Did I just get scammed?

[DragonWagon]

The eBayer has a 100% feedback rating. He went straight to filing a claim without ever emailing me. Hopefully, you can see the pic and decide for yourself. Let me know if I should ban this guy.

 

[CollectorsCorner]

You scammed yourself by not using tracking

 

[Brewer Andy]

No way of knowing really

 

[maestracewslover]

Why ban him? Maybe he didnt get it. It happens. I dont send anything without tracking and im sure im not the only one. A bubble envelope comes with tracking. Thats $2.62 shipped with tracking.

Sent from my SM-T350 using Tapatalk

 

[clarkfan]

Every package you sell should have tracking without exception. It's ebay selling 101. If you don't do it, you are just asking for problems in the future. Heck, you can get it for free if you just create the label through the computer. I provide free shipping & tracking on every package I sell and put that into the cost of the items I sell. Not all sellers are quite that giving, but giving good shipping service is just good business.

 

[RStadlerASU22]

Who knows. How much was the item?

Ryan

Sent from my SM-G920V using Freedom Card Board mobile app

 

[clarkfan]

Why ban him? Maybe he didnt get it. It happens. I dont send anything without tracking and im sure im not the only one. A bubble envelope comes with tracking. Thats $2.62 shipped with tracking.

Sent from my SM-T350 using Tapatalk

Exactly. I haven't shipped an item without internet trackable delivery confirmation in years. But I've been selling on ebay since 1998 so I guess I've learned through my previous mistakes.

 

[mrdallas]

always use DC/tracking

Out of 750+ transactions I have used tacking on 749 of em. The one I didnt I had to refund the buyer cause they didnt get the card according to them. If a buyer *****es about paying the cost to ship with DC it is not worth the headache IMHO

Sent from my SM-G920P using Freedom Card Board mobile app

 

[Calripkenjrcollector]

I buy 99% of my cards and for some stupid reason, most items sellers send in PWC or no tracking numbers always, and I mean always have problems. Don't get me wrong, I'm not blaming sellers 100% because i have envelopes come in as much as THREE months later and some just never come. Let's not blame buyers for everything because whether you admit it or not, just like buyers, not all sellers are honest people.

The worst for me is when a seller cancel transactions two weeks later without explanation and I have to wait another week to get a refund thru Paypal and see the same item relisted by the same seller. It's bad enough that he held on to my money for two weeks, then I had to REQUEST a refund thru Paypal? What a**H**e does that? I mean what business person, sorry....

 

[Therion]

How did he know you didn't use tracking if he didn't have the package? Was there more to the convo?


Sent from my iPhone using Freedom Card Board

 

[RStadlerASU22]

How did he know you didn't use tracking if he didn't have the package? Was there more to the convo?


Sent from my iPhone using Freedom Card Board

I would assume because of the picture of the package the seller sent him.

Ryan

Sent from my SM-G920V using Freedom Card Board mobile app

 

[swish54_99]

Every package you sell should have tracking without exception. It's ebay sellling 101. If you don't do it, you are just asking for problems in the future. Heck, you can get it for free if you just create the label through the computer. I provide free shipping & tracking on every package I sell and put that into the cost of the items I sell. Not all sellers are quite that giving, but giving good shipping service is just good business.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

 

[Lancemountain]

Impossible to tell if you got scammed. The buyer is certainly curt and a tad rude so I can see where the flags are up.

I'll say this- the ONE AND ONLY time a buyer claimed he didn't get the card I mailed was when I sent a $10 bowman 2009 auto of a no name and didn't use tracking. Refunded the money and have used tracking ever since

 

[maestracewslover]

BTW, to the OP, do not offer tracking as an option because it will for sure attract scammers looking for a freebie.

Sent from my SM-T350 using Tapatalk

 

[fordman]

Always use tracking. I get PWE's all the time but most have tracking on them. I've paid for tracking before, received a PWE with a $0.47 stamp and I asked for a tracking refund as it wasnt provided. I've always been refunded the difference. Some sellers hope buyer's dont check that sort of thing.

The worst for me is when a seller cancel transactions two weeks later without explanation and I have to wait another week to get a refund thru Paypal and see the same item relisted by the same seller. It's bad enough that he held on to my money for two weeks, then I had to REQUEST a refund thru Paypal? What a**H**e does that? I mean what business person, sorry....

Sounds Like the seller needed a 'loan' for a couple weeks. He offers something of decent value, you bought and paid for it. The Seller is short on cash this week so he uses the money to buy what he wants or possibly just cashes out. To keep in good graces with eBay, he refunds your money when he gets paid (job, govt check, hustling the streets), within the specified time frame. You was basically a loaner to him. He's probably done it countless times.

Fordman

 

[chippercards.com]

So I will add some more thought around the topic of tracking. Whenever ebay offers a free listing promotion, I have approx 10,000 singles listings at the ready and can fire up however many I get for free. I am never interested in paying for the privilege of selling my stuff, but I am always game for using a free listing and maybe 5% of my listings result in sales at any given time. I am always open to working out direct sales for 20-30% lower than my ebay ask price as well

So here's the thing. I specialize in low-mid tier inserts. $5-$15 cards is what I do most. With the current shipping cost increase via USPS that happened a few years back now, there is no way in hell that I am charging customers $2.60 to ship a $5 card. My current loss rate, based on approx 2,000 packages per year is around 1 in 300. Another 1 in 200 or so have issues but end up showing up at either end after a couple weeks. I don't have data on the breakdown between PWE and Bubble Envelopes, but my feel for the data is that I experience FAR more issues with the bubble mailers whether they had tracking or not, and 80% of my shipments go out PWE, so that is really saying something.

But here's the thing: (1) I believe that collectors are basically good. If a person's integrity is so cheap as to lie over a measly $10 or $20? Well that is just pathetic. In the case of a card getting lost, I usually try to reach an agreement like a 120% credit toward anything else I have in stock or if I have a replacement I will just send that out no questions asked. If I get a sketchy vibe or if the person is just a heavy handed jerk, I will process the refund (because let's face it, without tracking ebay will 100% side with the buyer anyway, ebay is pretty much useless) and then I will ban that person from buying my items. There is no need to deal with that. Life is too short and this is just a hobby.

Then I create a policy that is flexible, but generally over $60 for anything will get tracking, over $200 I will buy insurance. Game Used stuff always has to go via bubble mailer, but if under $40 I just stick on 90 cents worth of stamps and about 95% of those get through no problem. The remaining 5% I get returned due to postage due and for those I do tracking. And of course if it is multiple GU cards or the envelope is otherwise too thick, then of course will do tracking there too.

Basically, my philosophical approach is (1) Do not live in fear, people are generally good and you should build trust wherever you can. It is a nice thing and a virtuous cycle. If you have a problem with .5% of your shipments - so what? Get over it. Comp it and move on. The savings comes to a rough inequality statement something like 300 x $2 saved ($2.60 - $.50 PWE) or $600 > $20 comped sale that maybe cost me $10 to begin with - sure, the buyer may pay that shipping cost, but by and large I get to charge more ex shipping due to being willing to go PWE and I know I will see a lot more bids this way as my prices can be lower (2) Operate efficiently, which includes making shipping cheap so you can sell cards for less than competing sellers. I will 99% of the time sell for less than any other seller out there, and shipping on the cheap is a big part of that.

Anyway, that is my perspective on tracking. It makes sense to have it in some cases, and is basically obligatory for any package over 3 ounces these days. But for what I do, with singles $5-15 it just does not make sense, and 90%+ of my packages by volume do not go out with tracking. It works great for me!

My listings, with lots of cheaper stuff:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/m.html?item...K:MESELX:IT&_ssn=chipper-cards&_ipg=200&rt=nc