Auction House Question

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Posted By: James Gallo

So I would like some opinions about something that happened to me today at the Philly show.

I purchased a card from a well known auction house about a month ago for $250 after BP. Upon receiving the card I thought the boarders were a bit off, but seeing as the card was in low grade and that this set can have odd cuts I figured I would just get it graded and if there was a problem deal with it then.

Here was the description of the card from the auction

"Very rough card may have had a tear repaired near the center. Card has extensive creasing, a scrape on the back and general wear."

When I looked over the pictures and especially after I got the card I knew there was no repair to the card and expected it to grade an SGC 10.

I submitted it to SGC today to get it on site graded at a cost of $35.

Later in the day they proceeded to tell me that the card was in fact trimmed on the top and bottom.

I went over to the dealer and talked to him about the issue, and requested a $75 refund and that I keep the card. The firs thing out of his mouth was that I should let PSA grade it and that he only deals with PSA and does not believe SGC. Needless to say we went back and forth for a while as this card in a PSA holder does me no good. He also tried to tell me that based on the description that I shouldn't have expected anything other then an authentic grade anyway.

After going back to SGC to clear up that fact that there was no tear repair and that is was not getting a SGC 10 grade specifically because it was trimmed the dealer finally offered to give me a refund of my purchase price but refused to pay the grading fee. I didn't feel this was right as the card could be put in a SGC authentic holder and that the that cost should be covered as well. The dealer refused and I kept the card and walked away a very unhappy customer.

So my question is should the dealer have just given me the $75 refund from the start and or covered the grading fee if he was taking the card back. I didn't see any reason I should be stuck wasting a $35 grading fee especially on a card I was not keeping. To me it was not the $35 but the fact that I had to argue with this dealer about several issues including what he felt that card would grade at and that because he doesn't like SGC there opinion does count. It was the first time I have had an issue like this and no matter what I will not deal with this seller again.

Ironically, I had heard some negative things about this seller and instead of gaining a customer he has alienated yet another collector.

So what do you think, how far should a dealer go to make the customer happy and where should the liability lie in this case?

Thanks

James G

Looking for 1915 Cracker Jacks and 1909-11 American Caramel E90-1.