still, he should still open a case with ebay. ebay will help, maybe not with return of the money but in other ways. as stated by ebay, the first step in conflict is always to open communication with the seller.
if ever na wala talaga, then ebay will assist in filing a complaint with NBI or the police (im sure of this since dati nakapag file ako ng reklamo din about this kaso ang problema in my case was that hindi ako manila based and ebay.ph could only extend help for those in manila kasi manila based sila).