Before Ebay became overrun with dealers selling garbage, you used to could find some good deals. Now it's mostly "PowerSellers" pimping overpriced junk often with the characters "L@@K" in the title.
Besides, every time I find something I think is a good deal, I remember the times I was ripped-off. I now look through the listing more for entertainment than to actually buy. Ebay claims to have a fraud guarantee of up to the first $200 minus a $25 processing fee. I've filled-out the form at http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/frs-claimform.html 11(?) times that I didn't receive anything from the seller, and mailed the form in. Ebay hasn't mail a single check in return. Their fraud guarantee [i]is[/i] a fraud. Fortunately in all but one of those times, I was buying things for work. Getting ripped-off for $100+ a few times, and in one case it was a $3,500 generator, can easily negate any previous savings. With most items, it just cheaper to buy locally over the long-run. Ebay never even disabled the seller's account after we sent them a copy of the canceled bank check for the $3,500 generator. About three months later, the guy posted the same generator for sale. We sent another letter to Ebay, and they didn't even remove the item. The guy probably took someone else for several thousand.z