This may just be a naive seller, or it may be a con, it hardly makes any difference. The advice your seller has given you is false.
When buying any motor vehicle through eBay you need to inspect and check it thoroughly BEFORE you pay, not afterwards.
There are scams everywhere in eBay motors. In a TV programme about organised crime, a senior police officer reported that one criminal gang alone in London had registered "multiple hundreds" of fake accounts on eBay to place fraudulent listings for motor vehicles. And this is on top of ordinary sellers not mentioning faults, or lying about the vehicle's condition.
The important thing to understand is that there is NO BUYER PROTECTION WHATSOEVER for vehicles bought here, however you pay. Many buyers don't realise this, which is why they're so easily conned and why fake vehicle sales on eBay are so attractive to criminals. In one day alone we heard of three buyers who each lost over £6,000 when the cars they paid for turned out not to exist.
Remember that this scam is as easy as posting a photo of a motor vehicle, and claiming to be selling it. Don't fall for bargain prices, or excuses why the vehicle isn't available for inspection, or fake claims that eBay or anyone else will hold your payment safe until you have approved the vehicle (they won't!).
The golden rule is not to pay anything, not even a deposit, until you have seen the vehicle, inspected it thoroughly, including the paperwork, and had an HPI check. Then pay in cash, which is the only method of payment that is safe for both buyer and seller.
If a seller comes up with excuses not to accept these conditions, walk away from it.
