| I've read all of the comments and believe the consensus is basically: - It's a lot cheaper for ebay/paypal to let the scammers rip off people than it is to go after them, even when the facts clearly identify the scammer - Casual sellers are both less able to detect fraud and are more greatly impacted by it - The feedback mechanism is insufficient "insurance" against fraud - "Seller protection" and "Buyer protection" are not suitable insurances against the kind of fraud that actually occurs - The vast majority of transactions are legitimate - The selling prices on ebay can be substantially higher than Gazelle/Amazon, or other reputable channel - Fraud will undoubtedly occur in some cases How about if a 3rd party sold real buyer or seller insurance? They would be in the business of identifying scam-like behaviour from buyers/sellers, help you to avoid fraud it can detect, and ultimately insure you from loss. Not sure how much the premium would need to be in order to make this work, but seems like an interesting idea. |