Just want to point out that it's not always a planned scam on buyer's side. Actual item might be stolen/replaced on customs, post office, some package sorting facility or even by your neighbors.
For a buyer eBay is a great place because everything is protected and you can always get a refund.
For a seller, I guess you either have to accept the risk, or get some kind of insurance.
Overall, I think auction places always attract scams, so there always be some risks involved.
> everything is protected and you can always get a refund.
Hardly. No guarantee that anything is authentic or not stolen. No refunds outside the return window. And you need to know how to use ebay to force your refund. If your return package fails, you'd need to go through all of the USPS insurance hoops. And the protection ebay offers is the same protection most credit card companies offer which is also similar to what paypal offers... so this idea that "ebay provides safety" is a delusion.
> you either have to accept the risk, or get some kind of insurance.
That's not the point. The point is, ebay doesn't give a shit, and there is no "some kind of insurance".
An escrow service would be a neutral company that would intercept items and returns to make sure they were the correct item and in the correct condition.
Ebay offered escrow services for years prior to purchasing and integrating PayPal. I wasn't trying to be rude, I was trying to figure out if you were doing the old "if only <such and such> existed" when it actually does/did exist.
Yes, it can be tampered with anywhere along the way. I've heard of bricks or even jars of tomato sauce showing up instead of expensive electronics shipped from Amazon's warehouse.
For a buyer eBay is a great place because everything is protected and you can always get a refund.
For a seller, I guess you either have to accept the risk, or get some kind of insurance.
Overall, I think auction places always attract scams, so there always be some risks involved.