he paid he requested I mail it to another address

Buyer "addisin2012" bought one of my specimens, and right after he paid he requested I mail it to another address, he "forgot to change it". And I foolishly complied with the request. Yes, I should have known better, but I was trying to be nice to a new ebayer.

2 days after the item was delivered he opened INR case. I responded with tracking number. He has neither responded to the case nor contacted me in any way whatsover. Ebay just closed it in his favor, despite seeing the item delivered and his request to mail it where I did. Rules are blind, common sense is dead.

My question - there's a message that demands I refund or I will be held at fault. I refuse to refund. He has the item. What are the consequences of a strike?
Hopefully my foolish trust will serve as a lesson to others, think twice before being too accommodating, just follow the rules strictly or risk being rolled out. I certainly learned and will never do it again.
Good luck to all with the new changes to be implemented soon, can't wait for that fun to start!
you are all right and I bow my head in shame to accept the deserved beating from my fellow (and smarter) ebayers. Yes, I have enough sold fb and selling experience to know better I learned my lesson. I was trying to be nice and of course it bit me in the posterior, no good deed goes unpunished! NEVER again no matter what.
Radine -  you will probably not agree with me, but it is a mess regardless. I have proof in buyer's own writing requesting me to send, and ebay saw it. If this case went in front of a judge (a real one, not this circus here) I would prevail. In the real world every word, especially a written one, carries legal weight. Not on ebay, however.
I didn't have a chance to refund myself, ebay did it automatically within minutes of my initial post, when I went to see the case it was already out, not giving me a choice of strike or refund. So it is done, if I got strike or strikes so be it. I'm starting to care less and less. We won't be top rated much longer anyway, the upcoming changes are going to kill that. We (on my and my partner site) really try our best to conduct good business and I hope our feedback reflects it, we often go out of our way to help - especially the newbies, and often we get messages of gratitude that warm our hearts. Yes there are scammers, perhaps we should be used to it by now, but it still hurts every time - and not just in the pocket.

I'm glad it wasn't an expensive lesson, and I hope everyone learns from it too. This buyer landed on more than just my BBL.