ebay return shipping & t206 length opinions please

[tonyo]

I'm hoping a few t206heads will offer their opinion on the length of a card I recently won on ebay.

and also hope some ebay sellers will chime in with their opinion on return shipping costs.


I received the card maybe two days ago, automatically left positive feedback (which I've begun doing immediately upon receiving the card), sat down this a.m. to insert the card in my set (and replace the previous version). I noticed the new card was a good bit shorter than the old card, so I checked it against several more and sure enough it is shorter than the first dozen that I checked. I went back to check the listing to see if I missed something pointing out that the card was trimmed, then wrote the seller to tell him I'd like to return and receive a refund including the cost to return the card.


Ultimately it's not a big deal to me either way.... it is a hofer, but not a big dollar card or anything, just wanted to return a short card without any fanfare. I don't have many visual rules for cards to pass my smell test, but I don't like knowing I have a trimmed card.

You'll see the sellers response below, which made the needle on my "not-so-polite" o-meter jump a small tad and caused a bit of a frown.

So, I looked at the card once more. Honestly the edges don't show any signs I recognize of trimming, but it is no doubt short. I checked it against a dozen more t206's, all noticeably longer. The new card measures about 2-9/16" long.

Decided I'd see what happens if I start a thread for a change & maybe the responses will help out a new t206 collector


So, the questions are; does the sov460 card appear trimmed & would you say it's odd to find a factory cut card 1/16" short.?

As I'm typing this I have a gut feeling that I will find out the consensus to be "nothing unusual here" and I'll keep the card. No worries if that's the case.


Also, do you ebay sellers balk at refunding the cost of return shipping? Seems to me that generally speaking if I buy something and receive a product I didn't expect, it shouldn't cost me anything to return it. Again no biggy just wondering what folks think.


Thanks for some feedback,

Tony

the ebay listing:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/231861446924...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

my note to the seller:


Hi There,

I just noticed that this card is about 1/8" shorter than all my other t206's and thus consider it to be trimmed. I reviewed the listing and see no mention of trimming,

Therefore I'd like to return the card for a refund including the cost to ship.

If you could forward your mailing address, I'll return the card post haste.

Thanks and have a good weekend!

Tony

and his response:
That card is not trimmed. You can send it back though if you believe that to be the case. As long as I get the same card back I have no problems with returns.

Send it to:
XXXXXXXXXXX

Also I will refund you but will not be refunding the shipping it takes for you to get it back to me.

[bnorth]

If you are not happy with the card just return in and eat the shipping cost. The seller seemed pretty accommodating to me so no reason for your "not-so-nice" meter to do anything. Good luck and hope it works out for you.

EDIT: I know nothing about the T206 cards so didn't comment on it.

[tonyo]

Hey Ben,

Thanks for the response. I'm neither "happy" nor "un-happy" to a degree worth worrying about.

I'm more hoping this thread will turn into an informative one regarding t206 (and maybe pre war cards in general) sizes and trimming.

also opinions of return shipping.

maybe along the way it will sway me toward "shrugging my shoulders" and keeping the card vs returning it. But that is secondary.

Have a great Saturday!

Tony

[Leon]

Form my less-than-an-expert point of view, if a T206 is a full 1/8th inch short I would think it is probably trimmed or severely miscut.

I am in agreement on shipping costs...my mistake I eat, their mistake they eat.

Originally Posted by tonyo

Hey Ben,

Thanks for the response. I'm neither "happy" nor "un-happy" to a degree worth worrying about.

I'm more hoping this thread will turn into an informative one regarding t206 (and maybe pre war cards in general) sizes and trimming.

also opinions of return shipping.

maybe along the way it will sway me toward "shrugging my shoulders" and keeping the card vs returning it. But that is secondary.

Have a great Saturday!

Tony

[Cozumeleno]

Sorry that happened to you - I would agree that it looks trimmed to me.

My question is if the seller is really liable here for the return shipping. If I were selling it, it's not worth the hassle of having an unhappy buyer so I would accept the return and pay for the return shipping. But he also listed the card as fair to poor and as a trimmed card, poor is what it is. I realize the amount of creasing makes it poor, anyway, but I would probably feel differently if the card didn't have as much creasing and he listed the card as Good or something. By calling it fair to poor, I think he technically covers himself on a trimmed card.

He certainly needs to accept the return but the description actually matches what the card is since he calls it either fair or poor, IMO.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by Cozumeleno

Sorry that happened to you - I would agree that it looks trimmed to me.

My question is if the seller is really liable here for the return shipping. If I were selling it, it's not worth the hassle of having an unhappy buyer so I would accept the return and pay for the return shipping. But he also listed the card as fair to poor and as a trimmed card, poor is what it is. I realize the amount of creasing makes it poor, anyway, but I would probably feel differently if the card didn't have as much creasing and he listed the card as Good or something. By calling it fair to poor, I think he technically covers himself on a trimmed card.

He certainly needs to accept the return but the description actually matches what the card is since he calls it either fair or poor, IMO.

Agree. It's an off-grade card to begin with. If you want to buy on approval, you need to at least eat the return shipping cost.

[Luke]

Originally Posted by Cozumeleno

Sorry that happened to you - I would agree that it looks trimmed to me.

My question is if the seller is really liable here for the return shipping. If I were selling it, it's not worth the hassle of having an unhappy buyer so I would accept the return and pay for the return shipping. But he also listed the card as fair to poor and as a trimmed card, poor is what it is. I realize the amount of creasing makes it poor, anyway, but I would probably feel differently if the card didn't have as much creasing and he listed the card as Good or something. By calling it fair to poor, I think he technically covers himself on a trimmed card.

He certainly needs to accept the return but the description actually matches what the card is since he calls it either fair or poor, IMO.

Yeah, I agree with this. Ebay return policy is that buyer pays return shipping. I've only returned a few items, but I have always paid the shipping.

I think that since he called it a poor condition card, he has done everything he needed to. None of us can be sure that it is trimmed, so I wouldn't expect the seller to make a judgement call for sure one way or the other.

When I am selling a card that in my opinion has a chance to be trimmed, I mention the possibility. I think that is the ideal way to handle it, but if the card is low grade and the seller mentions that and provides a good scan, I think that is enough.

[tonyo]

Originally Posted by Cozumeleno

By calling it fair to poor, I think he technically covers himself on a trimmed card.

He certainly needs to accept the return but the description actually matches what the card is since he calls it either fair or poor, IMO.

I've never even considered "poor" to mean "it could be trimmed"

Do others (beside Luke... I read your comments and consider them valid) really believe this? Comes as a bit of surprise to me.

Originally Posted by LukeLyon

Ebay return policy is that buyer pays return shipping.

I wasn't aware of this. If true, I'll never question that again as I'm all about written rules.

[savedfrommyspokes]

Originally Posted by tonyo

Also, do you ebay sellers balk at refunding the cost of return shipping? Seems to me that generally speaking if I buy something and receive a product I didn't expect, it shouldn't cost me anything to return it. Again no biggy just wondering what folks think.
[/I]

For a clear case of buyer's remorse, as a seller, I will not cover the return s/h as that is how my listings are worded ("buyer pays return s/h") and the buyer is responsible for understanding this point up front before bidding. However, when there is a mistake on my end, I will absolutely cover the return s/h.

In regards to this situation, if it is agreed this card is trimmed, I would open a request for this transaction with ebay and specifically cite the card is trimmed and "not as described" as the trimming was not mentioned. The seller will then cover the return s/h costs.