I would like to add my experiences with eBay as well.  I think that
eBay is brilliant and certainly very addicting; one has to be very
careful, however.

A friend of mine found a 17-inch Empress disc music box for $1000.
The seller asked for a bank transfer, which my friend complied with.
He returned from the bank to find that he had an email from a watchful
eBayer warning him that the seller was fraudulent.  Fortunately he had
time to cancel the transaction before it was too late.

Besides that, I've also found a 5 fat cylinder overture box listed
at $3000 that I recognized from Rick Cooley's web site.  I notified
both Cooley and eBay and had that one shut down.

Just yesterday, I received an email from a regular eBay seller (with
over 4000 positive ratings) offering me a Steinway Duo-Art for $2100,
but to please write to them at a different email because their email
address had been stolen.  ?!?  I contacted the seller who verified
that it was fraud (I didn't want to pass up on it if it weren't!) and
recommended that he change his password and notify eBay (which he did).

General anti-fraud recommendations: avoid bank transfers.  Make sure
that you get their address and telephone number if it's a large
transaction.  Avoid countries that you wouldn't want to go to
(Malaysia seemed to have a large number).  Look at the sellers'
feedback: if they have a large number of positives, it's likely legit.

Ask them to send you a photo from a place that they wouldn't likely
have unless the machine is there -- serial number, view under the key
board, power-switch, whatever -- to make them take a new picture,
one that they can't steal from another site.  Ask to call and hear the
machine playing, if it's possible.

I recently bought a very early Nicole keywind music box (S/N 10705)
from eBay and had it sent by post to me insured.  I started to worry
after one month (it should have been here in a week).  After two
months, we opened a claim against the insurance, but when I went to the
post office to pick up another parcel, this one was waiting for me (I
never received notice from the post office).  I've been very fortunate,
but still advise caution when you can't be there to pick it up when you
pay for it.

Eliyahu Shahar