The very simple secret to Ebay is to look at the sellers ratings. A guy with 4 sales and a 100% feedback rating is a risk. A guy with 30,345 sales and a 100% rating is definitely worth your trust. The guy with a 97.5% rating that sells used parts is probably a good risk IF you take the time to read and look at the descriptions and read the feedback. There will always be people that will complain because the finish on the used part for their 1923 Whippet Touring Sedan didn't look as good in hand as it did in the picture. I've ordered from sellers in India, Great Britain, Ireland. Canada, China and other places and never had any problems. I had maybe 3 issues in almost 25 years. I often find an Ebay offer for less than the same seller lists on his website. Find this with livestock equipment a lot. You see an item from Greece or Croatia and the seller has a 91% rating in 103 sales, stay away. Pretty simple really. Ebay is pretty good about getting rid of the sellers that aren't up to snuff. Mind you, I buy mostly used tooling, livestock and tractor stuff and things like cordless batteries, tire inner tubes and other stuff that is either unavailable locally or costs 4-5x as much for the same item here. A Chinese inner tube that been on the shelf at my local auto parts store for 8 years isn't going to last any longer than the one shipped in from China last month to the big wholesalers in Calif., even if I do pay $35.00 instead of $13.00.
Got the Escape patched up enough to try and get it to pass inspection one more time. I know why NYS salts the roads so heavily (insurance industry demands over many years) but the cost to people using those roads is just terrible. There isn't a darn thing wrong with this little car that can't be traced directly to rust. I always seem to run into those 1 in a million guys that religiously wash the underside, frame and interiors of doors and rockers once a month year round and who have vehicles with not a spot of corrosion anywhere. Then there is the other 98.5% of us that might do that once a year at best. I would love to be "that guy" but it's not going to happen. So I patch and scrape and scale and do my best. It's a losing battle!
Got the boys minibike racks mounted and headlight moved. He's got one of those little bikes you see out front at TSC. Rugged little sucker and he loves it. His pals all have either ATV's of their own or access to the family sidexside and they all want to ride the bike. Figures. It also tops out at maybe 20mph. He's busted his wrist twice on a bicycle, so that seems fast enough to me!