About a month ago I spent 15 bucks on some cheapo reader comics on EBay that were shipped Media Mail. They ended up getting stuck in USPS tracking purgatory and after no movement for more than a week I contacted the seller to let them know. They replied they were aware of the problem, and told me to check back if there was no movement for two weeks. After two weeks passed, I checked back and the seller refunded my $ including shipping.
Today, just for fun, I checked the tracking again, and lo and behold they have shown up at my local post office and the estimated delivery date had been updated to today. I'll believe it when I see it but it appears they may show up after all.
Here's my question (forgive me if it's a stupid and naive one but I've never sold on EBay): Did the seller of these books just take it in the shorts when they refunded my money, or did they have some recourse and make a claim with USPS to get their money back? The seller did say that I could just keep the books "as a token of our appreciation" if they did eventually arrive, but I don't want anyone to get hosed and will gladly pay for these books if they do show up and the seller has not been made whole. Thanks for any info...