Phil...I use E-Bay quite a lot and have only had two problems, one is getting resolved now and the other I will turn over to the FBI Mail Fraud Unit to go after the seller.
However, I must say that E-bay states that if you go out side the system and offer ar boy from someone outside of e-bay they will not asssist you because you choose to go ou of the system....if you had followed the auction until the end and it had closed with you being the winner, you would have had recourse through E-Bay buyer protection....I
believe this is the case here....turn them in to the fraud unit and see how fast they want to make the claim go away.....good luck