[Ronnie73]

It can be a bit confusing when listing a single item. Ebay defaults to an Auction format each time you list an item. But the fact that the seller is not a beginner, it sounds like they were expecting more action on the item than it got.

I've made best offers on auctions that were refused and then bid on the auction at the last second and won it for less than what my offer was, and the seller expects me to pay what I offered originally. I think the numbers were $750 Buy It Now, $9.99 Opening bid, or Best offer. 7 day auction. Offered $200 on the first day and made it a 48 hour offer. It expired. So I waited another day and still no bids, so I made a $200 best offer again for 48 hours. About 40 hours into my offer, someone placed a bid, so my offer automatically gets canceled. I placed a max bid of $180 and won it at $122.50

That particular auction I didn't hear one word of conversation from the seller and was expecting some sort of issue like the wrong card sent. But got the card without any issues. But there have been other auctions with very similar numbers where I got some sort of excuse, with the most common being that they couldn't find it, to the most odd excuse being that their kid used crayons to color the cards. Most of the time, I just accept the excuse because I don't want to be screwed in the long run but I watch for the item, especially when I'm told they couldn't find it. I also keep a list of eBay user names that I've had problems with.

I think what bothers me most is that I always offer a fair market price to the seller and then get the run around. But when it's me selling a card, I get a message about a card that doesn't even have a best offer option, I look at what they offered and then look at who's selling the same card at the same grade and TPG. Then I look at completed auction prices. I'll usually accept the offer if it's at or higher than a completed auction price. Or I counter offer at the difference, along with the reason why. Nearly 100% of the time, a successful sale is made, and we are happy on both sides. Something that rarely happens anymore.

In your current situation, You can complete your side of the transaction and see what happens. You might get refunded, or you might get an empty package. I recommend recording the opening of the package at the post office if a P.O. Box or a detailed recording if sent to your house. Just play it safe, especially if you feel you paid a fair market price. I sometimes see some dealers I know, accidently miss a number in the price. So when I see a bunch of $99.99 cards a one $9.99 card, I purchase it and message them that they made an error and bought it so I could cancel the order and they can fix their listing. Legit errors do happen, but they are usually obvious.