Consider a purchase from a source near you. I may be just lucky but some of the bigger ticket items I got from eBay were from local area sellers. I drove to them and saw the item. After I won the bid on some hubcaps, the seller turned out to be about 3 miles from me! I got a wheel from someone in the next town. Look at the sellers location and contact them about looking at it before buying. Couldn't hurt. If they won't let you drive over and look, don't bid.