agree with karl, according to ebay rules he has every right to refuse an item if it isn't as described, simple. IMO stolen and not working items fall under that catergory.

Karl, my advice is take his offer to end the auction mutualy as this is a key indication its dodgy, he knows he can resell (or ripoff) a more trusting buyer but doesn't want to scar his feedback without a sale. If you give him bad feedback, then he will no doubt retaliate screwing your feedback, although to be fair if you've only got 3 then you could just sign up again with a different user at 0.

Expecting someone to purchase a complicated piece of electrical equipment without viewing is stupid, i target these kinda items that are local to me so i can view them, a genuine seller will have no problem with this. I have experienced it before by its obviously to allow the seller to make a few bob on postage, but i'm only talking about things like CD's etc, obviously not much to go wrong or money to loose. I once bought a CD of a guy 4 miles away, he made up some bullshit why i couldn't collect charge me 2.50 for delivery and them hand delivered in though my door

One thing i've learned with ebay is that items will always come up again