EBay, Collectors, Flea Market & Antiques

Same thing happened to me in June 2012. I sold some Indian banknotes (as collector's items) to an eBay buyer in India, with only 20 or so transactions on his record. I had to open a case against him just to get him to pay, and then he refused to pay the extra S&H for registered mail, even though I advised him it would be unwise to have them sent by ordinary airmail. Sure enough, he claimed he never got the envelope, and I had no tracking number because Canada Post doesn't give you a tracking number for non-registered items. I told this to eBay but they said "no tracking number, we take the buyer's word for it". Again, all automated responses and no consideration of my position except for a phone call to a person at eBay's so-called resolution centre, who said ... see above. Not only that, they debited my PayPal account for the refund to the buyer of not only the sale price but the S&H charge too! Now they're announcing "enhanced seller protection" to start in the fall. Too late in my case and I won't be selling anything on eBay ever again. Also won't be using PayPal, which pretty much moves in lockstep with eBay as the OP details, and why not since they have joint ownership (apparently).