This last weekend I stumbled across a brand new Tamiya Full Option M4 Sherman kit on ebay with about 9 hours to go and the current bid was $120 (with free shipping!). I checked it out and found that it was a first time seller, this was the only item they had ever listed, no feedback, and the seller is in the US but the item was in China. Hmmm. Well, I says to meself, if you use paypal you have protection from both paypal and ebay, so the very worst thing that can happen is that it will take a while to get a refund. Talked myself right into it, so I set a max bid of $200. I was then high bidder with a bid of $122.50. WooHoo! With about 10 minutes to go I was outbid so I raised my max bid to $300 and I was high bidder at $255 until I was outbid with 9 seconds left and it sold for $305. Oh well.

Today I checked my "Didn't Win" list and it was empty. Anything you bid on and don't win is supposed to be listed for 31 days. So, I called ebay (fortunately I had printed out the page while there was still 52 minutes to go so I had all the info). The first woman I talked to told me it had disappeared from my didn't win list because the seller removed the item the day after the auction ended. I was not at all satisfied with this answer (as far as I know a seller can't do that) so after a little arguing I went over her head and asked to speak to a fraud specialist. Only then did I learn that the seller did NOT remove this item, it was removed by EBAY. Naturally they wouldn't tell me why, and had no explanation for why the first woman lied to me and said the seller removed it. This makes me a bit hesitant to participate in future ebay auctions. What do you guys think? Has anyone had a similar experience? What do you think happened and what do you think was the reason ebay removed the item? I buy stuff on ebay all the time but I usually do the "buy it now" thing from reputable vendors and so far I haven't had any trouble. I'd just hate to have to wait to get hundreds of dollars back if something turns out to be non-legit, can ya dig it? But come on ... a full option Tamiya Sherman for $122.50? Who wouldn't want to get one of those? I guess the Wizard's First Rule really is true ... People will believe almost any lie, either because they desperately want it to be true, or because they terribly fear that it is true.

Comments? Opinions?