I'm pretty much an Ebay guru. Almost all my audio gear has come from ebay. The key is you to practice good ebay sex or your going to get f**ked.

-Rating is key: Only buy from someone with a high rating. IF someone has a 0 then the chances are you're going to get screwed. The rating # is not everything though. Someone can jack up their rating buying and selling 2$ items.. then to list a 1000$ that’s earmarked for robbery.

-A scam that’s going on right now is people stealing other people’s accounts. What happens is that 'Joe Robber' steals 'Joe High-Ratings' account and lists a bogus item. On the surface it looks cool.. The person has a high rating and you think they must be trusted. But you need to actually go into the guys rating and look at:

-If he has gotten his rating from selling or just buying. (Needs to be a proven seller)
-What has he sold. (Needs to be items of similar nature or price category)

If the guy has a 500 rating from selling baseball cards and suddenly he's selling (3) 20" flat panel monitors…. That a huge red flag!!! More than likely that is a stolen account. This happens much more then you think.

-Escrow:.. If you have any doubts,... Ask for escrow. (Escrow.com works basically like.. The buyer sends the $ to escrow.com.. When they get it, they notify the seller to ship the goods. Then when you (the buyer) gets the goods.. you have a day to examine the product. When everything is checked out you tell escrow.com to release the $ to the seller...... It’s a good process, but adds 10 days to the process and the buyer usually pays the fees which are 2-3% of the cost). ... There is a pitfall in escrow services though. There are many fraudulent foreign escrow services. You can buy an item.. and feel confident in the sale that’s being brokered by an escrow company (of the sellers choise) only to be screwed because the seller is collaborating with the bogus escrow service. Long story short: If you are going to use an escrow service, use escrow.com or nothing!!

The overall guiding principal..... There is nothing on ebay that won’t be listed again a few more times within even a week. So anything that’s doubtful, just pass and wait for the next 'sure sale'.