ebay and shipping items?

[ducati_EL34]

Well, yeah, unless there's a crossing light there. LOL
I don't buy anything used sight unseen except DVDs and CDs (through Amazon), especially used electronics and the like. $100 is a king's ransom to me, so I need to be wise. I don't know what I would do if I shelled out say $250 for something and it arrived broken or not near what was described and I was left on the hook. That's a ton of money to chance with. On ebay, one can not check before buying.

If it arrives damaged, or not as advertised, I will complain to PayPal, and if that does not work, I will file a complaint with the CC company. The charges get reversed and I am not out, any money.

The descriptions can be very misleading either by intent or unintentional. I see the same on CL, but at least one can physically check out the item by arrangement and if the seller is unwilling then you know something is wrong and you move on.
Common sense doesn't seem to be enough to deal with ebay. I know there are many good transactions on ebay everyday, but the buyer has to be willing to take a lot of risk and have the capital to do so.
On the flipside incidently, I find selling on ebay is something I'll never understand as well, speaking for myself.
I have enough common sense to even spare some, but I think if an ebay expert were to sit me down and walk me through how to navagate ebay and what to look for when buying I may get a better understanding of it and thus feel safer.

Selling on ebay is easy. You don't ship the product until they pay. Accept nothing but on PayPal.