General Forum

In light of the many bad EBay experiences discussed in the forum recently, I wanted to share a positive experience I had today.  Yesterday, I saw a set 5 of cards that I was interested in with a BIN price of $25 or a Best Offer. I offered $20, which was accepted a short time later. I promptly paid. This morning the seller contacted me about what he had noticed while he was packaging up the cards to ship. Two of the five cards were not as unblemished as described in the ad (he sent photos) and asked if I wanted to cancel the order. He explained that it was third (and last) set he had for sale. I responded by thanking him for letting me know and asked if I could buy the three for a prorated price of $12. His response was a full refund of my $20. And  a note that  read "I will still send you all 5 cards - free. I am not happy selling cards that are not Excellent Condition so this gets it off my listings and hopefully makes up for the disappointment."

Heartening to know that there ARE decent (and generous) sellers on EBay (as well as the crooks and slimeballs). Thank goodness!

Awesome!  Thanks for sharing the positive.

That's awesome!  Perhaps I'm lucky or just don't use eBay that often, but I've never had a bad experience buying or selling.  I also tend to buy and sell low stakes (cheap) stuff that is less likely to have people trying to pull off weird shenanigans. 

Awesome story. Thanks for sharing.

I too had a similar experience a few months ago. I purchased a Lot of my favorite Team (around 40 Cards). I paid and the guy discovered one of the Cards had a damaged corner. . He asked if I would take some Allen and Ginter Relics of my favorite team instead. He sent 4-5 Relics to make up for it. I was pleased with the effort to keep a Customer happy. He also sent the Card with the damaged Corner.

Thanks for telling, it does make you feel a bit better knowing the good as well.

Thanks for sharing the good experiences guys! Personally, I've never had a bad experience buying on ebay. But I pay close attention to who I'm dealing with and what problems may have come up for them. How does it seem like I'm luckier than so many members of this site in dealing with other people here, there, and everywhere else?

Remember that a single bad feedback for a seller isn't always the sellers fault! There are a lot of nitpickers out there and even more scammers out there and they aren't just scamming trade sites.

Thanks for the nice tale.  I once sold a Jerome Bettis card on ebay and mistakenly sent the wrong one to the buyer.  The next day I notified the buyer and sent the correct card.  I also informed him to keep the mistakenly sent card.  No feedback, no comment, just crickets from the buyer.

Way back in 1999 or 2000, when I first started selling on ebay, I had a "display" card (I would scan, it wasn't perfect, but it didn't show in the scans) and the actual mint condition cards (yes, I had several) that were in the sleeves and top loaders to send out. One time, I accidently sent the "display" card. I e-mailed the buyer, informed them of the mistake and immediately sent them a mint one. I told them just to keep the other one or throw it out, as I didn't need it back. They still sent it back to me (at least PWE stamps back then were like a quarter).

Yes, this year will be my 21st anniversary on ebay. I have a hard time finding people who have been on ebay longer than me. :) July 1998. Maybe that's why I have so many stories one way or the other.

If I think hard enough, I actually can find many more instances of buyers and sellers being GREAT people on ebay. Many sellers have worked with me on prices, and combining shipping, and all of those same things I do with my buyers. When I was buying the 2015 Topps Gold cards to put together the sets (S1, S2, Update), I worked with many great sellers who were willing to customize lots and even customize the listing so I would be the only one to see it and get it. So, yes, the good guys probably outnumber the bad guys 100:1, but if you don't remember what the bad guys have done, you'll probably get burned again.

I just checked, I joined ebay on December 20, 1998.  I guess I'm an old codger as well!