Some sellers may ask you to pay them using a wire service like Western Union, or simply give you a bank account number and ask you to pay money into it. Unless you really trust the seller, this is generally a bad idea – these methods are hard to trace and you’re unlikely to get any money back if anything goes wrong. Paying in cash, it hardly needs to be said, is an even worse idea.

It’s all a lot to take in, isn’t it? I’m sure by now you’ve got a few questions, which is why the next email will be a little eBay buyer’s FAQ. Let’s hope we can solve any problems you might have.