Post your best (or worst) Ebay "Surprise"

[perezfan]

With the Catalogue Auctions, we are normally 99% sure of what we're bidding on. The photos are accurate and revealing, and the descriptions are written by professionals within the hobby. Granted... there's a couple of who are kinda deceptive, but that's a topic we've already beaten to death.

Ebay, on the other hand, is loaded with sellers who don't know what they have, and often don't know how to describe the goods. In some cases, the sellers are downright deceiving. The Mickey Mantle Ball with an undisclosed broken nail inside prompted me to start a new thread about Ebay "surprises".

I know we have all had them.... some good, but probabaly more that weren't so great. I'll start out with one of mine...

A vintage Mr Met Bobblehead with the Head perched on the neck (via Silly Putty), and no spring. The seller claimed he didn't know that a spring was ever part of it, and that's why he didn't disclose that it was missing. He simply packed it in a shoe Box with no padding, newspaper, bubble wrap, peanuts or any other type of protection. Just a bobblehead in a box. I did get my money back, but this one was so clueless, I just had to laugh.

Post yours, if you have a good one...

[FUBAR]

this was way back when ebay started,

there was a listing for "Two very old black and white baseball cards"

i emailed the seller and asked what two names were on the card...
Satchel Paige and someone else i cant remember.

I asked for a picture of said cards. She couldnt provide a picture....back then, this wasnt that uncommon.

I then asked if there was a date listed anywhere on the card... she said she was an old lady and her eye sight wasnt good to read the small print on the back. She just wanted to get rid of them cause they reminder her of her late husband.

SO i won the auction for $32 i think it was.

I received the cards in the mail and written on the back in huge font that covered the entire card....

"reprint
of
original
card"
1992 TCMA

to say the least i felt duped.....

Now for a positive one...

I bought a generic lot of hockey cards listed as "My hockey cards from when i was a kid" i think i paid 7 $ for the lot.

When the cards arrived, there was about $3500 worth of cards including some i had graded like my Bossy RC which went for a BGS 8.5 and a 72 Dionne which graded an 8 i think it was.... but also a ton of other rc's and star cards from 69 to 82 in great shape.... i couldnt believe i bought the lot for 7$ or 12$ with shipping.

[slidekellyslide]

The Good- I bought a small lot of baseball paper ephemera off of ebay because I could see a Golden Jubilee program for Connie Mack in the lot. I won the lot for the minimum bid of $5...when the lot came in the mail there were two snapshots of a fellow with Connie Mack, the Golden Jubilee program was written in, but the writing told a story about how they had grown up next door to Mr Mack in Philly and what a great man he was...the best part though was a certificate from the American Legion for a baseball tournament that was signed by Kennesaw M Landis.

The Bad- I bought a small lot of what was supposed to be a 19th Century baseball scrapbook from one of those Ebay Live auctions..the auctions stated that the lot included the scrapbook a baseball themed hand fan, and about 100 baseball photos. It was one of those auctions where you had to arrange your own shipping...so I got the number of the shipper from the auctioneer and when I called he told me that it would be about a month before he could ship it...I was not happy, but what could I do? After about 6 weeks I called him back and asked where my package was and he said he'd get it out right away...about two weeks later it finally came and I was horribly disappointed to find out that scrapbook was just the covers...everything inside was torn out..the fan was nice, but there were no photos to be found anywhere. So I called the shipper and he told me that there never were any photos or anything inside the scrapbook...so I called the auctioneer and they said they had no idea what I was talking about. I wasn't out a lot of money, but it was disappointing nonetheless.

The Ugly- I once bought a BIN for what appeared to be a framed album page from an A&G baseball card album supposedly in an antique frame....when I opened the package there was an overwhelming blast of spray paint fumes...the gold on the frame came off on my fingers when I pulled it out...I knew right away I was scammed...the album page was a fake. I blame myself for that one...it was definitely too good to be true.

[prewarsports]

GOOD. I bought a small lot of sports items in an ebay auction that ranged from the turn of the century to the 1960's. I did not even really care about the little scorecard in there but when I got it and saw names like George and Harry Wright on it, I knew it was good. The scorecard sold at auction for $4,000+. I paid $16 for the lot.

BAD. I bought what was described as a workmans style glove in the early days of ebay. The pictures were a little blurry, but it looked good from what I could see. When I got it I knew right away it was a 20th century handball glove. Seller refused a refund and this was before paypal and all their buyer protections. I was out about $700 from the premeditated scam.

[mjkm90]

Good-Poorly listed lot of "Cubs memorabilia" that contained the round as well as the scarcer rectangular Cubs tins and a superior example of a 1930s Cubs figural...total $135.




The bad-Two terrific figurals that showed up completely destroyed. I'm convinced one was destroyed before it shipped because he told me that if there was any problem with the piece to let him know. It was double boxed and well packed yet smashed to bits with no box damage. In both cases I got my money back, but I would have prefered the pieces.

[drc]

I once won a small stack of baseball signed letters on eBay, with advertised folks ranging from the likes of Ed Ball to Carl Yastremski. Unadvertised but included were signed handwritten letters by Jack Glasscock and 1877 pitching triple crown winner Tommy Bond. I've seen only one other Tommy Bond autograph for sale since then and that was a signed index card in a Mike Gutierrez Auction. The Bond letter was a response to NL President Ford Frick and was stapled to a green file carbon copy of Frick's letter, showing the letter came from Frick's files.

[D. Bergin]

Early days of Ebay I picked up about a dozen "Fan Craze" cards including several HOF'ers for under 20 bucks. The description simply stated "Baseball playing cards" listed with a few last names and placed in the Playing cards category of Ebay.


Worst experiences are probably the overzealous tape jobs done on items inside the packaging, making it impossible to free the said item without damaging it.

I always want to e-mail them and tell them tape is for the "OUTSIDE" of the box, not the inside. The inside is for packing materials and reinforcement.

It's frustrating because you know they think they are doing you a favor by being extra careful with the packaging.

On the other hand, getting photos shipped to you without any cardboard re-enforcement and folded into the mailbox.

I've also had a couple statue display pieces show up broken because they were just thrown boxes without any packing added to protect them.

The worst shipping offenders are actually from the few returns I've taken, usually from people who bought something they simply had a change of heart on. I usually just tell them to send it back without any argument.......it's simpler that way.

Without fail they always ship it back the cheapest way possible.........and nowhere near they way you shipped it out to them to begin with. A little while back I had a guy return a book because he thought it was a hardcover.........even though the description stated softcover and had a nice big photo of the item........not to mention the book doesn't even exist in a hardcover. I sent it out to him in a nice sturdy box, media mail shipping, lots of packing.

Of course he sends it back by stuffing it into a manila envelope with no packing or re-enforcement. The book is totally destroyed and worthless by the time it gets back to me.