I've bought lots of stuff on Ebay. And it is safe if you follow some basic logical rules.
Buy from reputable sellers - ie has been on Ebay for LONG, and has 97-100% feedback rating.
Find out about INSURED shipping to SA. Usually this takes the form of insured airmail, EMS (faster) and couriered delivery.
Customs. Yes SA customs are very greedy. I think they're the greediest in the world,
which means they are doing SA's a disservice in laying import tax - the savings you made in buying online would go into you buying other local goods here and creating jobs but SA wants money for free.
Customs will nail you in all likelihood. They will want to see what the price of the item is. If the seller has not included a proper invoice in the parcel of the value of the item (minus shipping fees) you will get nailed by having to produce your own invoice (printed out from Ebay or PayPal) and usually by having to show your credit card or Bank transfer receipt. If someone overseas pays, I have no idea what Customs want, they may not even believe you because you have to be a criminal in their eyes.
So yeah, get the person to declare it properly.
However, buying on EBAY is safe if you follow the rules. It may be difficult for you to buy with PayPal the first time as sellers don't trust South Africans but once you buy a few items they're usually open to do business with SAs.
Also re- bidding. If you like an item, don't bid for it until the very end. This is called sniping. If you see something cheap or with 0 bids don't bid early as that draws attention and has others bidding for your item. If you must bid - bidding in the last moment can net you the item before the other person increases his max bid.
