If you get 8052.COM in the middle (note that eBay meticulously avoids getting in the middle) of a transaction, you could engender liability of one sort or another.

If you intend to verify the claims of the seller before forwarding the goods to the buyer, you'll see a lot less of your wife and kids, and the dog, the one you hand fed as a pup, will attack you as an intruder on those rare occasions when you actually get to go home.

eBay has a good model, and I'd let them handle this stuff. Let eBay do the advertising and, if you like, maintain a list on 8052.COM so 8052'ers will know what's out there from other 8052'ers. If someone wants to outbid one of us, well, that's the "fortunes of eBay," right?

Meanwhile, I don't think eBay is responsible for the mistakes I've made buying things without fully understanding what was in the listing. I've had really good results from PayPal in getting money refunded when something was DOA when the listing claimed otherwise. They've also helped get people who were lax in shipping to get stuff underway.

Craig, you've probably got enough to do, don't you agree?

RE