Should I be worried? Received message from ebay after I completed a purchase-listing removed

[SDGuy]

So, I did a "Buy It Now" on something last night, paid immediately via paypal (with a credit card), and received a shipping notice, complete with a USPS tracking # this morning.

Fast forward a few hours - I received a message from ebay that said they removed the listing:

"Thanks for your interest in this listing...Unfortunately, the item is no longer available for purchase. This is disappointing for everyone, but sometimes it's necessary to protect you as a buyer.
There are three main reasons why we remove listings:
-- The listing doesn't follow eBay guidelines.
-- The item isn't allowed on eBay or can only be listed under certain conditions.
-- The listing contains pictures or words in it that may have created copyright or trademark issues."

So - there is absolutely NO record of this transaction in my ebay summary of Activity. It's as if it never happened, except for the fact that I already sent $ via paypal.

I'm assuming I can't do a thing until what supposedly was shipped arrives. If it shows up, I won't be concerned - but if it doesn't, what would you do in my place? I think my first action will be to contact Paypal to get my $ back.

[C(-)ris]

I wouldn't worry about it as long as it shows up. The seller broke some stupid ebay rule and they deleted the auction. I've had it happen plenty of times with software that someone reports as being illegal(which in my case it wasn't, I was selling a legit 10.4 retail DVD). Ebay doesn't investigate, they just pull the auctions. Which is just one of the reasons why they suck.

[Carnos Jax]

I have to agree w/C(-)ris. Something similar happened to me as a seller once. Buyer was okay with it because I had great feedback (what kind of feedback does your seller have?). The beautiful thing about it was I didn't end up paying any final value fees.

[Will Collier]

This happened to me as a seller once. I still delivered and got paid (I'd already shipped by the time the takedown notice arrived). All it meant in reality was that eBay paid me back all their fees for the, er, item:

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OTY...TkxZGFhNzI=

[SDGuy]

C(-)ris wrote:
I wouldn't worry about it as long as it shows up. The seller broke some stupid ebay rule and they deleted the auction. I've had it happen plenty of times with software that someone reports as being illegal(which in my case it wasn't, I was selling a legit 10.4 retail DVD). Ebay doesn't investigate, they just pull the auctions. Which is just one of the reasons why they suck.

Ok - that must be it. Yes, it was for some software (going for about half the going rate). The guy has 44 feedback, all positive, from many different ebay users, all with their own feedback numbers in the 3 to 5 digits (# of feedbacks).

If it's a scam, he sure went through a lot of trouble to get $25 out of me.

[hal]

"If it's a scam, he sure went through a lot of trouble to get $25 out of me"

this is easily the best technique for 'is it a scam or not' - people tend to get caught up in the paranoia and forget obvious clues. As others have said, this has happened to me on both sides of the transaction. One was pretty obviously a scam, but it DID say "Pay with Paypal and your full purchase price is covered" - but they'll also give you the shipping charges. I bought it, got that email, called ebay and got the money back into my paypal account all in one day.

Ebay's latest goal is to make it feel safe for buyers so they are going too far for their own good, but buyers are well protected these days.

[Tommie Milwaukee]

I don't think you need to worry. It's happened to me as well. You'll probably get the item & not have to pay the fees.

[Janit]

I also had it happen to me as a seller. Got the takedown notice after I'd shipped the item. Curious thing is that they said the purchase had been an unauthorized use of the buyer's account, but I never got a charge-back from PayPal.