Well, here's an update: I contacted the seller and politely explained the situation, telling him that I'd pics to show if he so desired to send me his email (he didn't), and was very open about what happened (but not angry). He wrote this back to me:
"im very sorry for the problem if you give me an address agian and a price ill send you the mone"
Wait! He didn't know the price?? Ok, fine. So I (again politely) emailed him back that it was $XX, that being $XX for merch + $12 for shipping ($8 of which was actually postage and the remaining $4 presumably for "handling/packing," though I didn't write this latter part).
That was yesterday afternoon/early eve; haven't heard anything back yet. But I'll give him time.
Thats a lot of BS, ebay has great records as does Paypal, I was giving the seller the benefit of the doubt until now, he is stalling
ken