Follow eBay’s rules and you’ll win. eBay is very harsh on sellers in the way that it’ll always side with the buyer. Customer experience is paramount.

If you received a faulty deck, raise a return via eBay, wait for the return label and send it back.

I can understand seller being worried, there’s a high chance he’s out of pocket here, but you have a right to either a refund or a replacement and you’ll get one or the other if you follow eBay’s rules.

You think if they’d bought their deck 5 months ago and then the next month got notified of the OLED version they wouldn’t still be upset?

Timing of the announcement has nothing to do with it. Timing of the purchase does and no amount of expectation management from Valve can change that. They’re mad cause they’re mad and they would’ve been regardless.