E-bay sellers advertising goods that they don't possess

Do e-bay allow people to advertise goods that they don't physically have, and then to source them when the auction is over ?

For the second time within 4 months, I have won a CD on e-bay, had the seller procrastinate for a week or two while sourcing it, and then had him refund me because he couldn't get it.

Is this allowed (by ebay) ? Can I give a negative rating to the seller without him giving me one in return ?

I think you'll have to ask ebay about their rules in this situation but on a practical note, would you not email sellers prior to bidding and asking do they actually have the item advertised?

truthseeker said:

I think you'll have to ask ebay about their rules in this situation

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You would have better luck getting a reply from Elvis in my opinion.

This is a problem with eBay, but how would they police it? Send somebody around to the house of every seller to see if the item existed?
I have been lucky enough to not have this experience, but I have heard of it happening. I suppose looking at previous feedback on a seller would give an idea of how other experiences, also the quality of the photo can give you some details on whether the image has been copied from a website or whether the person has taken the photo themselves.

I suppose you have to just ask the seller the question before you bid. Although if its ending shortly, chances of a reply before the auction ends are slim.

Regarding feedback, its another difficult one...

http://pages.ebay.ie/help/feedback/questions/leaving-feedback.html

You can be held to ransom by a seller / buyer, as they are all after the valuable feedback points.

truthseeker said:

on a practical note, would you not email sellers prior to bidding and asking do they actually have the item advertised?

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I think that's a bit much. The assumption should/must be that the seller has the item in his possession UNLESS stated otherwise.

A lot of the time with tickets the seller won't have them in their possession...the Ryder Cup springs to mind where they were only sent out six weeks before the tournament but being traded on eBay more than a year in advance.