Who's the A-hole?

[Gorditadogg]

Just thought you might want to play a version of the Reddit game, where the poster recounts something that happened and asks which person is the a-hole in the situation.

I had a transaction with a gentleman on this board a while ago (it doesn't matter when). We had done many deals before. It was a lot of maybe 20 NMty cards from a 50s set break. Commons and minor stars.

The cards were priced individually. Buyer picked 20 cards that he wanted, negotiated a discount for the group, paid the money, got the cards. Buyer looked at the cards, thought several were not NMty but lesser grade. Seller asks buyer to send all the cards back for review. Buyer sends cards.

Seller reviews cards, agrees some cards were over-graded, but notes others were under-graded. Seller offers to either keep the original terms for all 20 cards or else cancel the deal. Buyer says that he wants the 15 or so cards that are acceptable to him but wants a refund on the rest. Seller says it is all or nothing. Big argument ensues.

Who's the a-hole here?

[Gorditadogg]

Just FYI, the story ends well, buyer and seller eventually compromise and agree to terms, and have done several more deals since.

[Tyruscobb]

I’ll go with the guy that wanted to cherry pick cards out of a “lot” sale.

[D. Bergin]

I think it's ok to say, both were kind of A-holes, both figured it out, and both moved on.

We're all A-holes sometimes when the situation arises. Sometimes you have to be one to advocate for yourself or someone else. Sometimes, somebody may just naturally BE an everyday A-hole.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

There were a series of issues here, but the entire thing has its roots in some of the cards being overgraded. Were clear, hi-res scans or photos provided pre-sale, along with proper noting of any blemishes that the scans failed to pick up?

Regardless, the buyer thought he was getting something different than what he signed up for. Upon reinspection, the seller agreed with the buyer's condition assessments, so they have admitted that oversight. Since the original error rests on the shoulders of the seller, a better compromise than "all or nothing" should have been granted by the seller. Seller is the source of the initial problem and completely fails to bend a bit as the result of his oversights. Hence, seller is the bigger problem.

Also, the buyer is clearly only interested in cards of a certain condition and wouldn't have added them to the discounted deal if he had known about the issues.

Personally, if it wasn't a ton of money, I would have likely acquiesced to the buyer's wishes and moved on. Not worth the time or aggravation. If not:

The easiest solution? Simple. Meet in the middle. Crunch the numbers between the full and discounted prices and offer the remaining cards at whatever that happy median turns out to be. How hard is that? I can't see how anybody would take issue with that logic. If at that point the buyer says, "No, thanks", then it's time to just give a full refund and move your merchandise elsewhere. The seller would have done all they could as far as I'm concerned.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Seller should make it right, HE is the one who overgraded the cards in the first place. How is this on the buyer? Common sense wise that is, I'm not giving a contract law answer.

[Gorditadogg]

Originally Posted by Tyruscobb

I’ll go with the guy that wanted to cherry pick cards out of a “lot” sale.

Thanks for the feedback. I didn't phrase that very well. Hundreds of cards were offered, buyer picked 20 that he wanted. I updated the thread. Thanks.

[doug.goodman]

Originally Posted by Gorditadogg

... buyer and seller ... compromise and agree to terms...

Then nobody was "the A-hole"

[OhioLawyerF5]

Buyer is the a-hole. Seller has no obligation to agree to a different deal than was originally made. Seller was willing to cancel the deal if buyer wasn't happy. Buyer has no complaint at that point. Buyer has no right to buy the cards in a smaller lot if seller doesn't want to sell that way.

[OhioLawyerF5]

I don't understand how offering a full refund and return isn't the reasonable course of action from the seller who potentially overgraded a few cards out of a huge lot. Beyond allowing a return with full refund, I fail to see how the seller was required to break up the lot. That seems unreasonable to me.