if they falsely advertized the auction then don't pay and contest it with ebay. file a complaint or something. even if they were unclear about it. if they were explicitly clear then you're stuck with it or will have to give up some stars on your ebay rating.

Queen Vic huh, I wanted that......... but not for 1.5k!

I think the seller was upfront, but at the end of the day £1.5k is a lot to cough up for the sake of principle. If it's the one I think it is it is already framed so I wouldn't be so worried about the dry mounting even though it shouldn't have been mounted like this. I would approach the seller about it, explain you misunderstood and see if you can agree something such as covering their listing fees or making sure they get a refund from eBay. I took my first hit in nearly 8 years of eBay a while back when a member warned me the print I'd won was of the backdoor variety. I tried to negotiate with the seller and when that didn't work decided that I'd rather have a -1 than a dent in my wallet and something on my wall which wasn't what I really wanted.

If you do not pay, the seller can file a "non paying bidder" report which puts the auction in "Dispute status". You will be given the opportunity to respond to the allegation via eBay. In this instance you will probably get a "strike" and negative feedback from the seller. Three strikes and you're out. The seller will get their Final Value Fees back but not the listing fees so i'd imagine they'll be annoyed and will have to re-list.

To be honest, you should pay for the item. Its not his/her fault you didn't underestand the listing, and he/she made it clear that the item was dry mounted.

so you would pay £1500 just because you're embarrassed about not understanding the listing? if i were the buyer, i would do what was said above, offer to pay the listing fee and the re-listing fee and walk away. he'll get the rest of his fees back and despite being a bit of an annoyance, if youre nice about im sure he'll understand that were all human...

The damage to your ebay reputation is nothing compared to the damage done to that print!!!
Whilst I agree you should of understood what dry mounting was before you bid, it's common for people to get confused on ebay and even seller of the print in question originally listed the item as signed when it wasn't!

Send him a very apologetic email and see where that gets you. He can always offer it to the next bidder if he doesn't think he can get that much money for it again in another auction.

I'd suggest you pull the sellers contact details and call them. You do this by using the advanced search function and then the 'find contact details' link on the left hand side of the screen.

Its best to discuss things on the phone than via email, there used to be the option in ebay to 'not complete through mutual consent' which used to give the seller a refund of fees & not give the buyer a NPB alert.

The other option is to cover the final value fees & the re-listing fee so the seller doesn't lose out financially on his/her costs although this will cost you a fair few quid as the fees will be in the region of £40+.

just for an update, I have offered to pay his listing fees, and though I understand why some people are saying I should pay because I should have known better, in reality, Im not rich, have saved up for a bit to by this print, and really Im not going to lose that kind of money just for the principle of it all. The seller told me that this is the third time he's listed this print, and had someone not want to buy it after the listing ending. So, yes it is my fault for knowing in advance what dry mounting is, but if he ever wants to sell this print successfully he's going to have to mention in the listing that the print is actually permanently glued to this board.....nobody is going to bid up to 1.5k for that. I will happily pay for his fees, any money he's out, but Im not going to pay 1.5k for a worthless print. Lesson learned.

Yes bad form, but we all make mistakes. At least he learned from it and didnt throw out 3kusd.

Believe it or not I do feel bad about this...I had no intentions of game-playing with this seller as I wanted this print, but I can't part with that kind of money just because it would be bad form to not. And let's not pretend like this seller didn't know exactly what he was doing here. Third time he's listed, third non-payment, and in one of the recent emails to me he even states "After 3 lots of ebay fees, I would just like to get rid of it". Doesn't sound like someone who has something valuable they are tryinng to sell, sounds like someone trying to pawn off some rubbish on some unsuspecting fool (thankfully this fool caught on just in time). He knows the print's value has decreased substantially because of the glue, and he keeps on hoping that eventually someone is going to just buy it and get stuck with it. Bad form or not, let's not think that I was the only one looking out for number one here.

It's not money I don't have, it's money I saved up for. Im not some flipper turning profits all over the place here. I saved up for the print I've wanted for a while, and if you were in my shoes, and finally won an auction for the print you wanted, wouldn't you pull out if you discovered that the condition of the print was less than good? I sincerely apologized to seller (if that matters for anything, which it probably doesn't, but still), I said I would pay for his fees, and I would pay for his next listing fees next time he goes to list it, and that's all I can do short of paying the 1.5k. This all came about because I initially asked him to ship it unframed and he said he couldn't remove the print from the frame. Im sure Im not the first to go through this with him, and I probably won't be the last. And as far as war and poverty go, let's not mistake tragedies with ebay drama.

he's mad, of course (as I would be too), but he is a little satisfied with having his listing fees paid, and like I've already said, short of buying the print, I will do anything that I can to help cool this situation and make him feel less angry with all this. I will do what I can and hopefully he can sell it in the near future. But so far, thankfully, all of the corresponence on both sides has been civil and rational.

cool, sorry