I have had that happen to me as well. I would be careful about that though. In addition to what I said in my previous post to this subject, there is the possibiltiy that the seller in question may not actually have the merchandise that he is offering. He may be going around to loosers of auctions trolling for people who will send him cash, checks or money orders. Once he has your money he can dissappear and you might not have any recourse. If the seller in question is not an seller than eBay may not have any way to help you get your money back or to track your loss. In the case of the NON EBAY seller you do not have the benefit of Feedback and their registrations to gage the reliability or legitimacy of the seller.

If I were an eBay seller in the scenario you mention I would be upset if I knew that people were taking advantage of my expenses to generate their own incomes. Then to think that my potential customers could get ripped off at the close of one of my auctions? While the official seller in an auction does not have control over such situations the concern that the experience might rub off would be of concern to me.