1) Any time you put a BIN price as well as a lower starting auction price, the buyer will always use the auction as they will hope that nobody else bids. In this case, that's exactly what happened. You only had one bidder and they paid the opening bid because nobody else wanted it. If you want to get a proper price for your jewellery, you should never use an auction price and a BIN price together. Just use one or the other and set the price at the minimum you are prepared to accept.
2) The buyer needs to pay within 4 days, or you need to open an Unpaid Item Dispute. That is the problem with auctions. If you have a BIN price, you can set Immediate Payment required and you will never have to chase money ever again.
Why didn't you want to post the item? You have postage on your other jewellery.
3) If you don't want to open a payment dispute, you can cancel the transaction - use the reason "problem with buyers address".
4) Have you signed up for Managed Payments? It has been advertised on Ebay since last year. All sellers have to be on the new system. I suggest you look at signing up immediately. There is no more Paypal for sellers on Ebay. When you sell something now, Ebay takes their fees upfront and sends the balance to your bank account.
If you are an infrequent seller, your funds will be held for at least 21 days as per the current guidelines.
Also, any item you are selling for more than $750 requires Signature on Delivery, otherwise you will lose any dispute that a buyer opens against you.
With that other ring you are selling - nobody is going to pay $3000, when they can just start their bid at $1000 and most likely be the only bidder again. You'll be losing a lot of money this way.
