A seller recently did this to me. Dear Mr so and so, Gee I lost the item. So sorry but I cancelled the sale. To make matters worse, I had to prod the seller with an Ebay "dispute" to finally get my money refunded. Very tacky. I left a "neutral" since I hate leaving negatives.
Originally Posted by
contango
Sounds like he wanted to start the auction cheap to avoid listing fees but still have the option to walk away if the bidding didn't go as high as he wanted.
Sometimes what sellers will do is claim the item broke or had been lost, presumably as a way of avoiding letting you actually have it for a bid they considered unacceptably low. Ultimately you can complain to ebay (who probably won't do a whole lot), you may be able to leave negative feedback to warn others, but it seems to me you might as well put it down to experience.