A while ago, I wrote about the unusual circumstances surrounding transactions that take place on ebay, the largest and most sophisticated auction site on the internet.

My concern back then was how to avoid getting ripped off by someone after winning an auction. Typically, the sellers won't ship without payment, and because these people are complete strangers, you risk your money (which is usually requested in the form of a money order or certified check) when you send it off. Well, several thousand dollars worth of transactions later, I'm very happy to say that most, if not all, of the paranoia surrounding the post-bidding buying and selling at ebay has been addressed and is working just fine.

First, all transactions at ebay are automatically insured for up to $200. If you send your $50 to Joe Schmoe of Hokum Creek, Oregon, and never receive that pair of roller skates he promised, or they turn out to be only a picture of roller skates instead of the real thing, then ebay will (after a lengthy and somewhat convoluted process), refund your money and go after the bad guy themselves.

Another tool they offer is an escrow service. Using this service, payment is made to a neutral party (ebay), and released to the seller only after the common carrier (UPS, for example) provides proof of delivery. There's a small charge for this service, but it's well worth the frazzled nerves it helps you avoid.

A number of non-ebay affiliated companies are now offering virtual credit-card services, which allow you to "accept" credit card payments via an account you and the buyer must set up with their service. Using this method, the buyer uses a real credit card to pay, and a credit is posted to your credit card account. Again, a small fee is imposed, but may be offset by a $10 incentive some of these companies offer for bringing new enrollees to their service.

Of course, there's always C.O.D. for old-timers like me who prefer to hold on to their money until the wares are in their hands. Although I've occassionally sent out a few money orders (with my fingers crossed), when it comes to the higher-priced items, I'm still too leery to rely on anything other than the "bird-in-hand" method.

In spite of these safeguards, there are still many who "rely on the kindness of strangers", as Stella said in Streetcar. On behalf of my daughter, I recently auctioned off several items from her massive collection of beanie babies to help her finance her first car. Much to my amazement, many of these little five-dollar items (well, five dollars back in the early nineties, anyway) sold for almost a thousand dollars each. And in every instance, the buyers sent me money orders or certified checks for these large sums, never taking advantage of or insisting on using any of the "safer" methods of doing business across cyberia.

Needless to say, their faith in me was well-founded, and in addition to the happily-received profits, I gained a deep respect for the power of faith in your fellow man, if you don't mind my being a little cheesy here. Because they were entrusting me with their money, sight-unseen, I felt compelled to go out of my way to get them their beanie babies quickly, in perfect condition, and with my best wishes. This is not to say that I'm not an honest person otherwise, but their faith in me seemed to push me to a different level of response.

On the other hand, none of these facilities or the faith of ebayers means that ebay is now void of pitfalls and its share of slithering snakes in the grass. As a seller, there's little you can do if someone posts the winning bid for your item and then fails to buy it from you. After a very long process, ebay will refund your listing fee, but nothing is done to force the bidder to comply with what is, according to the law, a valid legal contract. The bidder receives a warning, and after three warnings, may have his or her ID suspended. Of course, that person would simply go back and re-register with ebay using another email address.

This one issue underscores what I originally espoused as the solution to all of ebay's exposures: require a valid credit card to post items for sale as well as for bidding. I still believe that this will reduce most of the remaining pitfalls of their architecture to a minimum. However, I understand ebay's reluctance to do this. At Amazon.com's auction site, where credit card registration is required for all transactions, the traffic is almost non-existent compared to what goes on at ebay.

So go ahead and find that old vinyl album of The Velvet Underground that you've been looking for. And hope that when you send your money order, you're dealing with one of the good guys at the other end.

Thanks for stopping by. I update this column each month or so to discuss various issues ranging from software development to the meaning of life. Please check back soon.