I've had good luck on ebay, with over 60 buys, a good deal of it motorola radios/accessories..I've only had a couple of problems.. one DOA lightmeter (seller took the return after some stalling), one wrong model motorola SVA (easy return after I pointed out the error, and that I needed the listed model.), and one short shipment on a dutch auction (seller shipped second item as soon as I notified him). I've never recevied negative feedback, or had to leave any.
I think the biggest single item that I have bought was a IFR service monitor for $3000.
I've gotten some real deals, mostly due to finding things that had incomplete descriptions, or in the wrong category, and knowing what I was looking at.
I generally wait on bidding until the last couple minutes of the auction.. otherwise the price gets driven up.. if you do it right, you can sometimes snag items for dirt cheap while folks are looking the other way.. I've also had items snagged out from under me, so it goes both ways..
I got a older panasonic phone system a few weeks ago for a $53 + shipping. I was able to add a few additional cards for $10-20 each, and have ended up with a working system that I will be installing for a non-profit that I work for, which has a seriously limited telecom budget.
As other have said:
know what you are buying
know what it is worth
know what it is worth to you
know how much you are willing to spend.
watch out for shipping gotchas.
beware of shipping internationally, or even canada-> us.
