It's a little different, but one time I won an eBay auction that included several several boxed SNES games I wanted (Lost Vikings 2 chief among them) and an N64 game. I don't know what had happened, but for some reason no one else bid on the auction, and I got maybe $80 worth of stuff for $10. Well, I waited about a week and a half without the item shipping so I finally contacted the guy. His response was to tell me that his wife had accidentally sold them at a garage sale, only telling me then and sending a refund. I am sooooooooooo sure that's what really happened.
What would you do in that situation?
In most cases the seller will remove the auction before it ends I have seen it happen allot.
I cannot blame them since you will have to put in allot of effort while you almost got paid nothing. Below or way lower than market value is one thing but putting in effort to ship something while your gain is like zero.
Not to mention the ebay and paypal fees. and if that 10 dollar's included shipping 
if it would have been at least 25 - 30 I think you should have been fine auctions are a risk after all. Sellers don't like putting in effort while gaining almost nothing.
There are very few people who would make the effort to sell cheap stuff. There is no reason why one should do that It's a waste of time (unless being done in massive amounts). It's not a fleamarket after all, for such prices people usually donate there stuff to charity shops or the trash can.
I can't however blame you for being dissapointed for missing such a deal.
I would face the music and just take the loss. All the stuff you said is irrelevant to what more or less amounts to breach of a contract. He started the bid at $10, not at $50, not at $80. Regardless of whether or not it was not what was expected, it was a completely dishonest move that I have zero sympathy for.
Fair enough
I have made many great deals over the years, I've also missed many deals over the years some for reasons wich are mentioned. Pretty great and sometimes insane deals.
However personally I have symphathy for people who have excuses when an offer is to low. It's pretty understandable some people need the extra cash or maybe some other personal back story and to be fair some offers are really low.
I'm not going to give them a hard time about it and let them be everyone has their reasons. Just stay friendly and polite and good things might happen in the future.
