I found that there is not that much buyer protection.

I bid & won some porsche parts at a good price, but the buyer refused to honour the sale. He said he had emails from other buyers who couldn't get their bids through - i.e. a problem with ebay on the technical side. This may be true, it may be false. Anyway, ebay say they cannot force a seller to sell, yet they say when you bid that 'this is a contract'. Which is it?

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'79 280SE
'87 560SEL
'83 280CE
'01 Nissan Micra
'98 VW Passat
'83 911 turbo