I haven't had any bad experiences on auction sites yet. I hear that they happen sometimes though. Are they common, or are they relatively rare?

Out of over 100 transactions on eBay I've had only one go bad. I won on auction and never received the item. I didn't insure it so I couldn't say/do anything. The thing that got me was the woman said that she sent the package out before receiving payment! That's no way to run a business and she did run a business. Hundreds of sales a week! My question is this: if she had not received payment how did she know if I was going to request and pay for insurance or not?! I like to give people the benefit of the doubt but I really wonder if she sent it out at all. Anyway, that's my only bad experience. I always check feedback before bidding. If there are a large number of negatives I find another seller.

That's always been my biggest scare with buying at online auctions. I have purchased over 10 items so far and have never had a problem.

However, I did purchase a training CD that was VERY misrepresented. All the person really did was copy the entire help section from a program onto a CD and sell it as a training program. I was really upset but I didn't spend more than 10 bucks on it so I just let it go. <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

That sounds like fraud, usually those help files are copywrited by the company and cannot be resold. You might be able to report them.

I never thought of that. I guess I could but it wouldn't really do me any good to report them. I think there is a lot of copyright/software infringement that goes on on Ebay.

Thanks,