I have had this happen a few times. In most cases the item was not worth a fortune, ( around $20-$30 ) and the postage was large letter rate. I just sent the item to the new address, wore the postage costs and crossed my fingers. I had this happen with an expensive item mailed in 3 kg. satchel once. It toured right around Australia as Australia Post did a great job of re-dirrecting and trying to find the recipient . After going from Queensland to Perth it returned to me three weeks later. ................I had plenty of profit margin in the item, so just sent that to the new address at my own expense with tracking. It got there eventually.

No its not fair but a lot of things on ebay ar'nt fair. My own attitude is if you sweat the small stuff here it just becomes too  stressful to sell on the platform. Most of the time these things work out OK.

Having said that, I doubt that you would have a lot of protection from ebay. Everything is automated and the humans that are there just follow script and are not authorised to make rational decisions. Even if you do speak to a supervisor and get the whole thing sorted out eventually, it is usually more hassle and time wasted than its worth.

If this situation concerns you I would cancel the transaction due to " a problem with buyers address". This option should not give your account a defect. If you do this put the buyer on your BBL. as well as they may cause trouble in the future.