Don't hold your breath Norman. My uilleann pipes, stolen in Dublin last year, came up on eBay a few months ago. I told the seller I owned them and very soon afterwards there was a bid from someone who mysteriously registered with eBay that very day (and who has since disappeared).

This was the only bid. People around the world knew the kit was mine. They had drawn the sale to my attention in the first place, and spread the world throughout the piping community.

I informed the police but couldn't get through to eBay at all. They insisted that any approach should be from the police.

The Dublin police then wasted many hours trying to liaise with eBay and even sent uniformed officers to the eBay premises in Dublin to try to force progress. Eventually eBay yielded the seller's ID (wrong) address. Police tracked down the seller, seized the pipes and returned them to me, before the auction had closed.

For three months after that, eBay continued to list the auction as a completed sale, despite knowing that the listed goods had been seized before the auction closed. The seller and buyer did not leave each other feedback, needless to say, and I have sometimes wondered whether eBay claimed their commission on the non-sale.