I'd appreciate advice and input from some of the veterans on this board. It's probably a typical scenario which I've never before encountered.

As my high CC & GTCC number indicates, I'm a new member and novice "buckchipper", but have been a veteran of eBay for about four years. Here are the particulars:

1) Won nine separate lots of interesting, nice condition $1 chips from a single seller.
2) Shipping charges were stated as $1.85 in each listed item.
3) Seller refused to reduce shipping charges, claiming that S&H terms were as stated in each individual item listing, and no exceptions could be made because "it wouldn't be fair to other bidders."
4) I paid total amount by PayPal, to hold up my end of the bargain, and complained to the seller.
5) Seller charged $16.65 S&H, a single 6x9 padded envelope contained all nine chips, total postage was $1.70.
6) Seller offered insurance totalling $11.70 for the combination of lots which sold for a total of $15. (I declined this opportunity.)
7) He's a first-time eBay seller, but has made recent purchases in which he's accepted offers of discounted multiple-item shipping from other sellers.
8) He's an occasional-to-moderate poster on this message board. I won't reveal who it is, as that's not proper "netiquette".

I've built up a massive collection of vintage baseball cards, and as I mentioned, I never had a problem like this one in four years of eBay baseball card purchases. Understandably, I'd like to start off in the casino chip collecting hobby with as little difficulty as possible, making as few enemies as possible, and would like to make use of this message board as a resource.

So how should I proceed (or not?)

1) Negative feedback? His is 100% positive, but a very low count. Mine is a relatively high count (just broke the 700 milestone) with all but two of them positive - those two were positive f/b's from eBay users whose accounts were suspended, and were automatically converted to neutrals.

1A) Should I leave multiple negative feedbacks for each of the separate infractions, or just leave it at one negative feedback? (There were nine separate lots, but only one negative feedback will count against him.) I'm not afraid of retaliatory negative feedback, as I'm just a buyer, and took precautions to hold up my end of the bargain.

2) Report him to eBay for fee avoidance? On a $15 purchase, he pocked an additional $15 which was unaccounted for. I am told eBay really frowns on people offering merchandise for 1 cent, for example, then piling on the S&H costs to avoid paying eBay's percentage cut.

3) Write it off as a loss, and not do business with him again? I don't want to reinforce in him that he can get away with it, especially if he's accepting multiple-item shipping discounts from other dealers himself.

I'd really be interested in anyone's opinion or advice, before I take any action. I'm leaning toward 1 and limited 1A, with 2 as an option if he tries to use retaliatory negative feedback.

Can anyone explain why it would be unfair to other bidders if he didn't charge full shipping per lot? The seller refused to explain, and there actually were no other bidders on any of the nine chip lots.

Thanx,
WMD
wayne@deliafamily.com