Getting screwed over on a payment for a parts purchase?

hemi71x said

The first time was an ebay purchase, and that comes right out of my account.
I felt comfortable with the seller, so i felt friends or family wouldn't be an issue, for a second private purchase, off ebay.
Guess that's now turning out to be my error.

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I was thinking maybe purchased like a cheap $7 item and everything went fine and that was more or less the bait... Around $100 is basically my threshold for online from a private party.. I can live losing that but getting into 500 or $1,000 from somebody I don't know I can't afford that..