to buy the bike if you think it looks cool (which it does). If the brakes suck, you can always replace them with something else.