I buy on Ebay all the time. When I'm buying new reels, I stick to the dealers who sell a lot of volume and have very high seller ratings. Never had an issue doing it this way in 10 years. The link below shows what I'm talking about.
Ebay Dealer Selling a Daiwa Tatula CT LH This dealer has over 3600 transactions with a 99.99% positive feedback average. I would feel as comfortable buying from him as I would from Tackle Warehouse.