I have a friend who makes his living, in part, by selling stuff on ebay and I know he will not use PayPal. I would trust his judgement no matter what. He accepts only money orders and personal checks and doesn't send the goods out until those have cleared. He's been at it for several years.

Interestingly enough, just this week, someone tried to use my debit card online giving my old addy and phone number. This alerted the bank and we got all but $179 stopped before it went through our account. Now, the bank will take about two to three days to remedy those charges. The only place where I used the debit card online AND had not updated my info was PayPal, as best as I can remember.

Tell your friend I've had good luck on ebay, both selling and buying, by using Western Union's options, which are listed on ebay.

Hope this helps,

kat