Does this seem fishy to you?

Bought a card on ebay recently and got the card at a great price. Not close even close to a steal like a Bryant for $20 instead of $200, but just a good deal. Anyway, I see the tracking number uploaded, but it never updates from this:

"The seller has provided a tracking number. The tracking status will be updated once the shipment reaches the carrier."

Typically I see this message for a day or two, which is the delay between printing the label and actually shipping it. However, about 5 days go by and it hasn't updated. It happened to me recently where the seller had a delay in sending it about a week or so, so I figured I'd message him. He replies that he sent them out with some other cards and to to give it til the weekend. So I do, and the weekend comes but still no card and tracking still not updated. During this time he has received positive feedback for some of his other sales that ended when mine did.

So, I email back just to update and he offers to refund me the money and then we can wait and see what happens. If the card gets returned to him in the mail then we can figure out what when wrong and I resend payment and he reships. Or if I receive the card I can just resend the payment. This seems very reasonable so far on the part of the seller. And I know USPS can be garbage at times so at this point I'm just chalking the lack of tracking up to USPS error.

But, the next day I get the refund and then in the refund is a message asking me if I would also cancel the ebay transaction. This starts to set off some red flags. Now I'm thinking, "why would he want to cancel the transaction?" If the card was indeed mailed, wouldn't he want to keep the transaction open? What if I eventually receive the card. Wouldn't he want that transaction to be open so he could try to get his money back if I as the buyer for some reason don't follow through? Unless of course he isn't worried about that because he never actually sent it in the first place...

That is now the main thing on my mind. This has happened to me before where I won something in auction for a good price and the seller never sent it out. Same scenario with the uploaded tracking and no updated info. I also asked why he wanted me to cancel the transaction but no response for a couple days now.

Now I believe this seller infrequently comes on these boards, so I'm not saying who it is. He has 100% positive feedback over 2000+ auctions so I wouldn't think he would jeopardize his reputation at all over maybe $10-15 more on a sale he could have gotten from the right buyer. But I've seen more unsavory things done for less money on ebay, so maybe that has just left me expecting the worst out of people. On the other hand he may be telling the truth, and offered the refund quickly without much hesitation because he just wanted to avoid any further hassle and perhaps the card is floating out there somewhere in USPS land. But who knows.

Anyway, just wanted to see what you guys thought of this situation. Not trying to start a witch-hunt or anything.

Just cancel and move on, thats what I think.

Sellers only get their fees back (as a credit) if the buyer agrees to cancel the transaction.

Cannot say whether fishy or not. However, if I sell a card for 50.00 and it gets lost in mail I am out the 50.00 + fees + shipping. I wouldn't read anything into the seller asking YOU to cancel the transaction. As mentioned, that is the only way he can get his ebay fees back( 6.00 give or take for the 50.00 sale). Err on the side of goodness, let him get his 6.00 back and then decide whether or not you want to deal with him again. In the meantime, hopefully your card will arrive.