Posted By:
Aaron M.Barry, I often think it's harder for an auction house to make an adjustment than it is to offer a full refund. It's hard to quantify what the adjustment should be (bidder and auction house could have very different ideas) and sets up a precedent that most auction houses would like to avoid (otherwise they could be inundated with winning bidders requesting incremental adjustments based on varying degrees of disparity between the item's description and what was actually received).
But in cases such as this where an item is so grossly mischaracterized (to me just the mere fact that a B/W photo was shown sepia-toned is enough of a material difference to warrant a full refund) a full refund should be offered. That way the winning bidder is made whole, the auction house can still re-offer the item, and the auction house knows that the winning bidder wasn't just trying to squeeze a discount out of them.