Ebay REALLY wants people to allow returns no matter what, so they’ll probably let the buyer win this one. If you haven’t noticed, you cannot get the Top Seller status unless you allow returns 14 days after purchase and have 1 day handling time. Basically, ebay wants all of its sellers to operate like professional businesses.
Best of luck.
Do you allow returns?
If so, you are unfortunately obligated to accept a return for any reason.
I do not allow returns.
I also do not think that there is reasonable cause for a forced return.
It is literally only through eBay that this scenario would be conducted the way it is.
Pictures are basically useless when judging condition so you shouldn’t refer to them for condition and instead describe exact condition and any tiny flaws you see. For example scratches on the front are invisible in the photos. If the card is mint with no flaws then say so.
Some buyers don’t have a lot of experience so be very specific cause otherwise you leave it up to them to “assume” and if their assumption is wrong they’ll be unhappy.
Now for most of us, if we see a seller refer to his picture for condition we’ll have to send messages for more specific info which wastes a lot of time and often costs the seller a sale.
Unfortunately I’m almost certain eBay is going to rule in the buyer’s favor on this case, he/she will be able to return the card to you for a full refund. I know this does not sound fair, but it’s just something you have to learn to deal with when selling on eBay.
As far as your description on this card, I completely agree with Gary. You need to actually state the condition in the item description in order to kind of cover yourself. Don’t rely on the picture(s) to solely “state” the condition of the card(s). Use the picture(s) to enforce what’s stated in the item description.
When I sell ungraded cards, I do allow for the possibility of return because how we determine the condition of the card is very subjective. I would usually describe a card as NM even with very slight edge wear only. It’s hard to argue with buyers when all they want is to return the item and get their money back. I have submitted a lot of my NM cards to PSA that came back as PSA9.
When selling graded cards, I would not accept returns.
eBay is severely leaning toward helping the buyer from being scammed, but what they dont realize is as sellers, we get scammed too. they shouldn’t lean one way.
if the guy didnt think it was worth what he paid he shouldn’t have went through with buying it. its his own fault
I think something being overlooked by many in this is that the person is not complaining about the condition of the card.
They are complaining about the card not being worth what they paid.
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I feel bad for you mate 
This is another reason why I don’t sell/buy on ebay.
It seems sellers ALWAYS have the issues.
- There are too many sellers, so you are constantly undermined.
- There is too much ambiguity with people “misreading”
- They can still return
But you’re the one who said in this post,
“1) The card is in the EXACT condition pictured above.”
That’s what we were referring to. Maybe he looked at it and found a little problem that wasn’t mentioned in the description and couldn’t be seen in the picture and figured, due to that flaw, it wasn’t “worth what I paid.”
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I also do not accept returns. If had a brick-and-mortar storefront, I would not accept returns or exchanges. Too often, the collectible market is an ever-changing place. And far too often, too many people “change their mind” after opening, handling, or otherwise doing something to the merchandise as to decrease its value. The only exceptions I have made to this is with (live events such as pokemon events or flea markets) when a little kid changes their mind, before leaving the table with the merchandise (and before handling the merchandise).
2 stories - I am on a venting spree.
At a walmart I bought the Sinnoh DX pokemon figure playset. This is when they had stopped carrying pokemon toys for a bit, and all that was left was on clearance and had been there for at least a year. So the box still looked new, but the tape had come undone. I figured it was just normal shelf wear. Imagine my surprise, when I opened the box, and saw that all pieces were there minus 1- but were heavily used. The set was supposed to come with a can of red ooze “lava” and the ooze was not there - yet dried ALL over all pieces! I decided that I would keep, it and after an hour was able to get all pieces clean. I realized someone must have bought the set, heavily played with it for some time, then returned it. Walmart was probably clueless. But the lack of tact that the buyer/parent used ----- well they should feel ashamed for what they did. Clearly “just a change of mind”.
A 2nd story is a live event - where I was selling pokemon goods. A girl ran up from nowhere, grabbed a mint pachirisu for sale - had to tell her it was for sale because she looked like she would run off with it. Parents nowhere to be seen. Then she ran off, left plush pachirisu of course, but what she left was orange cheesy marks from Cheetos all over the once-pristine plush white pachirisu! I was livid, as there is a parent doing there job poorly while their kid just ruined the merchandise. I actually sold the pachirisu a lil later, but had to explain the orange and appolgize. From then on, all pokemon plush and figures go into plastic ziplock bags for protection. Not to be opened until paid for.
Lifes hard lessons.