"John S." wrote:

I think that Ebay can be a good place for buyer and seller to connect
if you take a few precautions. For instance as a buyer I avoid
sellers with less than 99% positive feedback and look for buyers with
an established record.
As a seller I give more leeway in negative feedbacks before turning a
buyer down. I won't ship before payment has cleared.


It makes sense to read the negative feedbacks a person gets - sometimes it's obvious the person who left it is a crackpot. Sometimes it's less obvious, but the person leaving the neg has a bad reputation.

"I paid yesterday, where's my stuff?"

"Bum left me a Neg because I didn't pay"

Obviously negs related to fraud or deception are cause for concern.