Hello churro15,
There were some missing details found in another previous thread that you had made.
The seller seemed to be listing lots of Lego items. Was this item really rare or just pretty common?
Also, it appears that seller did contact you first regarding getting offers of a higher price and giving you a choice to match it or cancel the listing so they can sell to the other buyer after. It's unclear whether they asked your permission to cancel the listing or did it after you said no to match the other buyer's higher counteroffer. Not knowing if this was an auction only, auction with buyitnow, or auction with make an offer and buyitnow options, it's also hard to know how the other buyer made the offer or was it privately through the eBay messages during the auction and the seller didn't check his message alerts before the listing ended or you used buyitnow or the seller accepted your offer first too soon.
It's possible the seller didn't ask your permission to mutually end the transaction. If so this is where you errored. (Strangely enough this should be a word but the dictionary doesn't agree.) If the mutual transaction withdrawal option was still present on eBay, then the seller or buyer could send or receive this and each individual must click to agree or it gets aborted and the transaction is still valid. This would have kept your original transaction as binding and if the seller tried to relist the buyer could report it and get it taken down as in eBay's eyes yours is the only legal transaction. In your case the seller contacted you and honestly divulged buyer counteroffers hoping you would match. We don't know whether they had sent higher or lower offers before the listing ended and the seller either was not around to check these offers before the listing ended which he/she may have acted upon. Also assuming this is a true newbie seller, they would know not how to end a listing early or modify a listing to change a buyitnow to a higher price assuming that's what the seller wanted to do before you won the listing to sell it to the other buyers. If this was an auction listing as I experienced recently the bidding page doesn't work and I could not enter the bid and the listing ended with no buyer. This is rather infuriating since it was caused by eBay changing their website code and making certain browsers not operate correctly with their site. The Buyitnow function for now still seems to work. I haven't tested the Make an Offer option to see if this also has a grayed out page which you can't type anything. For all we know the other buyers wanted to buy it but due to some eBay bug could not click to bid, make an offer, or purchase the item the normal way but wanted the item. It's possible they saw this item days before you did and contacted the seller before you had won and had multiple communications trying to get it before it ended.
Since the seller did reach out to you to relay he / she wanted to sell it to another buyer this is the point where you could have responded to let them know it would be a reportable eBay seller policy violation and their account could be suspended or removed if they did not honor the transaction and await their response. I am pretty sure had you done that rather than deny to match the other buyer's higher counteroffer you would have made the newbie seller carefully reconsider their actions. This was also a Seller Non Performance violation as well. Plus by sending them the warning if the seller were to go ahead with the relisting of the item you could report it to eBay to shut down the relisting. It is also another seller violation to relist it when you had won it. So again you just stopped the seller from selling it on eBay to the other buyer because eBay will terminate the listing once they investigate it. Now if somehow they did a Buyitnow offer and got the buyer to quickly purchase and the seller immediately shipped it out I think eBay would first override the sale and basically the seller wouldn't get the money and the other buyer probably will probably still get the item. But the other buyer won't have any buyer protection if say the seller didn't ship the item inside or put something else in there. My thought is eBay will pocket the money or place it in limbo and assuming the seller shipped something else or nothing to the other buyer, I am not sure how the other buyer will get reimbursed from eBay if it was an illegal transaction. From what I've seen when eBay terminates a listing it is gone so the buyer might not have a link to report the item not as described unless they used Paypal. Again this is assuming you took these steps and acted quickly to shut down the relisting. The best outcome would have been you warning the seller this is a eBay seller violation and they could be suspended or lose their account to make the seller act correctly and ship the item to you.
I had another instance where there was a listing but no photo. I would have purchased the item upon first viewing but I asked the seller to send me the photo so I could verify what they were selling was in good condition and in fact sealed. The seller instead uploaded the photo to the listing directly and some other buyer bought it. I spent the time researching the item and asking the seller to send me a photo directly to my eBay messages. Upon waking up I found out it got bought most likely due to the helpful new photo added to the listing and had the photo been there originally I would have purchased it then. So no, I don't agree on trying to police all potential buyers from messaging a seller even post auction. I have asked sellers if they had any extras or would accept a higher offer before the listing ended and because the seller either didn't check their messages in time I had lost out. Most sellers knowing the rules will follow through. It's the ones that don't know the rules you just have to educate and be proactive to protect your transaction. I've had sellers claim the item got damaged as they were packaging it or claiming they ran out of the quantity of the item and cancelled the sale on their end. Then they relist the item at a higher price or sell it off eBay to avoid you finding out.
I also had another situation where I won something because I placed a bid and went to bed not knowing the outcome. After I woke up I found that the seller had revised the international shipping from what was stated to a higher one on an updated invoice post auction. Then I told them to put it back to the original shipping price and they didn't and then forced an unpaid item strike on my account. Out of integrity I didn't pay the revised shipping cost and repeatedly told them to put back the original invoice so I could pay. In this situation I could have paid for the higher shipping cost but shouldn't have to in order to report this kind of seller. Also, the seller could have cancelled the sale using that loophole but chose to extort me instead to prevent me from being able to leave feedback. This is something eBay shouldn't allow unless the buyer agrees to the shipping cost revision or requests it (For example when you want something packaged better and it increases the weight and willing to pay for this or they choose a faster shipping method)(Other times combining multiple auction wins and then getting an accurate grand total for the shipping costs). That is the reason I usually try to be there to bid and win the item when it ends and pay for it right away to prevent this shipping cost revision loophole to extort or force a buyer out of a transaction (which I assume still exists and hasn't been fixed).
Imagine an auction and hundreds of buyers want this rare item. You end up winning but hundreds of other buyers lost out and the seller was bombarded with message throughout the entire auction and after it ended. How would eBay even police and sift through all those messages to punish all those hundreds of potential buyers. The seller can simply ignore all messages regarding the item and delete them as long as the item was paid for promptly by the buyer. Sometimes buyers are interested in other items the seller may have unlisted and want them to list it. Anyone can offer any absurd amount to the seller but it isn't binding like your transaction which took priority until they used the loophole to end it. Usually new sellers aren't aware of needing to end your transaction first or this loophole which could be a clue as they were not a new seller unless the other buyer had instructed them to do this first before relisting which is rather unlikely cause then the other buyer would then know you could have forced the relisting to be terminated if you reported the eBay seller violation to eBay. Since you also didn't disclose the value of the item won and the counter offer from the other buyer it's hard to know if the amount was more based on a fair market value and the seller realized their mistake versus another buyer outright trying to acquire the item because it was rare and who knows whether they had promised their little kid this toy before even winning it and you won it first. Maybe there's more to the story that the seller didn't divulge to you except just the little detail that another buyer was willing to pay more for the item than you. The "seller" made an executive decision based on the facts and more information than was revealed to you. The seller still had to have had enough faith to waste more money to relist it again to the other buyer when they had a sure deal with you already to see if the other buyer was being truthful about paying more.
It's ultimately left in the judgment of the seller to choose what to do knowing or not knowing all the rules. You can only inform the seller of the possible consequences if they don't follow them assuming you really wanted the item more and this is where I feel you could have prevented and even stopped the seller relisting from happening and forcing them to honor the original transaction price won and paid.
Imagine another scenario where you are married to your wife. But every day some potential guy tries to flirt with her to leave you and marry him. Are you going to call the police for every guy that does this and hope the police can locate them down and knock on their door and warn them or put them in jail if they do this three times? It just won't work. Ultimately, your wife is like the newbie seller. She has to make the choice to stick with you no matter what sweeter enticing deal comes along. Assuming you are a good guy then she will make the right decision every time. In this case your wife actually told you about a guy that wanted to marry her and she would get an extra luxury car as a wedding gift. Your hope is she won't go for the other deal and divorce you but you say nothing and won't buy your wife an extra luxury car. Instead you forgot to warn her that if she divorces you that you're getting a bigger or a majority share of that estate pie to dissuade and thwart her from making a bad decision knowing the penalty. So, seeing no consequence from you she went to greener pastures and got half of your estate and a nice new luxury car. As a bonus she got that positive glowing review you left and the judge then sees no reason for your wife not to get half of the estate. Meanwhile you go to reddit and write about how other men shouldn't be allowed to flirt with your wife and should go to jail because they gave her an enticing deal while sitting alone in your soon to be for sale home. But it was your wife that made that decision just like that seller.
It falls upon the seller to make that right choice. Sometimes it is the right choice for the seller to tell you upfront they got a higher offer and they were in communication with the other buyer before you won it. Who knows what the real reason was that your seller was trying to being honest with you. Maybe there was some guilt or maybe they were testing you to see how badly you wanted the item and at what lengths you would go to get it. That's when alerting them it was an eBay seller violation that you would have to report would have been what that seller was seeing if you were aware of. What if the seller explained that another buyer had already agreed to buy it before you did but was working on a way to close the deal and them being a new seller either didn't have the experience or know how to make the necessary changes to update the listing, end it, and relist it. It would seem really unfair to the other buyer all that time spent negotiating and then say you clicked Buyitnow after they had agreed to the higher price and caused the listing to end. As a seller I would be pretty torn due to the time investment of both parties but would still enforce the original transaction if the original buyer didn't mutually agree to end the transaction. And the new seller's inexperience in not choosing correctly an auction versus buyitnow listing could have contributed to what happened.
Each situation is different but I am in agreement that the seller should have upheld your transaction but to be honest you gave the seller an easy way out by not standing your ground and warning the seller of an eBay seller violation that could cause him / her to be suspended or lose their eBay account as a consequence and prevented them from cancelling the transaction without your permission. And even if they went through with it you could get report the relisting and have it terminated which puts the item in limbo and also another seller violation. Even further if the relisting is invalid then that new transaction is also invalid making your original transaction the only valid one since they cancelled it without your permission and eBay will definitely side with your requesting the seller to relist it for you. But in your case the seller used a loophole and lied that you agreed to cancel the transaction without your permission. So, the next step would be to tell the seller to relist the item for you only to repurchase the same listing and price and both set a time to both be present when the listing happens with the link so you can purchase it right away before anyone else does. Then pay for it again and I am quite certain the seller will fulfill their obligation after being informed of all the negative consequences. This is the only way to fix it and prevent it from happening again in the future.
I had a situation when I sold something at either $0.01 or $0.99 starting auction. I actually put Free Shipping for Domestic and International thinking this would improve bidder interest expecting more likely a domestic bidder to win and domestic shipping would have been under $3. Well the sale ended and I got only one bid. The international shipping cost with tracking was like $27-$30. I shipped it with Priority International Tracking instead of using the cheapest non tracking method just to protect myself from the buyer saying they didn't get it. I did it cause of my seller reputation and to maintain a 100% Positive Feedback. The buyer said they wanted to reimburse me for the shipping cost after I explained it. I said don't worry about and it was my mistake. I ate the cost and learned from it.
On the opposite end I bought something cheap on eBay and the international seller shipped it with a much higher shipping cost than listed. The seller never said anything but I later found out their exact shipping cost above what I paid looking at the shipping receipt. I obviously wouldn't have paid for it if they wanted to force the higher shipping cost but I would have also understood if the seller wanted to cancel the listing if the seller didn't want to eat the extra shipping cost as the item wasn't that vital. Later the future listings had the updated increased shipping cost. I'm sure no one purchased that item internationally from then on.
I didn't think I needed to go this far with you and explain in more detail how to properly get the seller to honor your transaction. It used to be for a seller that feedback was the most important until they changed it to feedback based on the last year so if they waited a year their feedback record would be clean again. Worst case if the seller still won't honor the transaction they will get a negative feedback (Although it seems each member gets a freebie to remove the first one). Then the seller is stuck with the item and unable to relist it on eBay or you'll have to report it again for another seller violation and it gets terminated again. If this is done say 4 times non stop in a short time span then their eBay account is gone. 🙂 But it doesn't prevent the seller from selling it outside of eBay as a last resort but at least you prevented the seller the best you can from doing it on eBay. Nothing is perfect. It's worse dealing with 3rd party Amazon sellers in comparison.
It is one thing when you win something you want and not getting it. What's even worse is winning something and then haven't it shipped thinking it's smooth sailing. Then when it gets delivered you witness it being stolen off your front door mat and the thieves driving off before you open the door to confront and stop them. Since the seller shipped it without insurance you can't claim anything. 
Enjoy your life, I'm sure that Lego toy or whatever that item was will return from another seller if you really want it. Sometimes what you think you want and don't get is a blessing as you really didn't need it. Who knows and there will be another seller that isn't new and follows through. And if they don't remember my suggestions. 🤗
