I discovered that through a little bit of due diligence, you can avoid overpaying for many things you buy on eBay.

For example, I saw some hats displayed for sale on a sellers page for $220.  What a great deal, right?  The seller says they retail value at $335!  I really should take advantage of this.  I thought to myself, WOW these brand spanking new, unworn and mint condition hats are awesome and I can get it for $115 off the retail value!  I would love to have one for myself.  However, they did not have the hat in the color that I wanted.  So I went to the website of a company that sells them (which happens to be THE authorized dealer of these products-The Texas Ranger Museum) to get more information about the hat and the colors available.  The site is the official site and origination of the product (the hat) and had more colors available for sale. 

Then, I noticed that the price, (at the originating site) was selling the identical hat (with additional colors, styles etc. as well) for $150 ($70 less than the asking seller was selling them for on eBay.) 



Same shipping charge directly from the home of the Texas Rangers, Waco Texas.

Anyway, do your homework BEFORE you buy.  DUE DILIGENCE.

Thanks for reading!  Good luck.