I'm new to the whole ebay, and online auction thing. What steps should I take to protect myself from being either the buyer or seller?
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http://www.RonPaul2008.com

I'd only buy from people with good feedback of 10+ but defenitely don't buy from someone with 0. As a seller there is not much you can do except cancel bids from those with many NPDs though your pretty safe as a seller.

I guess I could give you a couple tips:

For buying, dont leave feedback until after you're completly happy (ie: make sure you have the product and like it for a couple days). The fear of you leaving negative feedback can be your onluy bargaining tool sometimes for getting a dishonest seller to cooperate.

Also, of course only buy expensive items (more than $25) from people with a lot of good feedback.

Beware of powersellers with insanely high feedback rates, as since these people have so much positive feedback, they dont need or often care to make sure each customer got a good deal and is happy.

Always find out how much shipping is before you bid - a common tactic to reduce ebay fees is to make the shipping price real high, and keep the extra money.

In terms of selling:
-If accepting paypal, only ship to people with confirmed addresses.
-Making sure your shipping rate is enough to cover all your expenses (box, shipping).
-Dont leave feedback until after the buyer has left feedback.
-Make sure your auctions end at a time when people are awake/not at work/payday
-NO RESERVE and no minimum price are good for when you know the price of your item will be raised to a high level.
-I've had success with people "buying stuff now" for high prices
-I'm a believer in bold captions (it costs an extra dollar though)

Thats all I can think of. If you have any questions I'll answer them if I can.
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Be well,
Sabiq