Ebay Seller welching on our deal..what to do?

Ebay/Paypal will do nothing for you other than to get your money back, they will not help you get the actual item or an equivalent item, which I think its total BS! I have had the same thing you described happen to me twice now and both items were a steal and both times the seller backed out. The one even went as far as saying that the items were burned up an a house fire and linked to some fake news article. Its too bad because in both cases I wanted the item not the cash and ebay wouldn't do squat for me, I even suggested that they buy out a buy it now auction for me and give me that item for the price I paid, but they wouldnt go for that!