OK, I'll admit that until recently I wasn't aware of eBay Motors' position as a major automotive auction site. The numbers are impressive: 3 million vehicles sold to date, and another one sold every minute.

Obviously, with that kind of volume -- and natural lack of oversight inherent to the machinations of the site -- there are bound to be some deals gone sour, or outright examples of fraud. Jalopnik originally came to the defense of eBay Motors user "McFly," who had trouble making good on a Hyundai he had purchased on the site, leading to legal wrangling and an online support campaign. (You can read the entire saga over at Jalopnik -- click here for the story.)

As a follow-up, Jalopnik -- ever watching out for its faithful gearhead readership -- has gone a step further and procured some do's and don'ts from eBay Motors itself. Some of the advice ranges from the obvious (at least for experienced eBay users), such as paying close attention to the seller's feedback reputation page, to the old-school, such as looking at the vehicle's title and going to see the car in person when possible. This proves that while eBay Motors might be a convenient clearinghouse for cars, it doesn't negate the need for the type of good, solid research that one expects to do in "real world" car-buying situations.

In any case, we'll let the Jalopnik folks give you the full rundown of advice (find the story here), but in the meantime, we'll end this post on our favorite piece of advice: Basically, you just need to use common sense — if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. (That rocket-powered, $1,500-Buy-It-Now Jaguar D-Type that Steve McQueen once owned and flew to the moon in? Probably not real.

Damn. And we were just about to take advantage of the "Buy it Now!" option.