If the seller has excellent Ebay Feedback and a good communicator, then it becomes a 50/50 coin toss on the true state of the item, especially if the seller is unaware either way.
If the seller is not too far away and offers a local pickup option, and a demo or test before you fork over the cash, it's as good as it gets, never a problem
and you can always make an offer to the seller if the item has issues, if you're prepared to sort it out
The only Ebay non-joy for me as a buyer is those 'PAYPAL ONLY' wankers that really p*** me off
they obviously have not heard of direct bank debit or
C A S H and most are predictably arrogant and or illiterate twats anyway, with little or no knowledge of what they are selling,
they can keep their item and paypal 'frequent d!ckhead points' or whatever it is they 'earn' to inconvenience genuine spenders