Start with eBay (good luck with that) and go from there. I think he's screwed, but certainly try. After eBay blows him off, then I suppose he could try suing, but even if he wins, that money is gone. The Esquires can explain the difference between winning a lawsuite and ever seeing a penny.
IN THE FUTURE: Eyes on before the final dollars change hands is the way to go. I've done it for others. One guy on my Esprit mailing list bought a turbo trans am or something. He posted on our yahoo list looking for someone in our area and I volunteered to go look at it for him. I met the seller at a gas station and checked it out. It was fine, if not better than the eBay listing described it, but good peace of mind for the buyer. The two cars I've bought on eBay, my Esprit Turbo and the Corolla GTS, I put a deposit on and paid the rest when I picked it up in person. The Rolla was only four bills, so no big deal there, but the Esprit was Real Money, so I certainly wanted to have a hands-on with that.
