item never recieved(ripped off)

I bought an item from usa,i am in australia.it was a car top for a convertible capri(ford in australia mercury in usa)item never arrived although my check was cashed,payment included insurance . Being a first time ebayer i didnt know how things worked so i left it too long before contacting seller (12 weeks) i was told it had been sent,many emails and 2 phone calls later the guy tells me he sent item and because it had been so long could not provide a tracking number and basically told me to bugger off,when i asked about insurance i paid he ignored the question.after contacting ebay they told me all i could do was contact authorities(police)which all seemed too hard as im in aus and hes in usa.so what im saying is beware especially if buying a top from "softtopguy"as i am out of pocket au$405 because of his slack book keepinghad 76 perfect transactions out of 76 since then so dont be put off using ebay by my story ,worst part is it was over 6 months before i finally realised i wasnt getting top so i couldnt even leave :SOFTTOPGUY bad feedback!cheers grantHave since heard from 3 other users with very similar stories all capri tops and all softtopguy!!!!!!