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dollars and it was probably a counterfeit.

This leads to another important piece of information. Do not trust users that do not accept Paypal. Money orders are certainly more convenient and they don't charge a service fee to the seller, but they are also virtually impossible to cancel and recover if the sale goes south. Electronic forms of payment (Paypal, Credit Cards) always have clear paper trails and offer recourse to the buyer in case of problems with the purchase.

Even with the best intentioned sellers, things can go wrong. When an item has to be shipped from point A to point B, a third party must become involved - the USPS or some private shipping service. If the shipment is not insured and it is lost, someone is going to be out of luck. Either the seller will reimburse the buyer and be left with nothing, or the seller will refuse and the buyer will have nothing. My advice is to always select insurance on any sale over $50. It's cheap; check the rates on the USPS website. If a user does not offer insurance or wants to charge exorbitant amounts for it, head elsewhere.

This leads back to the recourse that you should have as a buyer. eBay has built in fraud policies. When I made a claim, the maximum payout was $200 with a $25 deductible. The process was fairly simple. I sent in a statement with a printout of the auction and pictures of the item I received (the ungraded Michael Jordan card), and a couple weeks later they cut me a check. However, I had paid out over $700 and got back only $175. I wasn't a happy camper.

eBay should be your last line of defense. If you pay for all of your purchases through a credit card or PayPal, you have much better recourse for non-shipment. Generally if you contact the creditor and tell them that you did not receive the item or service that you paid for, you will get a full refund after an investigation. Also, as I mentioned before, insure expensive packages. I also purchased a Hank Aaron rookie card that never arrived. He claimed to have shipped it; I never received it. He didn't want to shell out $200 for a card he no longer had, so I didn't get anything. Since I hadn't insured the shipment, I could only go back to eBay and make another claim.

In short, buyer beware. eBay is a great marketplace, but all large marketplaces attract thieves and cons along with genuine merchants. Look for feedback and look out for deals that are "too good to be true." If someone doesn't accept Paypal, turn the other way. Finally, make all payments in a secure, trackable, and reversible manner through Paypal or a credit card and buying insurance on the package.

Learn more about this author, B. Rock.
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