Not to rub slat in a wound but I found out a few things the hard way myself about ebay and I adopted these rules and if it fits any of these I just live without it. We perpetuate these guys by buying from them.
1. Never pay anywhere near top dollar for anything from a seller with 14 transactions and only two sales. The other sale was a bronco as well with bad feedback. That alone is enough to have kept me from bidding.
2. Ignore all the sellers feedback as a buyer. It means absoulutly nothing. Anyone can buy something cheap and be a good buyer.
3. Never buy anything that costs enough that you will really be hurt if the guy is a cheat unless you or someone you trust has actually laid eyes on it and talked to the seller in person.
4. Especially, never send them thousdands of dollars to pay for the rig and cover shipping. Catch a plane and make sure he didn't lie before money changes hands then arrange for shipping, or better yet make a road trip. May cost you a little more but at least if its bad you will only be out a few hundred. I have actually sellers on craigslist and ebay back out and refuse to give me the address of the vehicle when I told them I was driving out that weekend to pick it up and pay cash for it.
Since a ligitimate seller will have no problem waiting until the next weekend for a sale cash in person, its one of the fastest ways to find out if the deal they lied.
5. I got burned (only like $500) in my first ebay purchase and I learned ebay is no help and dont believe that crap about postal money orders making it a federal thing. ROTFLMAO. Local police even said what were you thinking buying from that guy? Like I was supposed to know. He had like 7 ebay transactions all positive. I didn't even look to see that they were beanie babies and batman lightswitch covers where he was the buyer. I actually had asked many questions had all his answers documented and even had an email from him saying he was sorry he lied but he had already spent my money so good luck. His mommy even got involved and told me she had called the my local police and filed a complaint on me and how her poor baby was misunderstood.
I travel a lot on bussiness, and he was sure surprised when the hick from TX he cheated showed up in his rural illinios garage as he leaned over the grill of his transam.
Only child of a single mom, 28 years old and living at home with no full time job, the little twerp had never been held acountable for his actions until then. 5'-4" and 150# soaking wet. i towered over him a full foot and was almost twice his weight, I could curl more than he weighed. That made him very cooperative.
