I have a (potential) situation that I hope some of you can give me your opinions on!
Long story short - sell a relatively high end (PSA graded, not raw) card on eBay. Go through the relevant shipping procedure, all goes well there. The buyer did not ask for any particular photos or details on the card - sent me an offer, I counter offered and was purchased.
Card is then recieved by the buyer, and I send a message to confirm as I get the tracking notification.
The buyer then sends me a message stating he has the card, but isnt happy with its condition. Mentions a few of the cards defects that are visible go him inside the case (that I did not notice when the card was in my possession), and is not happy the card got the grade it has (is a PSA9 and mentions to me he thinks it is a PSA5 quality).
I am quite certain I know the answer, but am I liable to anything here? As I mentioned, card was recieved safely and as described in the listing (PSA9). I did not mention anything along the lines of “no whitening or holo scratches”, etc, and the buyer did not ask for specific or closer photos, or information for that matter, if he was worried about the cards condition.
I definitely ain’t a huge time seller on eBay but have a fair few hundred feedback, 100% positive. I want to keep this as one would imagine, and haven’t had this scenario before. More importantly, to deal fairly and responsibly, which I believe I have done so.
Thanks all, your opinions and thoughts would be appreciated.
-D
There are two things you should ideally do and one that can save you time but not ideal, these are listed in that order.
Accept a return straight away. Ask the buyer to send the card back to you and upon receipt of the item in the same condition it was previously shipped out, you will issue a full refund.
Let him open a case and you fight with eBay about this. Know that you will most probably have to accept a return and issue a full refund.
Send the buyer a partial refund to settle this case. This is not the ideal conclusion but it saves you time and hassle.
Happens all the time. Really shitty thing for buyers to do though, it is a false refund claim according to many of us here in the community and it will get you blacklisted on the forum.
If I were you I’d let the buyer know about PSA’s financial guarantee where they can send the card in for review and PSA will compensate them if they determine the card has been graded higher than it should be. If they don’t want to go through that, then I’d advise refunding them for the card. eBay’s return policies favor the buyer so much, they will force you to accept a return for any reason. If you haggle with them throughout and argue about the refund process you will likely not only get a strike on your account for something stupid like “item not as described” but you will also get the negative feedback.
That being said, if the buyer refuses to go the route they should (PSA financial guarantee) let us know the buyer’s eBay name so we can add them to our blocked lists. As a seller you delivered on everything you were required to, but due to eBay policy you’ll still get screwed.
There is only ONE way I handle this situation. Pleasantly accept a return. Then block.
Unfortunately, one of the residual affects of everybody these days being so anal about a graded cards condition (and their opinion thereof), is the dimwits do stuff like this. If they weren’t happy and just sucked it up and kept or resold it then fine.
On a similar point, I may have mentioned here before that very often I’ll block ebayer’s who request additional pics for the same above reasons.
This. OP I would be surprised if he doesn’t mention a partial refund in his future messages if you ask him to send it back, even just a small amount. Full return and block, and if you go that route and he refuses and/or gives negative feedback, you can call ebay and they should straighten it out as you did everything possible to appease him.
Just accept return and block him after refound. Don’t settle for partial refund. You can try fighting, but most likely you will lose, thought I heard people did win, but you will lose time and your nerves, it’s not worth it.
I had a potential buyer last night asking about an edge on a PSA 10 unbroken bonds card (set was printed near flawless). I politely told him the edge was clean asked him not to buy the card. I don’t have the time for collectors critiquing 10s or seeking a purely flawless card at my expense. He was not blocked, although that was my initial reaction. These buyers will be 90% of your problems.
Oh yeah, good point. I always “drop” buyer s who’s asking these sort of questions “Is it a strong 10?” “Can you send me a micro close up of an edge” and so on. I never blocked these kind of people, but I think I will do from now on.
Sadly it seems that it has happened to a fair few others, and I realise the eBay’s returns policies favour buyers to the hill (I’ve learnt this by other means, too). Contacted the buyer and advised them on the PSA Guarantee, if they’d want to take it down that route. Tried to keep communications as open and friendly as possible, so I will see how this ends up (positively, here’s hoping).
Looks like I have the rare exception here, see below
In honesty - they did not ask specifically for a refund in their messages, more along concerns with the cards grade. They, nor even I, or anyone here grade the cards, so I think they understood I had no fault in their specific concerns. Glad the way it turned out, lesson learnt for anyone in a similar, be polite and courteous - it generally helps most cases. Ended with positive feedback left for both them and I.
I think they would have if I did offer the return, which probably puts the buyer in the “non-block” category. I suppose for them if they want to be picky on card purchases, ask for specific photos before they buy.
don’t mean to be a negative nancy here, but you got lucky. this is not often the case. most often, it’s some jackass who wants to screw with you and nitpick your item. whenever someone asks questions which seem to suggest they are going to be a difficult client, i usually ignore and circumvent this individual entirely. it sounds harsh, but till ebay addresses a lot of these preferential treatments toward the buyers, this is how “business” will get done.
