Nope, it's real. It's still pretty ridiculous, but he's not making stuff up. The only way this would be a valid excuse is if the seller truly needed the funds from the payment to ship because he has no other money, which is possible.
http://pages.ebay.com/sell/update08/.../index.html#27
Thank you. Some of the misinformation spread around here is ridiculous. If you don't know what you're talking about, don't post.