Doesn't paypal protect you?
Despite being a new seller, I always thought that if the item description says everything you want, like "new, working or guaranteed not DOA"(dead on arrival), then doesn't using paypal mean that you are protected, if the seller does turn out to be a scam?
Actually, now, Im not so sure I want to know the answer to that. Im getting pretty addicted to ebay. I just bought a $300+ Blu Ray burner from a seller with less than 50 feedbacks, despite, LEO037, saying "Never" do that. I prey to god, he's not right. It's still in transit.
But as far as just answering your question, I personally dont think its a scam, if you have paypal protection and you make sure you read ALL the fine print. Make sure it doesn't say something like "This item is a miniature replication to be used as a piggy bank."
$4,500 and $3,000 is heck of a lot of money for a computer. Only if it includes a 24" or larger sized monitor and the best $1,000 cpu could I understand a computer costing that much. Oh wait, I forgot, I've seen some graphics cards for $1000-$2000 and more. Crazy, but I guess its possible.
The reason, why the starting bids are so low, is because ebay charges you a different price, for whatever "starting price" you insert. The higher your starting price is.. . . the more you have to pay ebay, just for the insertion price; the final sale value has another price-I think its about 5.25% of the selling price.