So I was selling off the last of my packs, ya know the ones I had since I was a 10/11 year old boy back in the day and of the three buyers, one disputes today and requests that I pay for the return shipping.
Normally I would not mind but for a pack of 1st edition base set I’m very skeptical, the buyer is claiming the pack has been tampered with. I had photos up for the listing that clearly show what he claims is proof the pack was tampered with.
I don’t accept returns on international orders( I’m in Canada) because outside of shipping costs I also have to pay customs fees so when all is said and done I’m out more than it’s worth and that’s for regular orders but this man is trying to claim I sold him a fake pack. I have been collecting forever and know I did nothing to tamper with the pack(s). As far as I know tampering didn’t start taking place until many years after I took possession of the bulk of my packs. Regardless, I’ve included the photos from my listing and from the buyer and I’d like to know what you guys think! Does the pack look odd? Does the buyer have any validity to what he is saying or is he just trying to take me for a ride so to speak?
The packs have never left my possession and although over the years I have been tempted to open a few packs I would never in a million years sell a non authentic, tampered with pack so this whole thing is just super sketchy to me.
Honestly there is nothing you can do to prevent the return if he wants it to happen. eBay will side with him, unless a simple message saying it’s real is enough to sway him then it’s coming back to you. Also FYI tampering of all kinds has been around since the very start.
The only further issue that may come up is if he tampers with the pack himself before returning it, or returning something different than what he bought. Then you are in a tighter spot with all of this and would have to fight it out through an eBay case. This is one of my big reservations with loose packs. Tampering mainly through resealing is going to be a bigger and bigger issue as prices go up.
yep, eBay basically will hustle you on this. in the event of a return, you can call customer service and try to get a settlement with eBay. i was only able to get 50% of my sold value last time with a pack that was returned after being opened, and the buyer didn’t even bother to put all the cards back. it is possible to get 100%, i’ve heard. good luck.
Wow. This is the first time I’ve ever had to deal with it. So basically anyone can just order anything they want, say it was tampered with or some excuse, send back nothing/opened packs and ebay will give the buyer the money back? There’s no way ebay STILL to this day, after losing over half of their sellers to competition due to this exact reason???
That doesn’t seem right? What is stopping me from hypothetically getting a $1,000,000 loan, buying $1,000,000 worth of ( insert valuable ebay item here) , when said item(s) arrive open dispute and return items… $1,000 is too much to lose no matter how much you make in my opinion. I won’t lose sleep over the money but rather the fact that things such as this can take place.
Was the front and back of the pack shown in the listing? The pack is definitely misaligned in regards to the seal, but that can happen at the factory, either way if the buyer is unhappy you’ll save a lot of headache and stress by taking a small financial hit and accepting the return
He could open the pack, keep the cards, and still get his money back by claiming that the pack was tampered with. Regardless of the situation I would recommend going into a “save what you can” mode because 95% of the time ebay will side with the buyer. Worse case scenario he keeps the pack and ebay will force the refund. I know it sucks, but he could have opened the pack and claimed that the wrong cards were inside - so maybe it’s best to just try to minimize your losses instead of losing it all. I wish you the best of luck!
The answer to this is morals, conscience and just generally not being a dirtbag. Thankfully most people are not dirtbags and have some moral compass. The thing is when we find anyone like that we must out them, blacklist them, report them and block them. eBay will side with buyers most times, but any user that has a history of abusing returns, feedback extortion and things of that nature eBay will eventually give up on. Note that many times that eBay sides with the buyer, they are refunding them out of their own pocket as they also return the money to the seller. I have had this happen several times due to my track record as a seller.
Do note though that we can’t lump this current buyer into any of those categories yet. He may just be genuinely leery of the pack fading noted in the photo and may return the pack to you in it’s proper state. Hopefully that will be the case.
I would consider contacting the relevant authorities (or at least implying the threat of doing so to the buyer) depending on how much money we are talking about here. That way you could increase the odds of getting your pack back untampered if nothing else.
What do more experienced sellers think of this?
Gary, can you tell me your thoughts on the pack? Forgetting that I’ve had possession for a very very long time, do you feel the buyers reasoning for believing it’s not authentic is accurate? I know all about the errors that were in the origin of Pokemon cards so I know it’s most likely a factory error. Your name is a pretty big force in general collecting so I’d like for people at ebay to see your thoughts on the issue if you didn’t mind?
Can I suggest you ask the buyer to post pictures here on e4 so he can get expert opinions first hand? Just a simple front and back closeup.
If he’s reasonable at all, he will do that for the feedback:)
