Seller has ''mislaid' item

[ElinoristhenewEnid]

Bid on a collectors item that had a £15 Buy it now price and a 99p starting bid. I was the 2nd bidder and won it for just under £2.
Got an email from seller today to say that he cannot find item - thinks wife has sent it to charity shop and will therefore refund me.
This seems to me that he does not want to sell it for such a low price?!!
I can understand that he must be disappointed that it sold for such a low price and I would have willingly paid more - my maximum bid at the time was nearly £8. Why then did he have such a low starting bid - would have been better to start at £5?
I know I cannot force him to honour the sale but is it reasonable to leave neutral/negative feedback about the transaction? Am not a person to easily complain!!
Have bought on ebay for a few years and have had a few bargains before - people have always honoured the transaction.
Did have problems with one on-line book seller who on 3 separate occasions after I had bought a second hand book at a very good price sent me the same email saying it had been returned by Royal Mail having been damaged in the post! Told them on third occasion that I did not believe them and have not used them since!!

It's annoying but what can you do?

You'll just have to suck up missing out on a bargain

Leave feedback and follow the seller. They may relist. Nothing else you can do.

I have had similar and mainly in the last 2 years, always on an item that has sold for less than expected, have gotten fed up of it now and just leave negative.
Have had the seller relist the item under a new username as well, it's dishonest, but these days ebay can be a very strange place.
The number of times i have seen an item sell for near to its, or over its brand new price is insane!
2nd hand mothercare chest of drawers went for £4 less than its current retail price! And it was not in mint condition

Can you leave feedback if the sale is cancelled?

I asked for a refund recently an item that had been marked as posted but didn't turn up, the seller obviously hadn't sent it adn agreed to a refund no problem but I couldn't see how to leave feedback to warn others.

This was a new item, nothing to do with not getting a good price

Unfortunately I had to do this last week as I lost an item (still hasn't turned up). It raises a defect on your account so really not in the interests in the seller to do this as a regular thing as it will affect ebay's algorithim for how high your items appear in the listings.

I would watch for it to be re-listed, but do it by search in case it turns up with a 'different' seller.

Would also be tempted to send a message and say what a shame they have lost it as you would have happily paid more (have done this in the past).

Offer him more money if he finds it and he'll change his tune

I had this when I got a bargain item. Had apparently sent bag of clothes to charity by mistake!!! Annoying but at least you won't lose money. Unlike when you send an item and 'it didn't turn up'