[Fred]

If it were me, I wouldn't let it go.

It's understood that everyone is back to ground zero (whole) and only time was wasted, but this would just get under my skin to the point that I'd demand ebay to engage some how. Either have ebay set up an account and try to win the auction, or you win the auction. And then see how it plays out.

If ebay doesn't engage and acknowledge the issue, then that's problematic. If ebay allows this to occur because they don't want to chase it down (would rather cut a check and just accept it as a cost of doing business), then they really don't care about their buyer/seller community, they only care about counting beans and trying to ensure things balance out for them rather than doing the right thing to protect their consumers/sellers. You know it's going to continue to occur by the same criminal until they are caught and penalized.