Well...seller makes a second listing for the item, local pickup only. Provides address. Instead of local pickup you look up his address, phone him and get an email addy.
Or...seller provides an image of his addy or other info. But if you try that kind of work-around and they are monitoring, you get flagged, flogged, banned or whatever they do now.
There’s always Facebook marketplace, etsy, and other venues.
FB marketplace is free. Ebay shows you where, approximately, a seller is located. Go to FB marketplace and search his area, after telling him what you are going to do. He can then just list it there. Nobody gives a rip what you message each other.
Personally I don’t see why anyone would sell on ebay. You get shafted regularly. Fees are ridiculous. Paypal is something unprintable.
“FB marketplace is free.”
FB removed a rental I had last week.
We used F/B to see what kind of tenant a lead would be. Saw all sorts of obscenities on that possible tenant’s FB page. Asked them to confirm I had the right page for them ... they took it down. As I said I cannot have someone that might be doing this around my grandchildren.
FB wants my grandchildren to be exposed to filth.