Can you get to the sold item at all, or has it completely disappeared into the ether? If you can find it, you can still open an unpaid item or a cancellation and wait the allotted time. if you can't find it, the only way to get your fees credited is by giving them a ring. Make sure you tell them that the buyer didn't pay and eBay shut their account down, i.e. they are no longer a registered user, and they removed the sold item. You may have to explain it several times and to several different people as they often get confused on the other end of the phone. Some of them don't have that good a grasp on the English language.

As others have said, don't sell your items at a loss. That is ridiculous. Someone will want them eventually. This last 2 weeks I've sold a number of items that I've had listed for 4+ years. I would play around with the price, sometimes reducing it, other times increasing it. Then out of the blue someone came along and bought a heap of them.

To list as buy it now with immediate payment, you just have to tick the box when creating a listing.