eBay provides some degree of protection for buyers, however, there are some easy steps to follow to buy safely:

Always glance on the seller information, this is a quick snap of what the seller is like. In this example, the seller appears very professional. He has 160,000+ feedbacks, and has been a member since 2002. Mind you, his rating is not 100% so there are a lot of people dissatisfied too. In such a case we need to see the feedback to check what caused it as it may or may not effect us.

●         Feedback– as a rule of thumb, if a seller has more than 100 feedbacks its a decent start. This seller has been around for some time.

●         Rating– Look for the percentage rating of the seller. Sellers should not be getting bad or neutral feedbacks from buyers if they are providing good service to them.

●         Check the pictures– If the pictures shown looks like professional photography (possibly taken from the Internet), the actual item may vary. Ask about the condition of the item, and if the item matches exactly to that of the picture.

●         Return policy/warranty – Many sellers would like to tell you that there is warranty on the product. See carefully, sometimes claiming warranty is made very difficult. For example-

●         Says there is manufacturers warranty but seller will not take returns or exchange nor fix the item they sold. They would like you to contact the manufacturer.

●         If the item arrives faulty or not working properly, they want you to go through lengthy process of getting return approval or other authorization before you can send the item back. Not good.

●         Worst is those who are selling products with manufacturer's warranty only. Even if the item arrives faulty, they would like you to contact the manufacturer and they want nothing to do with you any more. Terrible!

●         Will take return but will not cover any postage costs, while the postage fee they charged was rather large. So essentially you will end up paying postage three times, for an item that was rather cheap to begin with.

Among other safety measures you can take is using PayPal account to pay. PayPal has its own buyer protection program, and usually covers you for your purchase up to AU$20,000. There are dispute systems that allows you to claim your money back. For example, if your item does not arrive, you can launch a dispute file, and in the next 10 days our parcel does not arrive, you will get your money back.

(Check PayPal Website for more safety features)

Another safety aspect of using paypal account is that paypal can be used without a credit card. There are other payment options available.

An alternative option is Paymate, however, not many sellers accept paymate these days.

Talk to them – a good seller will be a good communicator. Contact them, question them about the product. This is a good way to find out about general behavior of the seller. A good seller will not get irritated at all the questioning, no matter how trivial. A bad one does not reply, or takes too long, or worse, shows signs of irritation while writing emails. If the seller's communication is not good before sale it will definitely not improve after he has got your money.

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