A+ Ebay Seller Follows Through on Mistake

I agree with Green, I would have trouble sleeping at night if I did that to someone. I was shocked when I read that you made him take the offer.

But if you feel good about it, then kudos

 

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ljpitre, I know it's easy to get off track in posts (I have done it myself), but may I suggest that you might want to post this issue in your own thread since I think it is detracting from the point of bg's post.

 

I completely agree - karma, shoe/foot, do unto others, you get the idea.....

 

While I respectfully disagree with your opinions, you are certainly entitiled to them. As I see it, I made an offer that was accepted, paid accordingly and then was asked to back out. But, that is besides the point, the seller deserved praise and I started a thread accordingly. With all due respect, questioning ones ethics and morals is left for someone with a much higher calling

 

sure, i apologize, did not mean to distract from the original discussion here. Thats why i asked in my original post on the subject if it was ok to do so here! Just after responding to his inital posting is how i got off on my ebay issue. Will do a separate tread. thanks to all of you here that did provide me with assistance to my issue with an ebay seller(read and see for your self). the lady says i gotta go!! see you guys later.Respectfully, ljp

 

Not tryin' to get self rightous on you BG, just sayin' I wouldn't have done it your way. Know why? 'cause I have done it and, in my experiance, it has a tendency to come back and bite you in the southern parts....:smile

 

Also, with all due respect, you posted this story wanting us to know what a nice guy the seller was in going through with the transaction as you insisted. And you also posted what your actions were as well, so doesn't that open up the discussion or comments from this board to post our comments about what the seller did AND what you did? I agree that whether what you did was ethically or morally wrong or right is ultimately left to a higher power to judge, but IMHO posting it here opens it up for discussion and comments from this forum as well.

 

I once accidentally way over bid on an item once. There wasn't all that much time left, I don't remember all the particulars because it was so long ago. The seller had to contacted and allow me to withdraw my bid. He responded immediatley and allowed me to do so. I was so thankful I rebid on the coin and if I remember correctly I did not get that coin. But, over the years I did four or five coins from him. I was new at the ebay thing at the time and I really appreciated his kindness to me.

I have posted here many times there are many reputable sellers on ebay. When you find one keep them in your favorite seller list.

In this particular case I would hope I would split the difference with the seller, that way we would both come out decently.

 

Then in this case it probably was not that big of a deal and the dealer will just chock it up to an operating loss.

Nice to know that there are still trustworthy dealers on e-bay. D

 

As the Pennylady said, I have bid on a couple things and then after reading the fine print for a second time, realized I did not understand the deal and asked to be let out of my bid which happened in both of my circumstances.
I have also on a couple occasions bought proof sets that when I got them home realized the wrong set was in the box. These were low dollar items and I said I would keep them and asked to have the proper item shipped and I would pay for it. In both cases the sellers sent me the proper item at no charge and allowed me to keep the item sent in error.
I felt bad about this though I did offer tlo send payment. Today I was putting some recent mint sets I had purchased in my collection, and realized that a 1993 mint set contained a 1993 P set and a 1994 P set and no 1993 D set. I have had such good luck that I will not even contact seller and will just purchase another 1993 set.
i guess i am saying that I have had nothing but good luck with my ebay sellers!!! :hail:

 

I won a coin from Latvia that I really wanted from a seller from Latvia. After 40 Days of the coin not showing I had to file a claim, despite the fact that the dealer assured me that he shipped it. Once the claim was filed he offered my money back or another of the same coin to be sent. I Ofcourse was glad to hear he had another of the Latvia coin I wanted because that's what I bid on and he agreed to send it, 3 more weeks go buy and this coin hasn't showed nor has paypal returned my money because international investigations I guess take way longer. I woke up for work one morning and saw that paypal finally refunded me and thought good. Wouldn't you know it, I get home from work and the 2cd coin sent is sitting in my mail box:hail::hail::hail: I'm thinking OMG I have my coin and money, and being a kinda broke sort of guy with nothing left in my wallet that day I thought great!!! God has givin me a great year, this last year and a half or so. My wife almost died and completely recovered, my child born 3 months early at 1 lb. 7 oz. nearly died and comletely recovered and grew well and healthier, our first home here in MA. burned to the ground less than a month moving in to it after getting out of the hospital with our daughter, but we found a better one and right when I lost my government checks which I was surviving on, that same week during a recession and with unemployement rates over 13% in my town I am living and I was from out of state, I landed a Job I dearly needed. Now I am sitting there with my coin and my money hmmm, I Immediately sent him his money right back ( even though legaly my case was closed and I was broke and free to keep it ) and sent him an E-mail letting him know that the 1 of the coins he originaly sent actually arrived. I was proud of myself to tell my wife that night that I honored my karma by sending the payment again, although I said it would suck if the 2cd coin came because than I would need to ship it back or pay him again, it never came though.

Thank You for posting this thread, because here at coin talk we constantly put fear in the new people of E-Bay Sellers, and I am glad that you could teach them to becareful when selling them selves because there are buyers like you out there

 

You know, something similar like that just happened to me, where I never received a coin I had paid for. I tried to get the seller to file the insurance claim with the p.o., but he said it was up to me, that his responsibility ended when he shipped the coin, though he did send me a copy of the insured number. After that, he refused to respond to any of my emails, so I had to file the p.o. claim, and I also filed a PayPal claim just in case. Then the guy accuses me of trying to double rip him off since I'd get paid by both. I told him he didn't know me to accuse me of such a thing, that all I wanted was my money back.

So I did get the p.o. claim check for the full amount, then I just received the PayPal refund, and, coincidentally, I sent him back his PayPal money this morning. Even though the seller was a jerk, I didn't want to be a bigger jerk by keeping his money. I would not have felt good about it, and besides, to me that would have been akin to stealing.

 

Well I would have seen it from the seller's perspective more then just ASSUME they would be greedy if you made a mistake in an offer
I guess if you have dealt with one crappy seller it's easier to just LUMP ALL sellers into being the same. That's the major problem with e-bay buyer and E-bay are joining forces to squeeze out sellers with unrelistic ideas and fees for items. Can anyone think of a reason why a 12% fvf should be charged for a refunded and pretty much voided auction?

 

There definitely are good sellers on ebay. An auction listed as an 1884 V nickel had a photo of an 1894, I needed both so I bid figuring on the lower valued coin, and if I won I could use whichever coin came. I won the auction and the seller sent both an 1884 and 1894 because of his mistake. I offered to pay him for the second coin because I needed both but he refused. You tend to remember dealers who treat you right!

 

ok since we have decided to twist this thread into an ethics class.

Lets assume that I walk into a BM dealer with an inherted coin that I know nothing about. The dealer looks over the coin and determines that it would be a great addition to his inventory and that he could easily sell the coin for lets say $1000. Offers me $700 for the coin. (I would not imagine as this being that far of given the spread needed to maintain a shop and overhead.) So I accept the $700 and go on my way. 5 minutes later I come back in the store and proceed to tell the dealer that I think I made a mistake and that I would like to have the coin back as I believe I could sell for more on Ebay. Should the dealer give the coin back in exchange for the $700? What about 5 days later, 5 weeks later, or even 5 months. Should a dealer that buys coins from the public be "ethically obligated" to give the coins back that they purchase from individuals in exchange for the money they paid because the original seller comes in a said they made a mistake. In my opinion, the duration of time that occurs after consumation of the deal (money changes hands) is irrrelevent and to think otherwise is a tad bit hyprocritical. Yes, I will agree I got a good deal and proud that the seller followed through. But you know what, I am just as proud that there are people out there who honor contracts and believe that once they agree to something they follow through. This Country has enough people at the present that are trying to bust out of mortgages, contracts, car loans, credit card balances, etc. I thought it would be nice to mention that I just happened to find a seller who instead of arguing and looking for a way out of the deal with determination, decided to uphold their end up the contract. Respectfully

 

Interesting Thread. Its good that you are promoting him as a good seller. I have to wonder however what he has been saying about you? Word gets around between sellers my friend, I have been on ebay for almost 11 years and a lot of the old timers do share information about buyers. What you did was not illegal and by no means wrong. You made an offer, he accepted the offer and the deal was consummated. However when he/she immediately seen their mistake and emailed you I think that I would of responded differently than you did simply because I have been on both sides of this same situation before on ebay. I bet this dealer pays more attention to his offers now that he knows there are people out there tossing out lowball offers hoping to snag a deal because of a simple mistake. Enjoy the coin and the $350 dollars you saved.

 

Some months back I bid and won and nice 1872 IHC. It was a late night ending auction, and early the next AM I had a message from the seller (before I had even paid).

Just before tornados hit several areas in MO he packed up and evacuated his home. Unpacking the night the auction ended he could not find the cent. He said he would accept any bad feedback I wanted to leave, and offered to contact me when the cent resurfaces. This seller also had an excellent record on eBay.

Yes I wanted that cent, it was nice, but what did I have to lose? except some self respect. My first question to the seller was about the safety of himself and his family. Some things are more important that other things.
We agreed, mutually, to cancel the transaction. A few weeks later I found another cent I was just as happy with.

Rule number one here at CT is to "post unto others as you would have them post unto you" it's a good rule. The collectors and dealers I work with subscribe to the same philosophy in their lives, or I don't work with them.

Sorry all if this sounds preachy, but honest mistakes happen, everyday, to someone, including each one of us, eventually.

 

You know bg, in you B&M $700/$1000 hypothetical above, time DOES matter, especially in the coin industry. Prices can go up and down pretty quickly, especially gold. So if the customer came right back or even a few days later and regretted selling me the coin, for whatever reason, honestly I would have given him his money back. What if he comes back a month later, you still have his coin because it's not that great and no one has bought it, and he offers to buy it back, don't you think you'd sell it back to him so you can put that cash into something else?

I had a customer buy a coin from me at a small show, walk down the aisle to look at other coins, finds one he really wanted but did't have enough money to buy it because of the coin he had just bought from me, comes back and asks for his money back and even tells me why. I wasn't all that thrilled with his reason, but I gave him his money back. I felt if he had enough balls to ask for it and tell me why, that he must have really wanted that other coin, so I didn't want to stand in his way.

But even aside from all these stories, my point, and I think that of some of the others here, is that we would have understood an honest mistake was made, and we would not have taken advantage of that mistake knowing that we all make mistakes. I'm sure some day you will make a mistake and hopefully the other party will be kind and let you off, then you will have a better understanding of why we think the way we do.

 

Pennylady, my hat is off to you, that was some request for you to deal with. however that is exactly the point i was trying to make when i made the commments that i made about ethics and honor. i think your comments say it all!!

 

Penny Lady, you mentioned in your response that in your "business" prices have a great deal of influence upon coins. While I do not disagree with that statement, it seems to me as if you are impying that the price movement of the coin would dictate whether or not you accepted your purchase money back in exchange for the coin you bought. So if prices moved against you, you would give back the coin, and if they moved in your favor you wouldn't. I hate to beat a dead horse here but, I will contend that in both my example and in yours of time after the sale and prices fluctuating are irrelevent. And once the deal is done it's done. And needs to be honored by both sides.

And by the way just a quick question. Many years ago you purchased a BU 1873 indian cent for what you quoted was a "mere $110". Upon receiving that coin your quickly learned of its type 3 variety, in which was valued between $2500 and $3000. Your reaction was such that you couldn't "contain yourself" being a neophyte collector and learning this was I am sure exciting news but should the seller have emailed you after you received the coin or better yet maybe 2-3 months later and say that they made a mistake and would like the coin back. Would you do as you suggested and send back the coin for your $110?

Your website provides a wealth of information and I am not quite sure why you think buying a coin from a respectable dealer for a $350 mistake is morally wrong and worse than buying a penny from a unsuspecting owner for $2400 to $3000 less than its original value.

You have gained a lot of repect on these forums and I am sure that it is all deserved. I look forward to reading and learning more about the coin collecting "business" because as a "collector" I think the insight that the dealers on this forum provide will be an invaluable tool well into the future.