Don't bother arguing with Rat. Being obnoxious is his bread and butter. Might as well get into a knife fight with a ninja.
This could have been handled better, but imagine the chaos in this guys inbox when he posted 'free whatever' in a buy/sell forum. I'm imagining things were bannanaballs for a while.
It sounds like his prices are fair for shipping and you are getting shit for free that you would normally pay a lot more for, so everyone calm down. mistakes were made, move on.
Better than Carter Denny.