Seller removed item post after I paid... now I do not have any tracking data.

[peveretts]

I purchased an item from China. Reviews were ok.  As soon as item was paid for the listing vanished, now I have no way to track my item.  Feeling like this is not good, or is it common?  Never had it happen before.

[femmefan1946]

Don't panic.

Tracking is a Seller Protection and is only an emotional comfort for buyers.

 As soon as item was paid for the listing vanished,

What do you mean?

Is there anything about the transaction on your Leave Feedback page?

You should be able to see it there, if nowhere else, if the seller was not shut down by eBay for nefarious activity.

Or your payment will still be on your Paypal account.

If you can find the transaction on eBay anywhere, wait patiently for 30 days (at most, I'm grumpy about this) and if it has not arrived, open an Item Not Received Dispute in the Resolution Centre at the bottom of this page.

If you have to find it on Paypal, go to the PP Resolution Centre at the top of your PP account page under Tools and open an Item Not Received Dispute there.

State in the Dispute that the listing has been removed from/by eBay. This usually speeds things up.

In either case, if the Seller cannot prove* delivery (not shipping, delivery) you will be refunded.

There is a suggestion that you contact the Seller before escalating to a Claim. That is polite, but unnecessary.

*This is where tracking comes in, as Seller Protection.

[gee56usa]

If it has disappeared completely, that sounds like ebay removed the listing.  I would call and find out.  If ebay removed the listing, you should be able to get your money sooner.

[mudshark61369]

@peveretts,

"I purchased an item from China. Reviews were ok."

Did you actually look at the seller's feedback profile or just go by their feedback percentage shown on the listing?  Feedback percentages can be deceiving, if you do not realize how high a bar eBay sets for its sellers.  A very good high volume seller will have a percentage of 99.6% or higher. Those with less than a 99% rating have problems, and you should find out what they are.

When dealing with high volume sellers, and epecially those from China click on the number of feedback in (parenthesis) next to their name/ID. On the page that opens you can click on the numbers of non positive feedback they have received to read only those comments.  Look for people not receiving items, very slow shipping, and quality issues. 

"As soon as item was paid for the listing vanished, now I have no way to track my item". 

eBay removed the item for some reason, not the seller.  If you received a tracking number from the seller, it most likely would not have updated once it left Chinese control, since the USPS and the Chinese Postal services do not have any reciprocal agreements to track items door to door.  You can go to your PayPal account find the payment and click on it.  That will bring up the details of the transaction and if a tracking number was generated, it will be there.  At least you will know if the item was received by China or Hong Kong Post. 

  "Feeling like this is not good, or is it common?  Never had it happen before".

An item being pulled by ebay is not a good sign, it is also not uncommon when dealing with chinese sellers.  That being said there are reasons an item may be pulled, and you may yet receive the item, however once the last estiated delivery date has passed you should file an Item Not Received (INR) dispute through the Resolution Center. You can get the item number from the PayPal details of the transaction. 

You haven't had this happen before, because so far you have bought only from US based sellers, and haven't had much experience on this site. On the upper part of this page, you can search for topics concerning "Chinese sellers" and read them.  You can learn a lot from these boards, that could save you time effort and money. You may want to reply to the topics but if they are more than a few months old, there is no reason to do that.