Its probably better that someone did. Buying high end computer parts on Ebay is not a good idea in my opinon. Stick to someplace where you can use a credit card and have some consumer protection (so if you get stiffed, you can contest the charge).
Also realize that there are some OEM 9700's that have a lower clock speed and are signficantly slower than retail or high end OEM cards. I would guess it might have been one of those cards.
Just my opinon.