I'm so leery of selling big ticket items on eBay anymore. I've heard of so many scams and issues with PayPal, I'm just terrified to put anything out there. I've been kicking around selling this one and going with a 13" MacBook Pro (I think I'd prefer the smaller size), but I'm not sure I'd get as lucky as I did last time I sold one (happened to find someone local on this site).
I totally understand how you feel about eBay!!! That's why I wasted 10 weeks trying to sell my MacBook I had on my local Craig's List...but in the end my eBay MacBook auction went smoother than I expected.
I previously sold only 2 computers on eBay...and they went ok as well...I'm usually an eBay buyer.
And like you mentioned, I also had my concerns with Paypal...especially due to all of the "Nigeria" scams...and all of the fake Paypal "phishing" scam webpages.
But in the end the Paypal transfer for my MacBook went fine as well.
If you're logging into your official Paypal.com account (I always pay
very very close attention to the webpage address field in my browser to make sure I'm logging into the proper website)...the money transfer from the buyer was there...and I always wait until the transaction says
"completed" before I do any shipping.
I was so paranoid...that I checked my Paypal account balance about 7 times before I shipped the computer 24 hours later...for some strange reason expecting the money to disappear! But no problems!
In the end...I was probably more fearful that the computer was going to get damaged by UPS during the shipping (so I bought insurance like I always do just in case)!
- Nick