This time, it didn't arrive at all

For shipping in the US there are tracking numbers for items shipped by mail, but they are only good for shipment inside the US. The US Postal service, as the name implies only controls mail within the US. I had the opposite problem from you. I was selling some coins and made the mistake of selling to someone in Romania. My second mistake was that I was honest and stated that the package contained coins on the customs form. The buyer claimed that the coins were never received. It's possible that the buyer was lying or it's quite possible that someone saw the customs form and stole the coins. Despite the fact that I paid for the postage through Paypal, E-Bay would not take my work that I had mailed the coins and I was out the money that had been sent to me. To avoid having having this problem again, there are a few things you should do. First, don't buy anything from a seller unless he has a sizable number of sales to his credit with little or no negative feedback. A record of few sales could mean the person is a scammer. Second, you can try to get the seller to ship using Fedex or UPS and get him to give you a tracking number. Those shipping services send things internationally and should therefore be able to track items. Third, if you don't receive an item, complain to E-Bay and Paypal sooner. I think the time limit to report a bad transaction is one month. You need to open a dispute early of E-Bay and PayPal will deny it as in your case. Remember, you can always close a dispute later if the item arrives. Opening a dispute early will give you protection if the seller does turn out ot be a scammer. As for me, I no longer ship coins outside the US and for the most part try not to ship anything outside the US.

You contact the the seller if you can't report him to ebay management. Maybe they will advise you on what to do next. Some are really decievers. Be careful. Go for trusted sellers. Just a suggestion.

Never tried to do shopping through ebay but I have a close friend do shopping regularly but all of her transaction doing fine. She engage a seller within the Philippines only not from outside. Have you tried to dispute with your transaction to Paypal? I think Paypal will help you so you can get your money or Paypal can put limit of the accounts holder.

Always look at their feedback, especially if they have negative feedback. I'venever had any problems buying on eBay. But I always stick with sellers that have 99-100% feedback score. Anything else is probably a bad idea.

We should be really careful in dealing with people online. As for ebay sellers, you should try to deal with sellers with good ratings. Try to check on the comments left by other sellers. That should help you from being scammed again.