Hey all,
I’ve been lurking for a while now, occasionally popping up here and there, but I could use some advice. Apologies if this is the wrong place, let me know if so.
I’ll try to keep it short, but I’m kind of seething. Basically, about a month ago now, I saw a bundle of 6 cards, including a first edition base set Charizard, all of which were described as mint (actually, gem mint, but yeah…). So I made an offer, and the seller replied saying at that price he’d only sell directly through paypal to avoid fees. I was suspicious, and, it must be said, naive, but I actually thought that was ok. At least I’d still have paypal’s buyer protection. Plus the seller had 100% feedback, so I thought it would be fine. So after some to-ing and fro-ing, the seller and I decide on a price and he sends the invoice (charging me in pounds first rather than dollars, but I spotted this ‘mistake’ soon enough). I make the payment and then decide to search for his username to see if anyone here has come across him. Not doing this first was a huge mistake.
Apparently a few of you are familiar with rhea0098.
At this point though I was actually still optimistic, even going so far as to imagine coming on here and saying how easy he was to deal with. Hey, I was about to get a mint condition base set 'zard!
A couple of days pass and I don’t hear from him, then he finally he says he sent the item and will forward the tracking info when he gets home. Fine. A few more days pass and nothing, so I message him saying if he doesn’t pass it along I’ll assume he hasn’t sent it and open a case. He replies within the hour telling me that I’ve ‘jumped the gun’ and that he’s been distracted, and forwards the tracking info. According to the tracking number he’s literally just posted it before sending the number to me.
I receive the package and, suffice it to say, there are scratches on the front, noticeable edge wear and a kind of ‘dirt’ (it’s hard to describe) all over it. I message him like asking if he can do a partial refund or if I can return the item. Obviously, it’s unfortunate but the card must have been damaged during shipping (miraculously the other 5 were fine).
I open a case with paypal and they decide in his favour after just a day. Now I’m legitimately angry. I call them up and they open an appeal of the case, and tell me to send along an assessment from a third party to an email. After then being told to upload it instead, they can’t accept it for some reason. I reach out to Barney Ludkins, an unbelievably helpful guy who runs a grading service here in the UK, and he says he’ll be able to help me out, so I send him the Charizard. Presently I’m waiting on him getting back to me with his assessment.
Then today I get an email from paypal saying that if I don’t fax (seriously? Why can’t I just upload it like I did before? Or, you know, email you like the first guy said I could) them the document by tomorrow they’ll be forced to decide in the seller’s favour.
Sorry for the rant, and thank you if you managed to make it through all that. I’m really annoyed right now, so if any of you have any suggestions, I’d be really grateful.
