I’ve had great luck with ebay transactions. Only around 40 all told.
My first ebay transaction was a rare, long out of production guitar for a significant amount of money.
The seller’s wife advised against it, as I was ‘0 feedback’, but our communications were reassuring and we were both comfortable with the whole process.
That’s the key, good communication. If the other person seems hesitant, or constantly delays, or makes excuses, and doesn’t provide asked for details, etc. then it’s time to walk away, regardless of how rare an item, or how badly you want it.
Often there are perfectly good reasons for the hestancy, like inexperience or just poor organization, but better to play safe than get burned.
Small transactions should be given a little leeway, as the seller probably has more important things going on in life than selling one small reference book, or CD, or what have you, but the big sales have to feel right. If not, then leave it be. There are a lot of crooks out there, but there are actually more honest people who just don’t know or care enough about ebay to be professional about an auction.
A professional looking auction is the first thing to look for. These folks seem to have it together, and just want to get the sale done with as little drama as possible. Email back and forth to get the feel of the seller, and if it seems decent, then go for it.
Another thing, always read the feedback. Even if it’s only one or two neutral or negs, read 'em to see what happened, no matter what all the good ones say.
Hopefully the headlight problem will get sorted, and the deal was good enough to justify the headache.