Same happened to me. The ebay seller had the caveat, "I don't know anything about ukuleles", but was able to describe features that pointed to the year it was made, so obviously did some research. The uke arrived and it was bad shape. Cleaned the 40 years of grime off it, took it to Elderly to have a crack repaired and a new back brace replaced. Both obvious problems the seller failed to disclosed.
Rescued the Kamaka, and it is a beautiful uke now, but spent way more than it's worth. Couldn't justify trashing it.
Moral of the story, when a seller on ebay describes the uke the way a knowledgeable person would, then says something like "I am no expert and know nothing about ukes", that is usually code for "I am lying about the condition". I did get satisfaction by giving the seller a negative.