Ebay Issue After ONE Year
 

So two years ago I went to an estate sale and picked up a whole collection of 1950-60s Topps cards including stars...I picked out about 300 of them that I thought were in good enough condition to scan and sell on ebay....ALL of them sold. I get an email from a guy a few days ago who said he purchased a 62 Topps card from me in January of 2013 that came back from SGC as "Trimmed" and now he wants a refund, but I have no idea what he even paid for the card, nor can I even look it up. I am convinced this is a childhood collection that never saw the light of day...not a single customer who bought from me had any complaints at all, and I'm sure some of the people who bought from me sent these cards to be graded as a large majority of what I picked was worthy.

When I told him that SGC must have made a mistake he blew up at me saying they don't make mistakes, they are the most "prestigious" of all grading companies..blah blah.

This is a low feedback bidder who doesn't appear to have done anything on ebay since last June....What would you do?

I'm thinking you ignore him - after one year, he shouldn't have an eBay / PayPal leg to stand on, so just ignore it. There's a 30 or 60-day return policy or something like that, not lifetime, so you should be fine to let it go, right?

He waited a year to ask for a refund on cards that he bought raw, knowing full well there's an inherent risk that these raw cards could come back "A"?? I surely wouldn't be refunding any money.

Fugget about it!
 

After one year it is his problem, not yours.

+1 to everything above. Make sure you block him as a bidder. I had an angry customer buy something and leave a neg one time just because.

sounds like it could be a n54 member here...

i would refund. as a seller i don't hide behind ebay's 45 day protection policy. if a card or autograph i sold comes back trimmed/not authentic i would refund whenever.

Block the bozo.

If it is a Net54 member I will refund...I still have no idea what it sold for, but I trust an N54 member isn't going to screw me.

I disagree. With that much time that has gone by you have no idea or should be in any way responsible for that card. Just as there are bad sellers, there are bad buyers. Not inferring anything in this situation as I have zero clue...but after a year he owns that card and anything/everything that could have happened to it under his ownership. Who is to day he didn't trim it himself for a better shot at a better grade? The seller has no idea whatsoever. If a buyer can't decide he made a good purchase after 45 fricken days, c'mon. Had it been within the 45 days...and legit...full refund.

If you really want to know the selling price...

The transaction may be too old for Ebay transaction activity, but I think it will still show in your PayPal history.

This^

Completely agree, you have no idea after all of this time if the "trim" job was done under his watch. Too many unknowns after an entire year.

I don't know if selling history is the same, but I can go back to 2012 in my ebay purchase history.




But a year later? Really?

Would you even know if it was the same card if he returned it?

Or is he even sure if it is the same card? Could have bought multiples and got them confused.

What's next? Buy a 9 graded card, crack it, submit it, and when it comes back a 7 ask for a refund?

"prestigious SGC" being an n54 member was a joke...

not saying i'd blindly just refund, but i save scans of all my cards. if they've been up on ebay that means it's in my photobucket. i have scans dating back to the geocities site, would be easy to verify if it's the same card. paypal transactions go back years.

the buyer have no recourse in this case, it's really up to you whether you want to give him a refund...he can't do much.

If you get Paypal notifications to your email it will be in there .

I don't think I'd refund either unless it's just chump change. The transaction should be in your paypal history, however, so you would be able to look up how much the buyer paid for it.

On a side note, I once purchased an oversized card from a Henry Yee auction. One to two years after the auction ended, I sent the card to Beckett for protection purposes. To my surprise, it came back counterfeit. I contacted Henry about this, and he refunded me most of the purchase, even though I only requested a partial refund. This item was several hundred dollars, so some sellers on ebay still go way beyond the normal expectation. If the situation occurred where I were the seller, I don't know if I would have been as generous.

I couldn't agree more. A few months, I could understand but a year is ridiculous. Just my 2¢.

Jeff

Maybe you could ask for a scan of the card he would like to return? I think that might help you decide.

I can understand why many would not, but me, I'd refund it.

I've got a stack of ungraded cards. If I submitted them and had one come back as trimmed, assuming I had records of the transaction, I'd ask for a refund too. The length of time passed wouldn't be a factor, just the condition of the card.

For those citing the amount of time that has passed, if the parties involved were an auction house and you, would you still say that too much time has gone by?

Yes.

Dan I would tell the guy to go pound salt! :D:D

1 yr--a raw card= ridiculous request.

I couldn't even be sure I hadn't mixed the card up w/ another one in that length of time!

+1. Way too long to qualify as reasonable.

Larry

Customer Service and Responsiveness should be priority #1. If you knew the card was trimmed then I say refund. If no knowledge and it is over a year, I would say use your discretion.

Hope it works out for you!

Hank

If I knew the card was trimmed I wouldn't have sold it, but I don't believe it was trimmed...these cards came out of an estate of a non collector..they were just his cards he bought from packs as a kid from 1958-1963, I'm almost certain of that in how they were found in small stacks by teams with string tied around them, with his stars all in a small card file type of box. The Yaz rookie card was not even pulled as a "star".

And btw I do value customer service I recently refunded a guy who bought a very nice 1968 Milton Bradley Topps card from me that I thought was near mint to mint, but he told me it had a small surface crease...he sent me a scan, returned it and I refunded him no questions asked.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1968-Topps-M...item56601a8f34

Dan,

I completely understand your frustration. I have been surprised myself, when I submit cards and they come back with an "A" or altered at times. I also agree that you probably wouldn't have sold it knowing it was trimmed.

Either way, I think you are trying to do the right thing and that needs to be communicated to the buyer. You are doing what you can.

Hank

Unless the guy was a regular customer and you were looking to keep him that way (doesn't sound like the case), I'd just block him and move on. Anybody so unreasonable as to think that you SHOULD give him a refund a year later is a kook you don't want to be dealing with in the first place. If he sheepishly mentioned the situation and asked if there is anything you could do and apologizing because it's been so long and left it up to you, then maybe. Even then I'd make him produce a receipt so that you could at least know how much he paid. If he can remember a year later where to look up the guy he bought it from, he ought to at least be able to produce some record of the transaction.

He only has a 46 rating in 14 years on ebay...I did sell him something last January as I can see I left him positive feedback.

I would tell him where he could put that card! Ridiculous!

After a year i would not refund. Furthermore, how do you know he didn't trim it?

Hi Dan

FWIW if you really want to know what the card sold for, you probably could find out on Cardtarget. I've looked up cards that I have purchased as far back as 2008.

To answer your question, if it was a collector that I know, then yes to a refund after a year. If this is just some random buyer, then I would not issue a refund. Way to many variables after a year.

Hope this helps


Jantz

I've heard stories where people pulled a card from a pack, sent it in, and it came back as evidence of trimming :eek:

Since I believe you are a stand up guy and to me you've proven to be one, you should do what you believe is right. Whether that is issue a partial or full refund, not issue any refund, or just straight up block the guy...it's up to you. I'm not sure there really is a straight up right or wrong answer. My gut says not to issue a refund, but that's just my opinion...just seems weird that it's been over a year and he just now gets around to it. If I were him, there would be no way I would request a refund. If he waited that long to send it in, it's on him and he should eat the card...I would expect the same if I were him. I'm sure he's frustrated, but this seems like common sense to me and he should probably just move on.

Good luck and keep us updated,

Mike

EXACTLY! Is there no shame among collectors any more? I've bought things that I set aside and never pulled out until a year or more later only to be disappointed with it for one reason or another, but never once did it cross my mind that I should be able to go back to whoever I bought it from and get my money back. To me, it's just understood that in that situation you just suck it up and move on. Nobody wants to make their own mistakes any more!

If you can't tell, I'm a little sick of being abused by moronic buyers :D If they would just announce their idiotic intentions up front, I'd refuse to deal with them on principle, but it's always after-the-fact (sometimes over a year after-the-fact) that they come back to bite you. I feel your pain, Dan.

Not your fault, at all. Block him.

I agree with this sentiment...not your issue at all!

From the pre-80's forum, there's been several reports of cards from the 60's coming back from grading as not meeting the minimum size requirement. I've personally had one and know darn well it was never trimmed. [note - I'm not certain if 'minimsizrq' is a catchall which includes 'trimmed'.]

Also, depending upon how the initial sale ad was written would have a bearing on whether the buyer deserved a refund. If you guaranteed authenticity, then I suspect a refund might be in order. But if there was no such guarantee and the card was simply raw, then it's always buyer beware (IMO).

Dan,

Are you sure the buyer isn't Peter Nash? :D

In all seriousness, it sounds like this amounts to a small percentage of your overall sales revenue. If that is the case, take the high road.

First, ask the buyer to provide front and back scans, along with proof of purchase. Provided that they follow through with this request, and you are confident that the card wasn't altered since leaving your hands, refund the money, block the buyer, and move on.

As a bonus, send it in for grading. If the buyer didn't alter the card, it should come back with a nice number grade, giving you the opportunity to make all of your money back...and then some.

Just my two cents.

Best regards,

Eric