I've only gotten burned badly on eBay once. It happened early on when I first started buying. It taught me a valuable lesson which has been helpful whenever I am considering buying anything on eBay. What I learned is that the hardest conflicts to solve via eBay or PayPal are the ones where you are shipped an item that arrives damaged due to poor packing or is not as photographed and described. Since you actually received the item it becomes a dispute between you and the Seller and eBay and PayPal for the most part stay hands off. You can spend hours and hours trying to get them to step in and resolve it and in the end figure out that you just wasted a lot of time an energy.
In my case had the guy not been on the east coast and me on the west coast, I would have gone and smacked him in the head. In the end I just sucked it up and wrote if off to a bad and expensive experience.
Your much better off, especially if you use PayPal, if they just flat out don't ship you the item, then if you actually get something in bad condition.
If your not out too much I think your better off chalking this one up to experience than trying to chase your tail with eBay or PayPal. If the guy lives close enough then go smack him in the head, once for my deal and once for yours!
