I've been an E-Bay member since 1998. I have never had a problem, knock on wood!
Check out the E-Bay seller protection policy page. It lists all of the things you need to do as a seller to be protected.
Bottom line, ship via a service with a tracking number & confirmation of delivery, only ship to a confirmed address, get signature confirmation for items over $ 250. Ship within 7 days of payment. Communicate with the buyer. List on your auction all terms and conditions. Especially be truthful with your description and condition of your item!!!
Check the potential buyers feedback. This doesn't always help. Over the years I have had 2 buyers with 100% positive feedback who were such a pain to deal with, very slow pay, 2 to 4 weeks, horrible communications, wouldn't reply until threatened with being listed as a non paying bidder, didn't know what they were buying. Not leaving feedback. After 2 horrible transactions with each, I blocked them from ever being able to bid on one of my items in the future. It wasn't worth the time and effort that I had to put in to deal with them.
I have been hit by the overseas buyer that wants to pay 3rd party, send a cashiers check or money order for over the amount and for me to send them the balance. Ship to a "friend" in some other city in the US. These are the usual scam techniques. If you get a message from one of these known con artists scams on the E-Bay system, E-Bay will usually send you a warning message about them as they just don't try to hit one person.
Others are asking to sell to them out of the E-Bay system. This one can get you in real trouble! You have absolutely no recourse in a transaction going bad outside the E-Bay system, especially overseas!
Just like in the rest of life, if the offer sounds too good to be true, it probably is!
Most people on E-Bay are just like you and me, honest people trying to either find a bargain or wanting to sell something for some cash.
PP now has buyer & seller protection available for transactions in a lot of foreign countries.
Check their web page for the countries covered and what you have to do as a seller or buyer to be protected.
Good luck!
Barry