Advice on French postal service

[MartinH]

Can any of you who live in France give me some advice on la Poste. I bought some leaflets on eBay (Salmson catalogues) from an apparently reputable French seller. Posted on July 30 and haven't arrived. The tracker on laposte.fr simply shows the one entry "pris en charge par la poste" then nothing. I have opened a case with eBay and the seller is being helpful. 

My questions are; is it normal to see no tracking stages beyond the initial "proof of posting" and is there a worthwhile process for tracing lost mail or do I just get a refund from eBay and then let the seller deal with la Poste. I really do want the items.