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@lrtmms wrote:
As the buyer enters a binding agreement to pay for the item, I feel inclined to put up a dispute tomorrow as I don't want it to drag out for another week. Or could this expose the risk of my ebay reputation being ruined unnecessarily? (I expect to get a neg after how offensive the messages were)

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The binding agreement to pay is as binding as the seller's agreement to actually sell the item....no-one can force either party to honour the agreement.  That is why ebay gives you to tools to end the transaction one way or the other and get your fees refunded.

As far as that buyer is concerned your reputation is already ruined...no matter how your proceed now you are likely to get a negative.  The only way to avoid it is to hope the buyer does not pay and you can close the dispute and give him a strike.

I really would not be worried about them coming gunning for you....a lot of members like to flex their muscles from behind a computer so to speak but just go weak at the knees when it comes to actually carrying through with any threats they may make.

Your account will not be suspended over one transaction that has gone sour.

It might hurt your feedback score if you get a neg with your low turnover but if you are not going to sell regularly it probably will not have real effect on sales.

If you cannot get the neg removed just make sure you answer it very carefully and there should be no noticable fallout with your sales

i haven't looked at your listing to see whether or not the iphone turns on - but if it does, you can turn it on and go into the settings and view the info about the phone and the IMEI is displayed in there. you can photograph that screen or screenshot it and save a copy. obviously, the IMEI doesn't change regardless of SIM card etc. it's unique to the phone (which i'm sure you already know).

failing the things that tippy said - you can also photograph any identifying marks on a used phone. if there's scratches, no matter how small, try and take photos or two or three of them or any other identfying marks there may be - chances are, any other phone won't have the same marks in the same places. 

Thanks. I have great difficulty trying to get things to sell. When they do sell its usually at a loss.

No the phone is water damaged and the screen doesn't work so can't get the IMEI off it. It does have some unique scratches and markings on it though.

I think I'll stop using auctions from now on as I would prefer to throw out something rather than getting negative feedback.

Ideally I'd just like to close a no payment case and just keep it for spares. But then to be nice I probably should wait for their money to clear etc before opening a case. Do you have to run 4 days with the no payment case?

Good point. I purchased a bulk lot of old stock parts but they don't shift. In meaning a loss, I'm not loosing out on fees or post but just my time to list them and then the storage space they take up means it's not really worth the effort to try and sell.

Yes I'll admit I don't want a negative feedback just because I sold a $20 item. Even though it's $8 less than what I paid in total for it, I would still use the $20 to pay the eBay account rather than just throwing it out.

You can probably gather that I'm new to the selling side of things 

I'm open to advice on selling as I'm keen to learn from other people's experience. Many thanks for everyone's helpful responses so far. I've learned a lot!