Thanks for these replies. So Paypal holds the money until the seller ships the item? WHY on earth didn't anyone at Paypal mention that little piece? The guy was going frickin' nuts because he couldn't receive his money. Why didn't they tell him what to do? Instead I freaked out too, and had to initiate an "item not received" claimto get my funds back. Just insane. I am so mad over this. Thanks for the advice not to wire money to Romania. Monegram and Western Union have both refused to process my attempts to do just that. I was irritated, because my feeling is that the seller is trustworthy. But I realize that mistakes or actual fraud could happen anywhere along the way -- maybe in transit, an unethical employee somewhere in there. So I can live with that. I could try Paypal again, and tell the guy (who just barely understands anything I tell him) that the funds will be held until he submits a tracking order. But I'm so annoyed by the crap I've been through over this, going on two months now, that I don't want to do this at all. My seller is steamed -- says I've gone back on my promise to buy his art, yada yada. He's been pretty pricky over this. I'm a bit afraid of him. Thank goodness he's in Romania. 😉
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