To refund or not?

Years ago I had someone wanting to return some coins that they said were fake or damaged when we sold them to them. Unfortunately, for them I had pictures and the pictures they sent were not the same. It's possible they bought it from someone else and played this game before. I wouldn't do the refund. It was too long ago.

FYI folks a year is longer than what ANA requires from dealers. The guy had a year to send it in and verify it was real. With the 30 day money back guarantee by eBay the customer is either trying to defraud the seller or they are an idiot. I know it sounds harsh, but some lessons are costly.

 

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I have to agree with this also.

I would give a refund but it would be hard for me to do and it would tick me off but he could be telling the truth. If he is not, what goes around comes around, and you can take that to the bank.

Also, you wouldn't want him going to a coin chat room and blasting your business in public. Not saying he would but that would be my luck.

Just an old mans opinion and my opinion is based on no photos available.

 

I've contacted him asking him to send good pictures of the coin. Looks like he is a seller too, so he should be able to. I am still trying to find if ebay has them on file somewhere. If it looks like an obvious fake, I will know it is not mine.

 

I'm pretty sure you want to refund the money. He could very easily try to report this as a criminal matter in which case you would be begging to accept a return at 10x cost then now at 1x.

As a business it would be the easiest, least expensive and most expedient thing to refund the cash and get the coin back. Consider it the expense paid for learning how important keeping complete records is. You could even write off your loss.

 

I believe a year has been too long. Yes there is a burden for the seller to stand behind a coin he sells. The buyer has the burden of being timely to authenticate his purchase. We are all coin lovers here and when we get a coin in the mail how many of us just throw the coin somewhere and go "I'll look at it later". I don't think any. I agree than in some states there has to be an "willful intent to defraud" and even that has a statue of limitations. As of right now it apprears that the buyer has no real form of recourse. His failure to determine the legitimacy of his investment within a reasonable amount of time may ultimately cause him a loss. I am guilty of buying a fake or two as a youngster. We take our hits and losses and if we learn from them, that alone is our profit.

 

I do not believe he has any legal recourse at all. Ebay, paypal, etc the time has passed. He could try criminal recourse, but there is literally no way he can prove the coin is the one I sold him. It would end up costing us both a lot more than one of us will be out anyways. I am asking what I SHOULD do, not if I legally have to refund him, which I do not believe I do.

 

I sold this item on Ebay a few years back. Had a 7 day return at that time.
A lady bought it for her son, three months later she contacts me and said her husband is furious and she needs to return it. I took it back and resold it. She sent me an email saying she was sorry and thanked me for taking it back. I always wondered if I kept her from getting knocked around by her husband.


I have a file with pics of every coin I've sold since 2007, ahhh, the memories...

 

I too have taken items back long after my return policy. One was even for a gold bar that I said no returns, and gold had a huge drop, so I knew that was why they returned it. All of those times I could verify it was the same item though. I keep pictures in Auctiva for about 4 months, which is about how long I can before I get charged more for having to many pictures stored. I figure this is long enough for those that do want to get items graded. I do not have enough storage to save every picture of every coin forever.

 

For under $100, you can get a hard drive that will hold hundreds of thousands of photos. Discarding old coin photos to avoid the cost of storage seems like a false economy.

 

I'm saying you should refund because if the guy did want to try to take it criminal it will cost you both time and money. What is the value difference between the gold in the fake and the real coin? If it is anywhere under a few hundred I'm saying you should refund because it is very likely going to be the most profitable decision in regard to time, money and reputation. If you think he is lying don't sell to him again.

I do think you likely have to do it legally but I think you should do it for the above reasons.

 

if the fake was unknowingly sold by you. then you probably purchased the fake unknowingly from a seller who sold the fake to you unknowingly.

someone needs to destroy the coin

 

Somewhere around here I still have files (scans) of coins sold many years ago that were imaged on film, so I respectfully find the notion that saving photos for more than a few months too costly a tad hard to swallow, especially from a part-time seller. Now I certainly do not have photos of every coin Ive sold even in the digial era, but keeping suitable records of somewhat higher value and/or commonly counterfeited material takes priority. With that said, any self-respecting and worthwhile dealer should absolutely guarantee the authenticy of every coin he sells or has sold, no matter how much time has passed. I could not care less about ebay policy or what the ANA may say on the matter; unless the buyer has somehow altered or damaged the coin, if sold as genuine and for anything other than junk, if proven to be counterfeit, it needs to be taken back regardless of if you chose to save photos or not. This may not go for a collector who sells a coin from his collection, but absolutely should for anyone presenting themselves as a dealer or even ebay seller.

 

Issue the refund and block the buyer.

 

There are a few issues here.

To begin with, one does not need to store images online in order to keep the images; simply keep them on your hard drive or burn them to a CD, DVD or flash drive and the problem of storage or paying for storage vanishes. Additionally, you do not know if the piece was sold by you and it appears at this point that the client has given no proof that the piece was sold by you, either. If that is where this stands then it is mighty unlikely that civil or criminal action would or could be taken. Lastly, there is really no time limit for return of counterfeit pieces if they can be proven to be sold by a particular seller, which does not appear to be the case in this instance.

That leaves us with what do you want to do?

 

What was the sale price?

 

It was slightly over $200 dollars. More than likely I will end up refunding unless my questioning him deters him. I asked for detailed pictures earlier today and so far he has not responded.

 

Tell him to 'go fish'.......

 

@jwitten I saw this post the other day, maybe iit would help you find the pics...that is if you're inclined to do the refund. Im not sure you're morally obligated....I think someone posted earlearlier hit the nail on the head...he probably needs Christmas money

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/go...that-arent-there-anymore.256368/#post-2034234

 

Not really sure how to use that.. I do not have the original URL anymore, nor do I know how to find it. I can't even get the cache thing to work on websites that are still up...

 

Have they provided you with any documents from ANACS that the coin was fake ?