I've made hundreds of eBay purchases over a several year span of time and have had few problems. Three of my purchases were patterns from magazines in protective plastic sleeves. The descriptions did state that was what was being sold. These sound like the same deal as The Cat's Bell told about. For what I paid, I'm happy with the patterns. The seller pays eBay a listing fee, another fee when the item is sold, a PayPal fee, furnishes mailing materials (manilla envelope or whatever), and may have to drive to the post office to mail the package. This doesn't even count the seller's time. Most eBay sellers are honest, friendly, and helpful.