Online marketplaces: who you are actually buying from

The defining feature of a marketplace is that the platform is not the seller. That distinction is easy to miss, deliberately so in some cases, and it determines what happens when something goes wrong.

On most large marketplaces, the same product listing may be fulfilled by the platform itself or by any of dozens of third-party sellers, with different returns terms, different warranty handling and different consequences if the item never arrives. Before buying anything substantial, find the seller name on the listing and check it.

Buyer protection schemes are the other thing worth understanding in advance rather than at the point of a dispute. They generally have time limits, category exclusions, and a requirement that the transaction stayed on the platform. Any seller who asks you to complete payment elsewhere is removing the protection, which is usually the entire purpose of the request.

For second-hand and peer-to-peer marketplaces, the review history matters more than the rating. A perfect score across four transactions is not evidence of anything; a strong score across four hundred is.