You're not all done. 🙂 Not yet, anyway. Unless you're foolish enough to get another strike, and even then you are not "all done", although it will be just about impossible to find anything to buy on ebay for the next year until the strikes fall off your record. Sellers have an auto-block on people with strikes.
As you say, you are new, -- and everyone makes mistakes when they're new. Granted, yours was a whopping doozie, but ebay will not close your account over one strike.
If you don't mind my saying, though, some of your points don't make a whole lot of sense. If you've got a strike, the seller did not cancel the sale, rather she filed an Unpaid Item case against you. Four days after the listing ends a seller can do that, and if you still don't pay, the seller closes it 4 days after that, - and you get a strike.
You won the auction, - so why not just click 'Pay Now'? Paypal takes the money from your bank account in what is called an e-cheque. Whilst it takes 8-10 days to clear, you will have 'officially' paid for the item. The seller cannot ship it until the e-cheque clears (8-10 days), but the money is at least on its way.
You do not need to have money in your paypal account, - just your bank account. It is, however, a good idea to put money in your pp acc before shopping on ebay, - that way the payments go through right away. Because of that clearing delay, sellers don't like e-cheques. Tough beans. It's a permissible way to pay.
Most likely your seller did not believe you would ever get round to paying. Sadly, sometimes that happens. Haha, or maybe the other newbies are like you and think they need to fill up the pp account before clicking 'Pay Now'. Haha, I say, this is a splendid example that paypal accounts do not prevent Unpaids.
Anyway, okay you've got a strike, - just don't get another one. Put some money into your pp account. If you don't use it, fine, it can sit there. You won't lose it, - it's safe. It won't rot, decompose, putrify or evaporate. And if something comes up and you need it elsewhere, you can simply transfer it back to your bank.
For the future, - a couple suggestions: before shopping, make sure you've got money in the bank, and better yet put some into your pp account. Then pay for the items you win or buy. Another thing to do, - use your Watch List. Just below the 'bid' button it says Add to Watch list. Click that, and the item is set aside in a Watch list all your own which you access from the left column of the page or under 'My eBay' at the top. That way you can keep track of listings until you are ready to buy & pay. And most important, have a look at the following link to tell you all about Unpaid Items:
http://pages.ebay.ca/help/buy/questions/unpaid-item.html
I wish you an enjoyable and conscientious ebay future. 🙂
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