Block this bidder for your sanity

[f2tornado]

wherethewildthingsare12899

First, this buyer could have helped me out by agreeing to cancel a transaction where I mistakenly sent his purchased 9.5 (instead of the raw card) to someone else. Nope. Too damn easy. So, in order to fulfill his order, I put his shipping label on a mailer and sent it to the person who got the wrong card and told him no need to pay until it arrives. Dipsh-- got the right card and the person who helped me out got the right card and a nice bonus. Annoying bidder then makes an offer on one of my Stephen Hill 9.5 cards. I accept. The guy then gets upset when my BGS 10 of same card sold for less than what he paid for the 9.5. Welcome to eBay. BLOCK BLOCK BLOCK!

Buyer: Ok I got but I watched the PRESTINE 10 sell for $26 that I upped for the final bid/win and I paid $22.50 for this one. Don't you think this is a good price for this card? I got screwed paying more almost $40 for the 9.5 when the 10 sold for less then $30. I think it would be very nice if you would let me keep the chrome card. [<context> The Chrome card mentioned he purchased previously for $14 and I bent over getting it to him since he would not cancel. As part of the BO, I agreed to refund this card to lower the cash price of his offer </context>]. I'm really getting screwed on this offer. I hope you find it in your heart to let me keep as these are both good prices on both that I have paid for already. You made out on both sales pretty well here! I'm not trying to be a dick here at all. I'm sure if you were in my shoes you would be saying the same thing and I would agree! Hope we can compromise on this situation? Drew

Me: No. You're thinking wrong here. I got screwed on the BGS 10 card. It should have easily went for $40+ and it would have went for that price and more with some patience. That's eBay. If you thought it went cheap then you could have helped me out and bid on it. I have larger priorities right now since I was recently hired by the NDDOT after 14 months of unemployment. I start the 12th of next month and have a month of training bouncing around the state with bills to pay. I'm selling quickly now at profit or loss (mostly loss this week) and will get back in the game early next year once settled 300 miles west of here. I'd prefer to keep all the Hill cards but it just ain't happening. Hopefully I can pick them up at similar cost during the off season when I'm not counting pennies to pay the mortgage. If you want to keep the Refractor 9.5 you can send $9.50 via Paypal otherwise send it back. That's a $5 discount on the hammer price. -JT

Buyer: I think the best thing to do here is just return both cards for a refund. We're both getting screwed here and I think it would just be best if we did it this way. I'll return them both on Monday. Drew

My response: I will respectfully ask you to not participate in any more of my eBay items. I bent over backwards to get the BGS 9.5 to you after making a shipping mistake when you could have simply agreed to cancel the transaction. You then get upset that someone got a slightly better deal than you did. Get over it. I'll show you hundred of examples when this happens. I will be reporting this transaction to eBay seller support and you will be effectively blocked from engaging in anymore buying activity from this seller account. Adios. -JT

Him: Now your [sic] threating me and this will need to be brought to ebay's attention as this is against eBay policy. I was never mean to you in any way and this is what I get. Wow don't know why you are being like this over a few $ so go ahead block me I don't give a crap! I'll just go on there myself and exspose your selling actions. Your [sic] the seller I'm the buyer it's your job to make the buyer happy not piss them off like your [sic] doing now. Your [sic...it's you're!!!] being very rude and very unprofessional. I don't want to deal with you ever again anyways after this. Your [sic...again] one seller out of 2 million+ All I did was ask a question and you lost your cool so I don't want to deal with sellers like you that send threats to me when all I did was ask a question. Think about your actions here. All I said was I just want to return both items, I'm not happy with this. I'm going to do so and you'll never here from me again. I don't need headaches over some damn sports cards and you are making this harder then it should. I'm done!

I'm not talking with the dude any more. If he returns the cards I will refund his money minus all the shipping costs and any money I lose reselling the stuff. He can escalate to eBay for all I care. If eBay sides with this crap then it defeats the purpose of auctions, particularly sports card auctions. I may very well start having CMOC deal with most my ungraded stuff. I'm sick of this crap and will have less time for selling going forward.

Lastly, I hate selling Stephen Effing Hill cards. More damn eBay problems than any other player in history.

Edited to add the buyer opened an item not as described case. Since this is based on false pretense and an abuse of the buyer protection system with eBay messages as proof, I went ahead and forwarded all the information to eBay. I'm usually pretty cool with refunds bot not for buyers who end up on the wrong side of a volatile market. This is only the second eBay buyer in 17 years I outright told never to come back.

 

[f2tornado]

The buyer wins but I won twice...

"eBay opened a case because of an issue with an item purchased from you. We reviewed the case and have decided to issue the buyer a refund of $24.50 without any impact to you. The refund includes the purchase price plus original shipping.
This case is now closed. You are not required to reimburse the buyer or eBay, and this case will not be counted in your seller performance evaluation."

They gave the buyer his money back, but not from my account. I guess both buyer and seller win in this case. Weird since I now have the money and the cards since the buyer did in fact return them.

 

[Sports Cards Fan Zone]

Wow, what a ordeal!

 

[RStadlerASU22]

Frustrating for sure, glad it's over for ya. It seems the last 3 months have been my most frustrating on there with buyers

Ryan

 

[f2tornado]

Frustrating for sure, glad it's over for ya. It seems the last 3 months have been my most frustrating on there with buyers

Ryan

Likewise. While not at critical mass, there is an increasing number of speculative football card eBay members who place a bid and then choose to pay based on the player's performance the following game or based on the buyer's ability to flip the card elsewhere. I even had one member not pay after making a BO then win an auction and pay for the second card the following week. Weird. I'm near certain the buyer I had troubles with would have paid had Stephen Hill romped. He's been a little gimpy and out of synch with Geno since the concussion. I still think he can develop into a Pro Bowl talent but that's beside the point. I have had a couple of buyer protection surveys from eBay recently and I have mentioned the need for eBay to consider changes to this service for trading cards since values can be quite volatile. Makes me wonder if the metals sellers have the same problem on a day gold or silver takes a dump. It's pretty pathetic sellers have to deal with not described issues on BGS 9.5 cards. What part of reputable third-party grading/authentication doesn't make sense? The only remaining issue would be defects on the case. There are a couple problems to consider. First is the mandatory 14 day return policy for an item to be covered under the top-rated seller discount. This opens the door for returns when a speculator doesn't get desired results. The smart ones simply find a flaw on the card then mention it when asking for return. The next problem is that a buyer can indeed point out a flaw on the card and open a not as described case. Even if you are quite accurate noting various flaws you are open to this hassle. Bottom line is you need a 14-day return policy for the discount and if you don't accept returns you lose the discount and remain open to not described cases anyway. The seller is effectively forced to accept all market risk until the return deadline and realistically even later for the not as described deadline. I do have some limited clout with eBay since they usually coddle me a couple times a year and I will do my best to advise them on the deteriorating situation. It's a big concern for me going forward as it takes a lot of fun out of the selling process. It has been even more frustrating the past year since I've been out of work since late July 2012. The unemployment check plus eBay was my source of income and when it's literally down to the last few bucks you cannot afford delays. Thankfully that concern has ended as I have secured full-time employment with the North Dakota Department of Transportation in the heart of the oil boom. I'll be starting Monday by taking the state fleet car to Bismarck to begin paperwork and training Tuesday morning. My days as the behind the scenes meteorologist are over. There are precious few jobs in that field now.