FWIW I cleaned our a bunch of high-value Breyer horses on ebay earlier this year and every transaction was flawless. On the other hand that’s probably because nothing went for much over $100.
My experiences as a buyer are just terrible, though. One one saddle I asked the seller for pics of the off-side billets, she replies and says “oh I didn’t get a picture but they’re the same as the other side”, and I buy it and the saddle shows up and wouldn’t you know they’re both torn off half-way up. Biggish-name H/J trainer too. People are terrible.
Really I think people are still on the whole good and decent to deal with, but getting too many of the exceptions in a row is such a downer.
Sometimes I can’t even tell the bots and scammers from the people that fundamentally don’t get it–“I won the auction but now I have questions” is something people really do in real life. (Selling the Breyers went great, but selling other stuff has been a very mixed bag.) I complain with ebay, block the “buyer”, and move on. (Also FWIW I like Pelham Saddlery for moving out used English saddles.)