I figured since this section is starting to get a little more popular I would start this thread to help people with questions. I personally have used ebay for quite a while, and have made many many purchases. Over the years I've learned a good deal on how to properly and safely use ebay and thought others might be able to benefit from my fortune and misfortunes.
1) ALWAYS CHECK A SELLER'S FEEDBACK RATING. It's obviously the easiest way to judge how honest a seller is. I know it's easy to get caught up in a good deal and completely overlook this, but it can bite you in the butt and make it harder for you down the road when you want to buy or sell again. I don't have a set percentage that I won't deal under, but moreover I try to get a good feeling off the seller. Generally I will check their feedback comments and see if their negatives or nuetrals are legitimate, or if they just dealt with a reject. Some people have no business being on ebay, and you can see that if they respond well to comments or have a very negative or childish response.
2) BE PREPARED TO PAY. It is always best to try and pay for your items as soon as possible so you have fullfilled your end of the agreement asap. Most people will accept paypal for payments. It's very convenient because it's very secure and offers nearly instant payment. If you plan on doing any buying on ebay I highly recommend you take a few minutes and sign up with paypal first. It's free for buyers, but it will cost sellers to accept. You should also be aware that a seller absolutely cannot charge a buyer for using paypal. If they do so they will either be warned or banned all together. The other options are either usually cash, check or money order, with the latter two sometimes delaying your recieval of your item by two weeks or so. Sometimes you'll find an item you want in your town, or atleast local enough, and it obviously would be easy enough to just pay cash when you pick it up, but if you do this I highly recommend having them write up a reciept so you have some proof of payment. And ofcourse, make sure you have the funds to pay prior to bidding.
3) BE TOTALLY AWARE OF WHAT YOU ARE BIDDING ON. It is very easy to overlook details when you've found something you really want. If there are pictures you will want to take as much time as possible to look them over very thoroughly. A lot of the time the pictures are very small, so what I used to do is copy the picture to my computer and view it in a larger format to see more detail. If you can't do that you can always click the "ask seller a question" tab and ask them to email you bigger, clearer or more pics, or maybe a different angle. You also want to read their description, bidding and shipping instructions very thoroughly to avoid any surprises or problems. A lot of the time the seller doesn't include enough info so you'll have to ask them any questions you might have prior to placing a bid. It's also a good idea to request a shipping quote before bidding if there's not a shipping calculator on the auction page. Many times a good deal is actually a very bad deal when you figure in shipping.
4) FULLY UNDERSTAND YOUR RIGHTS AND YOUR OBLIGATION TO BUY. Once you've placed a bid you have entered into a legally binding contract to pay, so make double sure you want what you're bidding on. This obviously doesn't matter if you're outbid on an item, and just because you bid doesn't mean you're obligated either, as long as you're not the highest bidder. I've been caught up in an auction and bid more than I wanted to pay, only to be saved by somebody else who wanted it more than I did. You also don't want to contact a seller trying to get them to sell the item to you before it ends, as this can get you banned from ebay too.
5) BE AWARE OF THE VALUE OF ITEMS. Like I said before, it's very easy to get caught up in an auction and overbid, so it's best to be knowledgable enough about an item, or atleast do the research to be assured of the value. Ebay started out more as a place to find used, hard to find or nos items, but as it gets more popular more and more businesses are selling there too. The sad thing is they clog up pages or searches with normally priced items which are not a good deal at all. If I have concerns of the value of something I'll do a google search for it and check enough pages until I'm sure of the deal.
6) SET UP YOUR SEARCHES IN MY EBAY. At the top of every page you will see the tab "my ebay". This is actually a very useful page, and as long as you don't disclose your password to anybody then nobody else will ever have access. The first 10 auctions you're watching will be on this page, and you can check all your ebay stats, messages and selling/watching sections. On this page you'll see the column "my searches", which can also be very handy and make searching ebay much quicker. For example, say you want to search for toyota truck parts. First, from the main ebaymotors page, scroll down to automotive parts, click on it and when the page comes up you enter your search. Next it will pop up a page of auctions. On the left there will be sub categories, such as engines, drivetrain, interior, etc, and you can choose one of those, or search all items at once as it came up. You can also choose different options on how you view the pages, such as auctions ending soonest or newest auctions. Once you've decided how you want to view them you go to the right side of the page and click "save this search", and on the next page you can choose different options on how you want the page setup, the you click save search again and it's in your ebay searches.
I know there's some things I'm missing, but I will add to this soon. If you have any ebay questions please post them in this thread and I or somebody else will answer them as quickly as possible.
