Hi Marie67! First, when a vendor wants you to "FE" that means they want you to release the coins to them first before they ship your product. This means if the product doesn't arrive and they run away with your coins Silkroad can not doing anything about it since they already have your coins. You should only "FE" when you receive your product or the vendor is known to be trustworthy but I would advise against that! A good way to purchase Bitcoin is at the following websites *CLEARNET WARNING* www.LocalBitcoins.com - You buy Bitcoins from other people, it's P2P and it has a variety of methods. www.CoinBase.com - You have to be in the USA to use this but they are known to be trustworthy as they are regulated. You can check the current prices of Bitcoins at *CLEARNET WARNING* www.Preev.com - You can type in the amount and it will tell you the value in USD. You can generally buy any amount of Bitcoin you desire from 0.1 BTC - 10 BTC etc, pretty much as much as you need. Each vendor has paid a $200 bond with Silkroad to enable them to sell here, so generally most smaller orders will go without a hitch. Just make sure you give the vendor a clear address to ship your order because lost packages can be a problem but this shouldn't happen if you give your address correctly. Also look into PGP encryption when giving vendors your address and talking about topics that you wouldn't want Law Enforcement to see, if you do a search around you will find detailed guides on how to use PGP! If there is anything else you need to know, feel free to PM me!