Hi Chlobear, this topic has been discussed somewhat extensively in a few other threads that I’d invite you to check out. In particular take note of our “how to research sellers” article.
Do buyers just take a chance?
The way I’d think about it is in terms of risk. There are risks no matter where you buy, but they vary. What’s your risk tolerance? This varies between people. Some people are willing to make a very risky purchase in order to save a little money. This is probably a bad tradeoff, but it all depends.
I think the most important thing is getting equipped so that you can with some accuracy gauge how risky a particular sale is. If your risk tolerance is low you should definitely stick with more establish breeders with a very well established reputation and/or lots of positive ratings.
Why shouldn’t buyers be able to review sellers elsewhere, like on this forum, so that if a prospective buyer needs to research, the information can be found online or googled?
As discussed in links above, we provide a ratings system which is one of the buyer’s steps of recourse after a purchase, that helps new buyers. But it’s intentionally in short form. There are review forums, although some of the major ones have gone away, the FBI recently being shut down by Facebook. We’ve considered hosting one here, but to be honest it’s a ton of work to mediate these systems so they are fair and legal and not something we’ve chosen to take on yet.