It's interesting that you have mentioned all this.   On the flip side, I have seen an increase in sellers that don't send items.  Usually small, low-cost things.  Usually Chinese-based sellers who are pretending to sell from Australia. It's almost as though they hope that people can't be bothered to follow up on the item.

eBay is dropping the ball in a lot of areas, and it's a pretty low act if people are pretending to not recieve items and scamming the sellers.  This type of BS will only damage the marketplace, and will result in sellers just not listing items any more.