This afternoon's eBay annoyance (mini-rant)

Stress is about done now, except for deciding what to do about feedback. I sent him another message this afternoon asking him to refund the $1.70 from my original PayPal payment, and he did so promptly; as far as I'm concerned, that gets him off the hook for actual negative feedback, even if He Did Me Wrong . I'm still considering neutral, but I'll more likely leave positive containing some gentle admonishment.

 

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Oh, and the actual coins! I figured 45 cents worth of silver and a pair of two-cent pieces, with poor photos, were worth a gamble. Yes and no; the silver is nothing special, and the two-cents were, well, not entirely problem-free:



Some solid detail on that 1865, but the pits are deep, and we won't talk about the 1864. I'll probably go ahead and hit them with VerdiCare, but they're below even my very tolerant standards.

 

But then there were these coins, which didn't even factor into my value calculation -- I figured they'd be normal AG-G junk. Surprise:



The nickel has some hairlines on the obverse, but I figure it's a $10 eBay coin, even with the rim hit. The cent does not show any obvious hairlines, but it's very dark, and I'm not yet sure whether that's gunk or corrosion in the dark spots -- but that lamination is pretty cool.

So, I'm not sure I'd go through all the hassle again, but I do feel like I got my money's worth this time, at least.

 

I'm not defending the seller, but I will say the post office is inconsistent in what they allow. Sometimes it seems that it just depends on which clerk processes your package. For example, I sell low value world coins. Sometimes I might sell a group of two or three to someone overseas. I'll put them in a regular envelope and send it with either a $1.36 stamp if it's under an ounce or $2.25 if it's over. I can ship dozens of packages this way with no problems, but once in awhile they'll come back saying insufficient postage. It's exactly the same type of package, but for that one time it doesn't work. Sometimes I just put it back in the mail the next day and it goes through.

 

"If you send me a picture of the notice, i will be more than happy to reimburse you for extra postage, but all of my packages i sent out were approved by the post office. Its moat likely missing 1 stamp so i will refund you the $0.50 for another stamp, but i cannot issue a refund until a. I have the coins in my possession (the post office sends the package back if there isnt enough postage) or b. I have tracking that the package is being sent back to me. Let me know how you want yo proceed"


That's a bunch of bull. He wanted to give you 50 cents. Give the guy a neg. He earned it. He should have refunded the $1.70 from the start without making you do anything.

 

Careful, if you mention anything less than glowing praise and positive feedback, the ebay mafia will be out for blood

 

Left him a positive "... with faint praise", and gave him poor star ratings for shipping speed and shipping charges. It looks like he's been making other recent customers unhappy, too, with one saying he still hasn't received his package. Wonder if that was another insufficient-postage case.

 

Your total out of pocket cost was less than the value received so, even though things didn't go as desired, you didn't lose anything. Not worth losing sleep over.

 

You know, in the ancients forum, a bronze in the same condition as that 1865 would get a lot of oohs and ahs. "Great patina, EF"

The pictures of the cent don't look dark to me, unless you're talking about above the shield and on the right hand side between the wreath and the rim. And it's a woodie! I think the cent might be the winner of this lot if it's not hairlined.

As far as getting your money's worth, though, are you really once you factor in the time and effort to photograph, package, and list them on eBay?

 

I see no reason for annoyance with the seller. Postage due is just as likely the P.O.'s fault and not a deliberate attempt by the seller to save $1.70. Plus the seller refunded promptly.

No story here. Buyer is whole, seller did the right thing, and the transaction amount is so low that it's not worth any kind of fuss over.

 

Maybe I'm just lucky, but I've gotten used to much higher standards on eBay (and elsewhere). When a perfectly good scale can be had for less than $10, and eBay lets you buy and print postage directly from their site, there's no excuse for sending an item postage-due. I could maybe see it if they put on postage for a 3-ounce package and it weighed 3.1 ounces -- but this was at least an ounce and a half over, and non-machinable to boot.

I even would have been more charitably inclined if they'd just undercharged me for postage up front. But they charged me the exact correct amount for shipping a non-machinable parcel of this weight, then tried to cheap out by putting it in an envelope with a couple of stamps. That's not the P.O.'s fault. And they made me send them a photo of the postage-due slip, which is just insulting -- yeah, they're gonna need some proof that I'm not just prowling eBay to scam sellers $1.70 at a time.

As you say, though, it's over, and maybe not worth a fuss. I am feeling a bit guilty, though, about leaving positive feedback -- as it turns out, another buyer left positive feedback with a complaint that they still haven't received their item, which is NOT the way the feedback system is supposed to work. So the seller's last three feedbacks are two positives with complaints, and one negative (wouldn't accept SNAD return). Anybody who checks the seller's feedback before buying ought to be thinking twice at this point.

I expect this eBayer's career as a seller will be short-lived.

 

Oh, I doubt I'll ever actually do that. Realistically, this is all entertainment, no matter how much I rationalize it to myself as trying to "come out ahead" or "make a profit".

But just because I know how I'm deceiving myself doesn't mean I'll stop doing it.