To be honest you traded out side of the Ebay auction which is a breach of Ebay rules. Also a little nuts to be doing so if the auction is still running, why would you do that? Especially with that much money, I'm extremely paranoid with anything over $100.
Ebay can protect you if you follow the auction rules and you used a buy it now or won the auction.
Sellers can end a listing early in order to sell an item at the current bid price to the highest bidder. So they could have done that if buy it now was not available.
The person who won the auction can file a complaint and will most likely get his money back however the auction isn't a month old yet, they have to raise a complaint within the 45 days. So I usually wait until day 44 and lodge the complaint.
You could report him to Ebay for the breach. They may suspend the sellers account if the winner of the auction doesn't receive their item, but depends on their feedback.
Going by the information on Ebay the auction finished on the 24th of December, Some of their other latest feedback before that auction is about not responding. I would have run the other way.
Read feedback :-)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Amiga-1200-Accelerator-Apollo-1260-68060-A1260-060-/231428967798If you had used Paypal you could try raising a dispute that you didn't receive the goods and they will go into bat for you. Although it has to be within 45 days. Which has worked for me a couple of times.
Ebay also has a 45 time frame for complaints.
If you had used a credit card you can also get your money back pretty easily. Either through your bank or other options. But I wouldn't be giving my credit card details to anyone, hence the use of Paypal.
You could explain the situation to Ebay even though you both breached the rules and see if you can obtain there contact details. As you paid by direct deposit you could try going through your bank, however you authorized the payment so the only other option (I assume you are both in Aussie) is to go through small claims court if you can get the correct contact details. Would be a long battle but a high chance of getting your money back.
I haven't had an issue with Amibay but I stick to well known sellers, especially people that post on the forums a lot. There are some really good people on that website and the rules there are designed to help protect you. But with all things there are bad people who lack morals etc that try and ruin a good thing.
Quote from Ebay:
"Policy overview
We don't allow our members to use eBay to contact each other to make offers to buy or sell items outside of eBay. Also, members can't use information obtained from eBay to contact each other about buying or selling outside of eBay.
If you receive an offer to buy or sell outside eBay, please report it.
Make sure you follow these guidelines. If you don't, you may be subject to a range of actions, including limits of your buying and selling privileges and suspension of your account."
