I know a few people like you and understand your reasoning. I've been buying on eBay for over 20 years and have completed over 1000 transactions in that time with only a few issues and those were taken care of by eBay refunding my money. I have been buying from Amazon for over 20 years as well. Of course when I started buying from Amazon they were only a book seller and I used them because they carried books that the local stores didn't. I like to do business with local businesses, as well as, the next guy, but when the local store wanted $37 this week for a can of parting wax and I got it the next day from Amazon for $18 it's hard not to buy from them. I live in a city of 80,000 and it's even hard to get quality hardware/ nuts and bolts local anymore, so I order a lot of that from McMaster Carr. Place my order by 7 EST and it shows up the next morning. Best part of online shopping is you can do it 24/7/365 and you can find items that the local guy/s don't carry. I even buy my clothes and shoes online anymore. Where there we like it or not ordering online will become more of a necessity as time moves forward. When you aren't willing to do online shopping you severely limit the availability of products available to you and are always at the mercy of the local seller on price.
Tom
