Random Gripe: In which a fradulent eBay seller wins out of default

If there's one thing I hate, it's eBay frauds. You know which ones I mean- the ones who sell an item for $10 less than what someone else is, so you get sucked into the "OMG, this is a decent deal" zone before you realize that the seller's from an area of the world & the product is more than likely fake. (Yeah, I didn't check. In a mixture of sleeplessness & excitement over getting my nephew something nice, I forgot to verify the seller before buying.)

Well, I ended up falling for a seller that was offering a Bakugan for $10 less than what the others were selling for, then discovered that eBay discontinued the sale because the item was fake. After a long & lengthy argument with the seller via paypal, I finally got them to offer to refund the money. If the item had looked legit I probably would have kept it, but unfortunately it's a pretty obvious fake. (My 5 year old nephew could tell the difference & that's not good.)

The only problem? I had to return it to China within a week & get verification that the item was delivered. Well, I don't know if any of you guys have tried to ship something to China, but it takes far longer than a week & in order to get shipping verification I'd have to go the Priority Mail route, which means that it'd end up costing me more than the item actually cost to buy initially. (About $18 to buy, $20+ to ship back.)

So now the seller wins by default. Not really fair, but then that's my fault for not checking I suppose.