Great amp, crashed and burned after 30 hours... Buyer protection?

I only use PayPal when I make a purchase.  Also check feedback on the seller. I have made many purchases on here and Ebay and never had a problem!

Thank you.... my buddy was screwed because the 30 hour point was after 63 days.... no recourse with anybody, seller said it worked for him and worked for my buddy, so tough luck.... repair shop told my buddy that the repair done on the amp previously was lucky that it even lasted that long... real hack job, counterfeit parts... I will definitely double check anything I buy, and do what you have all suggested... seller basically told my buddy to get lost... 

Two months is a long time to expect any kind of recoarse!

Yes, tough luck. He could try taking that person to the court, but the case would be hard to win, I guess. However, it appears that the seller didn't disclose the history of the unit, so there might be a chance.
But perhaps having the unit repaired would be a better course of action.
How do you recognize good people to deal with? Go with your intuition, slightest hesitation - don't buy, especially expensive things. Still, intuition will fail from time to time, there will be losses. So what? The important thing is not to lose too much.  When buying records off ebay I throw away probably one out of five, that's accceptable loss for me.

I've had many transactions here and they have all, fortunately,  worked out well.  However, I do my best to vet the seller and purchase in a manner that helps protect me but understand that there is always some degree of risk when purchasing from a private seller rather then new from a dealer.  Just the nature of the type of transaction that is taking place.  At this point, even if I was burned once, I still would be way better off in terms of overall savings and the quality of the system I have been able to assemble due to these significant savings, not to mention trying a range of components.