[mtrower]

Meanwhile, I've had a package marked as delivered that never actually showed up. eBay wouldn't help me. USPS wouldn't help me without info from the seller. Seller never gave me the correct info that I requested, nor followed up with USPS.

Seems random who gets screwed in these situations.

Honestly it boggles my mind that USPS can just mark something delivered with no actual evidence of delivery (signature, photograph etc.) and it's just taken as fact.

[rootusrootus]

If you'd have played dirty and initiated a refund, then sent a box of nothing back, you'd have won in the end. All eBay cares about is delivery receipts. Not saying you should actually do that, but OTOH an experienced eBay seller knows how it will play out so if they could be convinced you were about to do it (without, you know, giving them evidence to send to eBay), it might light a fire under them to contact USPS and trace the delivery.