Sorry to hear about your bad experience with eBay, I think we all have experienced issues at some point! I often feel my arms are twisted by ebay as a seller as well as a buyer, but honestly when you have limited amount of cuttings it can be overwhelming to decide who should get them and especially overwhelming to handle the amount of private messages and the back and forth replies that turn into no sale at all.
I think you shouldn't be discouraged though; I feel eBay is much better than it used to be few years ago, must always be careful when you pick who to deal with of course, but they have improved and so they have to because of competition now days.