Exercise Caution dealing w/Shawn Martin

[EvilKing00]

To take it a bit further, the card was bought Dec 17, in a 1 card auction on ebay from a guy with 77 feedback who then left positive feedback on Jan 1st. If you then search ebay for a seller (smrt240) who is the seller on the BST, his feedback is 77.

Explain that.......Just Not cool at all.

[npa589]

...

[batsballsbases]

Seems the last post in the win on that card says it best from TAXMAN
"If you get it.... I am intrested in purchasing " Seems to me he knew something others didnt know.
Shawn the only thing I can tell you is reputation is everything. All my life I have gone out of my way to try and do the right thing even if it meant taking a loss my friend. In your case the "lesson learned" is greed. You sold yourself for a few extra dollars and now everyone around here will probably never deal with you again. Now thats a real "lesson learned" Next time you look at that 50 or 100 dollar bill that you made remind yourself of this incident and ask yourself the question. WAS IT WORTH IT. Pete sorry for your loss.

[ullmandds]

Shawn has contacted me and is attempting to make this right.

[HRBAKER]

Originally Posted by ullmandds

Shawn has contacted me and is attempting to make this right.

That's good news.

[itjclarke]

Don't want to hijack Pete's thread, but I have a question related to board selling that's probably not worthy of it's own thread, but thought I'd ask since we're on that topic. I prefer to keep the sale/seller anonymous, especially since I'd prefer a consensus as to whether what happened was wrong or not.

My main question is- does the 1st offer on BST (via email/PM) win?? I know this isn't eBay and there's no BIN tab to formalize this transaction.. but I always felt there was a bit of a code here... first full offer gets it... if the offer is serious (like in my instance), or similar to a situation where a buyer is showing interest in individual items before a seller actually opts to break a grouping and price individually, I'd think this would at least informally put the buyer in queue if and when the seller does offer individually. Or conversely, is it generally accepted that a seller can ignore some offers, respond to others days later and more or less sell, or not sell based whatever other factors he may be considering. Basically, how firm or loose do members consider BST "rules" and buying etiquette?

If you care to see the details I've written a description/chronology below-

Day 1- member posts 3 cards for sale on BST (no scans). He offers package pricing on cards A and B, and a package for A, B and C... but does not offer individual pricing or package price for AC or BC combo. I send a PM, asking for scans and after seeing them immediately respond to see if he'd consider an offer for A and C. Using his AB and ABC package prices, my offer is what I calculated as being equivalent to his full asking price. I get no response (me- no problems.. they aren't marked as "sold" so I'll follow up in a few days).

Days 3-10- I send 2-3 follow up emails, indicating continued interest, and also expressing willingness to purchase either cards A or C individually in the event one had sold.. I just needed his asking price. I'm also pretty sure I said I'd consider buying all 3 if he was insistent on packaging them all. I got no response to any of my messages (me- no problems.. he's probably busy).

Day 11- I send one last email, asking if my prior offers had been received and if the cards were still available. He finally responds and says he did not respond to any of my earlier messages because card A sold early on. (no problem I guess??) I tell him that's OK and that as my earlier messages would indicate I was still interested in card C by itself. He responds saying he just posted individual pricing for B and C on BST. I check the board and seeing the price immediately offer to buy C at full price, sending my offer by email, and for good measure posting to the board.

His response is basically- "sorry, someone PM'd me before you and is buying B and C". (me- now I have issue... I guess 10 days of interest got me a spot at the back of the line). By this point, several others had posted to the board wanting to buy it.. to which he responded, sorry "you're all late". That's what annoyed me.. I'd been making offers for 10 days starting on day 1! I sent a few snide emails (generally NOT my style) and asked the seller if he'd be willing to tell me actual time this other "PM" came in, etc.. all in all, it's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but this exchange probably bugged me more than any buy/sell exchange since joining N54.

Was I justified in being annoyed? or in your opinion does a BST seller have prerogative to sell whenever and to whomever he feels, regardless of who makes first offer?

[thehoodedcoder]

Seems like more tha enough for a new thead.

Kevin

[freakhappy]

Originally Posted by ullmandds

Shawn has contacted me and is attempting to make this right.

Good to hear, Pete...hope this works out in the end. Just sucks it had to come to this. Leon said he was a good guy, but it sounds like he just made a poor decision and will pay for it through his reputation for a while

Ian- when it comes to the BST, I think there is a code, but in reality, does anyone really have to abide strictly to it? I mean, there are several people that follow the same guidelines, but they do a few things different as far as first respondents and such. In your case, the seller did horrible by not at least contacting you when he first saw your email and giving you an update. When I list things on the BST, I feel like I have an obligation to each and every customer...this is not a game, but rather a type of temporary business you are running and we know how important customers are to businesses. Let's be honest here...there are more than a couple of people on here that don't sell much or haven't been in that position before and don't know the ethics of it...this is where your guy failed pretty miserably. I have been in a few transactions like that before and it blows pretty hard...nothing worse on here than being messed around with.

In the end, you have every right to be aggravated with this guy.

[bobbyw8469]

The one thing that confuses me is that the seller/reneger won the card on Ebay for only $45 dollars or so. He STILL made a profit on the card, and with the card now having two sales under the $100 mark, maybe that is the actual going rate for the card?? Everybody gets so hung up on VCP and past sales (me included sometimes). Maybe we should all step back and take a breather. In my opinion, the seller is a POS and should have shipped the card. He obviously thinks his card is worth more than it actually is. He states book value is $500, although I would never pay nowhere close to that for a Pete Rose autograph. He has signed SOOOOOO much stuff, he is right up there with Bob Feller for never turning down an autograph request! Ban him from selling on here. I don't know what he was thinking, first of all, selling the card ON HERE via auction (no offense Leon), and running it for only ONE DAY!!!! GET THE EYEBALLS ON THE AUCTION!!! How many people do you think acutally saw this auction?? 10-20? If you want to find out the true value, and you think it is undervalued, put it on Ebay for 99 cents and run a 10 day auction with the item ending on Sunday. Use all the important keywords to get the eyeballs on it. That is all I have to say on this.

[smrtn240]

hey bobby boy, maybe you should keep your opinions to yourself before you start labeling others. You wanted confrentation, you got it. I don't need to justify myself to the entire board on what happened on this deal, and I still don't. Pete is getting this card for what I paid for it. No profit needed. Keep your opinions to yourself and guys please stop blowing things out of proportion when it's not necessary

[pclpads]

Seller's business model reminds me of Ralph Kramden and all his "get rich quick" schemes. For possibly forever losing one's cred and rep on this board, how could you value that at only $22?

[baztacula]

Will this deal finally get sorted out to everyone's satisfaction? Will Shawn rise from the ashes? I have to take a shower, get a haircut and run some other errands. When I get home, I may have my answer.