Thank you to all of those who were helpful with my question.  

What no one seemed to pick up (that I found out after some investigation) is that since it as a 'local pick up' item and the buyer arranged her own courier to pick it up, it's not covered by Ebay's MBG.   So I have asked Ebay to step in and unless they want to go against their own Terms and Conditions, they will have to find in my favour.