How to Buy A Guitar on EBay....

Here it is folks... free advice, but it isn't bad just because it's free... well, guess it's five minutes of your life, and a little electricity. Up until now, I have bought about 10 guitars on EBay (also sold 8 guitars on EBay). In the beginning I just winged it... all I looked for was a PERFECT FEEDBACK SCORE OF AT LEAST 200. We know God takes care of idiots, and is on their side (generally)... so I actually got 3 great guitars, that were as described (ie. no 'empty' insides, and Chinese humbuckers in a '73 Les Paul). That is my RULE #1. Then I got a set of '63 Strat Pickups. He had the little do-dad that measures the ohms on each one, and they all looked like they were alive in the photos on the listing. I got the pickups, and three months later I found out that one was dead. Was it bad luck? Mishandling in transit? Or did the guy lie... RULE #2: MAKE SURE THE GUY YOU ARE BUYING FROM ACTUALLY KNOWS WHAT HE HAS. It is no good if he or she is honest, if they are an honest fool. Somewhere around gutiar #7, I got a really nice sounding, down-to-earth EBayer, selling an '88 PRS Standard. He said in his ad "Some people drill out the sweet switch and mess with the electronics... but this baby is original, totally original...man." He passed the first 2 RULES (over 200 feedbacks, 100 percent rating, and had bought and sold many high-ticket guitars). Guess what? It had a 20 cent Radio Shack 'Sweet Switch' in it (Radio shack makes one that looks really close), and the hole had been drilled out. I wrote to him about it, but he kept lying. Even when the guy I sold it to, and also myself, wrote to him... he went into denial. (I ended up covering MY puchaser's lost $$$ myself... bad Karma will certainly be after the guy that sold it to me... but I am not wishing it on him). He had never got bad feedback, because he had 'held feedback' as ransome (on his end), pending the buyer leaving feedback and just moving on from the whole thing... in fact, I don't think he EVER left feedback for me. So... RULE #3... MAKE SURE THEY ARE IN THE GUITAR BUSINESS... EITHER AN ON-LINE STORE, OR AN ACTUAL STOREFRONT. For instance, I have dealt with a guy called tuneOmatic, and he was strait up with me. (There are others like him that are honest). So, 3 rules-for-the road, to avoid sadness... Happy New Year!