Yeah, I'm almost done with Ebay too. Paypal and Ebay's giving everybody less and less protection these days. They used to be really buyer biased so at least someone was protected in the deal but that's gone by the wayside too. Buyers now get snippy if it's not out the next day or in three days, I always give my sellers two weeks although paypal only protects you as a seller now if you get it out in a week (lots of people don't know this, I almost got f***ed once for $1600 when I sent out something 10 days after payment.) Records tend to go out once every two weeks but when it's something serious and paypal doesn't help you at all now it seems if it's a record., I get the big things out as soon as I can. Never longer than a week now.
I haven't lost a bunch of cash but there's been a few close calls lately both as buyer and seller. I bought records for years on Ebay (will never forget when I bought over 200 records of Tommie Sunshine's old electro and disco collection...and some electroclash of the time..don't judge) for about $400 Canadian delivered about 5 years ago. I haven't sold one record of it let's put it that way and records made me nervous but it's nothing like gear. I've been way too nervous as buyer and seller lately. I find message boards way more reliable but there's scammers there too. Usually you have to sell a few pieces of gear before you're legit so don't put out the best stuff first unless you want people trying to get deep discounts.
Ultimately we'd all buy locally. These things really aren't meant to be shipped. I'd probably lose sleep if I was waiting for a CS-80 or a Jupiter 8. I know the people I can try to swoon locally but the people with the best stuff here want crazy money so I go back to Ebay and message boards. Part of slowing down is that I have a number of the synths that I've always wanted now (202, JX-10, Syncussion this week, ATC-1 with all the filters that I got for a crazy deal, Octave CAT SRM, Synare 3 etc...)
I really, honestly just want to save up for a Serge panel (Animal would be nice) or Macbeth M5X with record and gear sales. One last big bang. I'm honestly almost good now, it's time for tracks. But I'm just terrible at saving.
I'll still sell, if you get it out in a week, with a tracking number and a confirmed address you're gold unless you are too stupid to pack instruments properly (there's a ton of tutorials online. that's how I learned.) The exchange rate (Canada to US or Euro) is too nuts not too. And I've found if I price it market and throw in shipping for free (only witrh BIN) it's out the door pretty fast.