I can see that it's possible, especially for massive seller accounts, but I still wonder if it's worth it.
That sounds like a smooth enough situation for you, and I don't know how long ago this happened, but you generally have to prove that you weren't paid, because it's easy to make that claim and take the money on the side. Ebay wants their cut and isn't fucking around like that.
It's true that the buyer can try and request a cancellation based on a drop down selection of reasons, but that's tricky, too. I've had someone just not pay and I had to go through a claim over it. Ebay will still take a cut in that situation, if you don't go through the whole process. I've had someone do the thing where they want to backout because they bought it elsewhere, after I accepted their offer, and I've told them no. I lose all of my other watchers and it's a headache. I had to call ebay to deal with my fee from them over it. Then I relisted it and actually got more. It just sucked because it was also listed and sold during a promotional window where Ebay's cut would have been smaller.
Of course, in this situation, you wouldn't have to worry about the other person simply not paying, because they would ask to cancel and you would accept, being that it's yourself. I still don't see it as something one seller could do repeatedly without a red flag on their account. "Why does everyone keep canceling?" I guess if they made new accounts to sell from, that could work, but it becomes a pain in the ass quick.
I once listed a Lil Ugly Mane shirt and tossed in a free Mista Thug Isolation tape. In the listing I mentioned what a great deal it was since, if you ordered the tape from Ormolycka, you wouldn't even know when or if it would show up at all. Keep in mind that the item connected to him wasn't even the thing I was selling. But, Orm's feelings were hurt, so he offered me $2,000 on the listing. Since it was well over the listing price, it automatically accepted it. That meant ebay was coming for a $200 fee on a bunk sale that I wasn't getting paid for. I had to get them on the phone to deal with it and show them how absurd it looked, to stop from getting charged in the first place. Normally, you have to give them time to pay and can be charged your feecwithin that window. Often, cancellations can even drag out or keep your fee in limbo.
Overall, it's just a pain in the ass system to mess with. I'm sure those doing have a better system all worked out.
That sucks about your auction. If that ever happens, you can always just hit up the second highest bidder and see if they want it. Were they not interested? It usually offers that option.
14 years ago, I was a night auditor at a hotel, so I'd just fuck around on the internet all night and poke around on ebay. I lost an ebay auction, but the seller contacted me later to tell me that the winner was from Canada and he doesn't ship there, so it's mine if I wanted it. For about $60 total, I got a ton of original hip hop pressings.
Included in that bundle was Liquid Swords, Cuban Linx, Funcrusher Plus, Hard To Earn, Organix...
I think Heavy Mental was part of that, too, but I can't remember if my Lyricist Lounge Vol. 1 was from that auction, or if I got it separately. There may have been something else slipping my mind.
The sleeves weren't pristine or anything, but i'd imagine it's still next to impossible to pull something like that these days. It was definitely a different time.