How so? I think you can trick people into reviewing before they get their item by prompting feedback with an email, but not everyone falls for that and also it's sort of hard to gather substantial reputation like that (100+)

EBay's reputation system is a joke People routinely create fake accounts, farm for reputation by making lots of low-value purchases, then wait a few weeks until you cannot browse the details of their purchase history.

Once that happens, they move from buying or selling recipes for $0.99 to trading laptops, scam a few people, then vanish.

The reputation system is probably (read likely) gameable, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have any value. Ebay has a very buyer friendly system system that the risk of getting scammed is pretty low if you follow the rules set for Paypal.

Actually eBay is quite safe to buy if you pay via Paypal. eBay has a policy of 45 day return period during which you can file a case in eBay resolution center under "item significantly not as described" and send the item back to the seller, eBay will then refund the full amount you paid to the seller (price + shipping). However, you have to pay for the return shipping. I believe payments via Paypal on a 3rd party website are also covered by the same policy. This makes it very safe to buy from eBay or through Paypal. I feel more secure buying from eBay then buying from a local retailer.