Anyone who is getting ripped off that often on eBay doesn't know how to scrutinize the sellers well enough. Certainly, anything can happen to anyone at any time. But looking good at the seller will greatly reduce any chances of getting ripped off. For an expensive item like this, 99.8% is the lowest I'd want to see. And no one new. Someone who has sales up the 100's at least. If someone can make it to a really high number and keep 99.9 - 100% feedback, you've got a good seller and shouldn't worry about it.
Also, read the auction carefully, and make sure it's a good auction, with all the necessary info, and good pictures.
If you have good auctions, good pictures, good customer service, good packing, good follow-thru, etc. it is not that difficult to stay near 100% (I'm still at 100%), so I no longer find scores like 99.5% to be good enough. And even then, that's usually just not quite-up-to-par customer service, as opposed to outright ripping people off.
Don't forget to read the good feedback also. That gives you an idea what good things people are doing. Like lots of comments that it was exactly as described, or fast shipping, or whatever.
The safety of eBay is exactly equal to how well you look over the sellers and their auctions. Using a credit card on Paypal is safest, but if I found a good seller with good reputation, I'd send them a check with no qualms.
First one that came up in my search. I'd feel perfectly safe buying from this seller:
1 NEW NINTENDO Wii CONSOLE SYSTEM 5 GAMES 2 CONTRS 14 4 - eBay (item 220242871490 end time Jun-05-08 19:54:16 PDT)