This request isn't that unusual. You're still getting what you want for the item, the money just goes into a different pot. I send stuff internationally (guys in Great Britain get nailed fiercly with tarriffs) and as long as the buyer is willing to take the hit if the item is lost or damaged in the mail, I'll claim the value of the contents at any value he wants...that'* what the shipper will pay if the item gets damaged. Just make sure you get payment.

Thats all a scam I had the same situation with a camcorder I was selling, some king form Africa or some BS wanted to buy it now

But ya UPS really bit me in the ars the last few things that I have had shipped from the US I spent 120usd on some performance stuff for my buick, let alone shipping is included in that, I had to pay $61.11, duties and brokerage fees, another item was $22 and I have to pay 21.13 brokerage fees, Im pissed

I figured out how to try and avoid, the brokerage, you send it as a gift, dont insure it unless its over a 1000.00, and anything on the package that say has a value of 20 usd once they convert it to cdn dollars that charge a brokerage on top of that, so fellow American friends when shipping to us Canadians keep the final value around 10 so even with high exchange rate it wont be over 20 cdn, thats the story I was told by the UPS lady,

Then I'd at least KNOW he wasn't trying to scam me.

This is a good tip for everyone, for any auction on eBay: You can search *just* a person'* negative or neutral feedback here:
http://toolhaus.org/

This has come in very handy for me, for some sellers who do an extremely large volume of business. Sellers that sell thousands of items every month, but show less than 1% negative feedback, can mean dozens of negatives buried amongst pages upon pages of positive feedback. You need to know what negative or neutral feedback, if any, a person has, and this tool helps you get it.

That said, the request isn't really that odd. If you receive payment first, there'* not much chance of getting scammed. But do use the person'* communication with you and feedback as a guideline. If they are extremely uneducated and do not know how to spell, for instance, think twice. If they have sketchy feedback, think twice. Otherwise, I've made similar deals with Canadians through eBay without problems.

One way to avoid that sort of thing if you don't want to deal with it in future auctions is to only list your item for USA. I often get inquiries from China whenever I sell an ancient Macintosh, begging me to ship it to China, but there'* just no need for me to take such a risk when I can sell it in the US.

I don't know if there'* any eBay penalty for withdrawing an auction, but if you decide you need to, you can always say you tested the item and discovered it to be defective. That should neutralize any penalty you might get. (They can't penalize you for delisting an item before it'* sold, can they?)

Ill keep you posted. The auction ends today. Shipping? Well thats another thing Ill deal with when the time comes. lol