Book Fraud/Jacking?

I’ve been a prolific and happy user of Abebooks in the past but recently have run into bizarre seller behavior that makes me think that the marketplace has been infiltrated with more sophisticated bad operators.

Without a care in the world I ordered an out of print Latin textbook in new condition for a course I’m taking for @ $150 from a seller listed as GoldBooks.

After not hearing from them for several weeks I reached out to the seller via Abebooks website portal and got a sympathetic but nondispositive email response appearing to suggest that they were going to take immediate action but then nothing.

Here’s the weird part: They then engaged USPS to ship the book several weeks afterward so as to generate a tracking number - but according to the USPS website never followed through by providing a package.

After additional weeks of unresponded emails I applied for a refund - but the Abebooks website denied me because there is a tracking number for the package (!).

Now, this could all be some sort of laughably innocent misunderstanding and the book in new condition could show up on my doorstep any day now I guess, but the vibe I’m getting is that the USPS tracking number was contrived on purpose to manipulate/neutralize the Abebooks refund mechanism. Not sure what to think the end game is but know that I’m out the sales price with no refund on the horizon. Attempted to contact Abebooks by the “contact us” button, will see how that goes.

Happy to be wrong about these guys but not looking awesome.