How safe and reliable is ebay to buy a desktop computer?

I wouldn't buy something like a PC from ebay as you have no guarantee if something is wrong, the person can say there was nothing wrong with it when they sold it to you.

for this type of item, you want - an excellent rating on your seller: 99% positive, and over a thousand sales to back it - a really good review (not on ebay: try cnet.com for example) for the particular machine you want - a seller who answers all of your questions - a cast iron undertaking that everything is licensed, in shrink wrap, guaranteed/warrantied, and covered by reinstallation CDs in case anything goes wrong - a safe payment mechanism You need all of that wherever you buy a PC; ebay is little different. Miss anything out and you're buying a headache. If you hit all the targets, you will be competing with a lot of buyers, so be careful you don't end up spending even more on ebay than you would in a shop through getting "the fever" at close of bidding. Note that sellers of high value items are being plagued by false buyers looking for money laundering opportunities. Demonstrate that you are genuine. Otherwise, go ahead.

Use a reputable source to buy a PC from and if you do decide on ebay. Make sure you use a seller with a high rating of 99.9% and at least a thousand rating. Or better still a computer shop on ebay, with a better rating would be ideal.

it's pretty safe, most of the time if the thing dosnt arrive, you can report it and get your money back.

ebay is cool to buy stuff off, ive bought lots of stuff of there its cool, but i do suggest you get a desktop from either pc world, dixons or currys because you can get a warrenty if anything goes wrong with it, on ebay you cant

Use PayPal so you can get your money back if not as advertised. Buy from highly rated sellers.

Compare what you see on ebay with the prices at http://www.newegg.com you can almost always build it yourself for a very similar price.

Be careful and use only PayPal. In many cases PayPal can help ypu if you are cheated. eBay`s Compensation Scheme is a joke.

the seller usualy has plenty of feedback from other buyers Green for positive Red for negative look for positive feed back you can read this feedback and you should compare prices with similer goods its all set up on the website just click and brows threw then make yor mind up there should be enough choices for what your looking for take into accound post & package costs and distence or go pick it up your self. its free to join paypal vertualy theres no risk if you check out the seller if all goes well you should recieve positive feed back from the seller telling members that your a good customer its polite and usual to leave good feedback for the seller if your happy with tyhe transaction. or better still theres lots of pc stores where you can buy fully updated upgraded machine for a very good price with garanteesand warenties and theyll help you out with any problems if you need tech support id go for that option. befor long you could be upgrading and selling old machines your self in no time.good luck