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mrmopar
Member
- Jan 19, 2010
- 6,217
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I, like many of us, have nobody in "real life" to talk cards with. By this, I mean there is nobody that I can meet up with and discuss sports collecting face to face. My interactions these days are all online or in some type of retail/shop/show setting. My family doesn't connect with the collector in me and neither do any of my friends. I come here to share in this connection and sometimes you just need to share something only likeminded people will understand and appreciate.
We can all probably bash a good number of eBay sellers for a variety of things. Some are obvious, as seen in listings. Others may not reveal themselves until a deal is struck, such as how poorly so many people are with packaging and shipping fragile collectibles. That in itself is another story, for another day.
Tonight I am screening my normal searches and happen upon a listing for some Steve Garvey baseballs. I immediately recognize these balls. There was a promotion in the 80s by Nestle, where you could send in for a free Garvey "signed" baseball. Advertising at the time was found on packages of Quik chocolate and strawberry powered mixes and also in comic books. These are simple promotional baseballs with a printed signature on them. Nowhere are you lead to believe that this is a real autograph and the side of the can actually states "imprinted" on it.
Now this seller has listed 2 of these promo balls for around $15 BIN. The category is reprints, but the listing describes them as signed "auto signed baseball" and even goes so far as to say NO COA!
. I guess not that big of a deal, as people often list things that are misidentified or poorly described or the seller has no clue as to actually what they are trying to sell and obviously did no homework first. Happens all the time actually. But this seller goes on to qualify their expertise (or experience) with this item:
First off, "I am not a collector". So what? That is irrelevant. The next statement really gets me though. It would lead me to believe that this person was selling a product for the company at the time of the promotion and handled a lot of these items. Now, you are selling flavored milk mixes, not baseballs, but you'd think the company would have armed their sales force with some basic information on a promotion so as not to allow them to look stupid in front of potential customers. You really should know what you are selling if your job is sales and I would expect that to extend to any sales promotions that might be used to help boost your sales. Yet still, they mention that they believe the balls were machine stamped, but were not sure about that. You have listed this item in a reprint category, you tell us you think they are reprints, but you still appear to be trying to sell them as possibly hand signed, why do you not know they are preprints if you were involved in the promotion and lastly, how can you not tell just by looking at them!? Nobody's signature is an exact replica on 2 items, especially something round! The topping on this cake though is the comment that they are near perfect condition and have never been played with. Really, that is near perfect to you? WTF?! See for yourself, actual images from the listing:
One final "jab" for me is the statement about feedback. It would seem from reading the rest of the description, that this person expects buyers to leave them feedback BEFORE they leave it for the buyer. Now this is probably debatable all day and maybe I am misunderstanding what this particular seller is saying, but I firmly believe and will NEVER be convinced to change my mind otherwise that a seller should leave feedback for a buyer once the transaction is complete, i.e. the prompt & full payment is made. Again, I know many will see it a different way, but since the seller can't leave anything but positive feedback regardless, what reason would there be to wait on leaving feedback once a buyer has made a prompt payment and completed their part of the transaction? The slim possibility of a scammer who is planning a charge back? Maybe, but given the odds, it's a bad move by a seller in my opinion and you would still have to leave a negative comment within a positive rating to tell anyone. Most people don't read the feedback comments, they quickly glance at the score. As a longtime buyer and on again off again seller, I can see both sides to this argument and still believe this to be the best way to handle feedback (seller leaves it first).
As I said before, we can beat up sellers all day and maybe I am being too critical here, but I really think that sellers need to come across as knowledgable and professional as possible and since there is no barrier to being a seller other than having an account, we end up with too much of this and not enough quality sellers. No personal offense to this seller, but this is just a poor listing all around.
We can all probably bash a good number of eBay sellers for a variety of things. Some are obvious, as seen in listings. Others may not reveal themselves until a deal is struck, such as how poorly so many people are with packaging and shipping fragile collectibles. That in itself is another story, for another day.
Tonight I am screening my normal searches and happen upon a listing for some Steve Garvey baseballs. I immediately recognize these balls. There was a promotion in the 80s by Nestle, where you could send in for a free Garvey "signed" baseball. Advertising at the time was found on packages of Quik chocolate and strawberry powered mixes and also in comic books. These are simple promotional baseballs with a printed signature on them. Nowhere are you lead to believe that this is a real autograph and the side of the can actually states "imprinted" on it.
Now this seller has listed 2 of these promo balls for around $15 BIN. The category is reprints, but the listing describes them as signed "auto signed baseball" and even goes so far as to say NO COA!
. I guess not that big of a deal, as people often list things that are misidentified or poorly described or the seller has no clue as to actually what they are trying to sell and obviously did no homework first. Happens all the time actually. But this seller goes on to qualify their expertise (or experience) with this item:First off, "I am not a collector". So what? That is irrelevant. The next statement really gets me though. It would lead me to believe that this person was selling a product for the company at the time of the promotion and handled a lot of these items. Now, you are selling flavored milk mixes, not baseballs, but you'd think the company would have armed their sales force with some basic information on a promotion so as not to allow them to look stupid in front of potential customers. You really should know what you are selling if your job is sales and I would expect that to extend to any sales promotions that might be used to help boost your sales. Yet still, they mention that they believe the balls were machine stamped, but were not sure about that. You have listed this item in a reprint category, you tell us you think they are reprints, but you still appear to be trying to sell them as possibly hand signed, why do you not know they are preprints if you were involved in the promotion and lastly, how can you not tell just by looking at them!? Nobody's signature is an exact replica on 2 items, especially something round! The topping on this cake though is the comment that they are near perfect condition and have never been played with. Really, that is near perfect to you? WTF?! See for yourself, actual images from the listing:
One final "jab" for me is the statement about feedback. It would seem from reading the rest of the description, that this person expects buyers to leave them feedback BEFORE they leave it for the buyer. Now this is probably debatable all day and maybe I am misunderstanding what this particular seller is saying, but I firmly believe and will NEVER be convinced to change my mind otherwise that a seller should leave feedback for a buyer once the transaction is complete, i.e. the prompt & full payment is made. Again, I know many will see it a different way, but since the seller can't leave anything but positive feedback regardless, what reason would there be to wait on leaving feedback once a buyer has made a prompt payment and completed their part of the transaction? The slim possibility of a scammer who is planning a charge back? Maybe, but given the odds, it's a bad move by a seller in my opinion and you would still have to leave a negative comment within a positive rating to tell anyone. Most people don't read the feedback comments, they quickly glance at the score. As a longtime buyer and on again off again seller, I can see both sides to this argument and still believe this to be the best way to handle feedback (seller leaves it first).
As I said before, we can beat up sellers all day and maybe I am being too critical here, but I really think that sellers need to come across as knowledgable and professional as possible and since there is no barrier to being a seller other than having an account, we end up with too much of this and not enough quality sellers. No personal offense to this seller, but this is just a poor listing all around.
