Gugie,

I'm no expert on eBay rules, but it seems to me that if you won and paid immediately a transaction was completed. I had a similar experience with a more fortuitous end. A party three states away offered an old but nice-looking Motobecane tandem for $175 (no reserve) after the bike had earlier failed to draw bids at $300. He also published the shipping rate at $54. That seemed a bit low to me, but I thought maybe he was using the cheap shipping price as an incentive. I bid slightly north of the opening price and turned out to be the only bidder. Like you, I paid immediately. The next day I got an email that said he would have to cancel the sale or I'd need to send him $75 dollars more as he had discovered it would cost $150 to ship the bike. I shamed him by reminding him that I had bid in good faith and paid in good faith and that the $229 he was holding was more than enough to cover shipping. Then I offered to split the difference and send him $50 if he would tell me how to do it. His response: "No, you are right. I'll ship the bike." I did have to drive 50 miles to the nearest FedEx freight depot to pick it up. It was arrived in good shape, copiously wrapped and strapped to a pallet. I ended up giving the guy positive feedback for his "heroic" efforts in shipping the bike, and, for the moment at least, he preserved his 100% rating. I guess some people will do the right thing and some people won't. If you knew where the seller lived, you could leave a flaming sack of pig droppings on his step, ring the doorbell and run. I'm sorry for your disappointment. I agree with the other respondents - utter a few curse words (out of the earshot of children), imagine a delicious revenge, and move on. Better luck next time. I think the vast majority of eBay sellers are honest.