The mistakes new buyers make, ranked by frequency
Eight things experienced buyers do not do that new buyers do. None of these are exotic. Most are easy to fix once you know.
1. Retyping the onion. The single most common phishing-vector. A v3 onion is fifty-six characters of base32. Typing it correctly on the first try is hard; typing it incorrectly and landing on a clone is non-zero probability. The atlas's mirror table has copy buttons. Use them.
2. Bookmarking an onion instead of the atlas. Onions rotate. Atlases track the rotation. A bookmarked onion will eventually fall out of rotation; a bookmarked atlas stays current.
3. Funding in Bitcoin instead of Monero. Bitcoin's transaction graph is fully public. The chain-analytics shops have it indexed. A Bitcoin deposit can in principle be retrospectively linked to your funding exchange. Monero deposits cannot. Both platforms default to Monero; respect the default.
4. Not reading the vendor profile before ordering. Both platforms expose feedback count, on-time-shipment ratio, and dispute outcomes on the vendor profile. Spend ninety seconds before clicking buy.
5. Not enabling two-factor login on day one. Both platforms support 2FA. Enable it from the security panel after first login. The flow takes thirty seconds.
6. Not opening a dispute when an order goes sideways. The dispute panel exists for a reason. New buyers who get a non-shipment sometimes treat it as a sunk cost. Do not. Open a dispute. The panel resolves most cases inside a working week.
7. Sharing operational details on forums. The community forums on both platforms are useful for general questions. They are not useful for vendor-specific gripes about your last order. Use the dispute system for that.
8. Not saving the seed and 2FA setup material from day one. Account recovery on both platforms is friction-heavy. Save your seed and your 2FA setup to a password manager from day one. Future-you will thank present-you.