[tawm]

>It’s gotten to the point where I trust eBay more.

Absolutely! I recently bought a simple item, a roll of wiring loom tape. It was on Amazon and had a few reviews that stated that the received tape was old and didn't stick very well anymore.

Same item on eBay for cheaper has the seller specifically mentioning that they only sell fresh tape from the running production, not old stock. Even better, the seller specialized in these (and other) tapes.

It seems that eBay has just cultivated a much higher quality base of vendors. Many of them seem specialized.