risk & the eBay margin

Lately, I have checked out eBay to compare prices on a number of items. In one case, this was for an aftermarket automotive part that appeared to be selling for $20-$30 less on eBay than in traditional car parts stores. However, after reading the feedback of many of the eBay auto parts stores, I am left wondering if it is worth the risk. On one hand, I could rely on my Visa to protect me from bad eBay experiences. However, PayPal is quite explicit that taking action with Visa (thereby going over Paypal's head) to settle a dispute is highly discouraged, and often will result in the suspension of your PayPal account. PayPal instead, would prefer that you file a dispute, wait forever for the seller to come to terms, and then wait even longer to actually get your money back (which may or may not include a refund of shipping).

Considering this risk is very important, and it means more than just assessing a seller's feedback rating. After all, just because a seller has a 98% positive feedback rating doesn't guarantee that yours will be. If you view sellers with thousands and thousands of feedback comments, you might find that the negative comments are *very* negative. Even if they only happen every so often, my luck tells me that I would likely be one of "the few" who have a bad experience with the seller (or rather one of "the few" who stands up for his rights and does something about it when he feels he has been screwed over in some way).

Therefore, I propose that there is a margin of price-point that makes eBay worth the risk. Each buyer must set that margin in his/her mind and stick to it, in order to fulfill any self-interest in not feeling like he/she has "been had". in some cases, on small dollar items, this margin isn't as important, or isn't so high. In other cases, like when purchasing an automobile, it may be *huge*. After all, why pay the same price (and assume much more risk) bu buying a car far away if you can get one for the same price (or a bit more) locally?

In my latest experience, saving $20 on a $80 car part wasn't worth the chance that I was going to be one of the select few who had a problem with the seller in question, so I passed.