Inceptions
It doesn't matter when the seller prints the label and he gets no benefit from doing so early. It only matters that you receive the item by the estimated delivery date shown in your Purchase History.
When it's past the estimated delivery date shown in your Purchase History and you haven't received your item, you have up to 30 days to use the option next to the transaction to open a case for an item not received. The seller will have 3 business days to prove delivery or refund. If he doesn't, go back to the case on day 4 and use the option to ask eBay to step in. They will force the refund.
Leaving feedback prematurely is a bad idea.
According to my order details page Ebay considers this item "shipped". A seller who is not in possession of the item yet can simply print a label and achieve this status. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding something but it seems to me that achieving a "shipped" status without actually shipping the item allows them to lie about the item location or purchase an item after they sell it, so that's a potential benefit for them.
Once a label is purchased, the item is marked shipped. What that means to eBay is that the label has been created and nothing more. eBay has no way of knowing when the seller ships unless the carrier scans it and not all sellers get carrier scans. Sometimes the first scan is at delivery.
Again, focus on the estimated delivery date. I understand that you would like more detail, but there is no action you can take until that date passes so it's really a waste of time trying to read into information that isn't there.
If you don't have your package in three days, on the fourth day, you can open an item not received case.
