Photo sellers watch out for this guy: ferdie1951

[Runscott]

Sold him a photo on ebay and it was returned as damaged because it had a sticker on the back of it. He attempted to remove it and couldn't. Ebay found in HIS favor and I have to pay for his shipping and provide a full refund. I will be appealing once I have the item in hand and can show the damage he did to the back of it.

Minimal value item, but it's the principal of the thing:

Mel Ott photo on ebay

[thecatspajamas]

What an idiot. Thanks for the heads-up. Never been a fan of those permanent barcode labels, and this gives me one more reason to dislike them.

[D. Bergin]

Silly, it's right there in the picture you put up.

It's actually one of the reasons I prefer photos over cards. Photo guys don't generally care about crap like that, it's just one more sign of usage, for whatever reason. It's the image on the front that's important.

Did this guy think it was going to help him with a PSA grade to tear it off?

[drcy]

Not a fan of modern bar codes, but it was obviously there in the picture before he bought it. As with buying trade cards in a scrapbook album, you try to remove it at your own risk.

[Michael B]

Originally Posted by drcy

Not a fan of modern bar codes, but it was obviously there in the picture before he bought it. As with buying trade cards in a scrapbook album, you try to remove it at your own risk.

Unfortunately, that is the way that Historic Images and Jay Parrino (JP the Mint, MMG Archives) keep track of the newspaper archives they are selling. I do know that Historic Images uses some stickers that are easily removed from the back as I do it all the time. One of the owners of HI is a member here and has mentioned that as such.

David, as for scrapbooks, isn't distilled water a wonderful thing? I have had great success using it on those equine based glues both removing items from pages and removing glue from the back of items using q-tips. My cast iron book press (think Uncle Fester in the Addams Family) also helps flatten the items after removal.

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by Michael B

Unfortunately, that is the way that Historic Images and Jay Parrino (JP the Mint, MMG Archives) keep track of the newspaper archives they are selling. I do know that Historic Images uses some stickers that are easily removed from the back as I do it all the time. One of the owners of HI is a member here and has mentioned that as such.

There are lots of 'things' not original to the print that can be removed from their backs, but I never do it unless I need to expose something else on the back that is helpful;e.g.-photographer's stamp or writing. It just doesn't make sense to me to remove something off a non-displayable area of an item, purely for aesthetic reasons.

The front is a different matter, but even removing crop marks or bits of glued-on paper is unnecessary unless you plan on displaying or selling the print. Just my opinion - lots of personal preferences here.

As an update, I discussed with ebay's escalation department and they admitted their error. Amazing, but true. It will get handles to my satisfaction.

[Runscott]

Interesting outcome. So I talked with appeals at ebay, they said that I should contact them when the item is returned, and they would reverse their decision and close the case in my favor.

I let the buyer know this. So he closed the case and left a negative feedback.

I then called ebay back and they told me that the negative feedback stands, but that if the buyer had NOT closed the case, the negative would have been removed when ebay found in my favor

Here's how to add a bidder to your ebay blocked bidder list. This guy is nothing but trouble for vintage photo sellers: adding ebay i.d.'s to your blocked bidder list

[thecatspajamas]

Already added him to my banned list after your initial post. Reminded me too much of the buyer I had once who demanded a replacement comic book because he had somehow managed to get packing tape stuck to the cover when unpacking it and it pulled off part of the cover. I was the one who had used packing tape in preparing the package for shipping, so naturally it was my fault

There are too many sensible buyers out there to deal with such idiots if it can at all be avoided.

[Runscott]

He must have gotten off his meds at some point during the transaction and had to attempt to fvck someone over in order to feel good. I get it - most of us have bad days and sometimes do stupid things. My problem is with ebay - they admitted their mistake to me and that if they had handled the case correctly the first time, not forcing me to appeal it, the negative feedback would have been removed automatically. But because ebay screwed up, giving the guy a chance to withdraw his complaint, the appeal was automatically dropped and his feedback counts.

Poor, poor job by ebay. As a result, all of the items I was going to sell there are going here first. In the future ebay will be a last resort for anything valuable.

[drcy]

I removed a sticker off of the news photo once. It came off easy and if it didn't I wold have quite trying. And if I damaged the photo in the process I would have blamed me not the seller.

[Runscott]

Turns out that this was a dumb kid using his father's dormant ebay account. The father had never given a negative or received one. I googled the kid's full name as well as his father's. The father is a useful member of the community. The kid has a lengthy arrest record, including drugs.

I sent him a link to this thread. Hopefully he'll light up his crack pipe and join us.

[kevlewis]

Scott thanks for the headsup! Im going to block him right now. Dont need a cancer in the hobby.

[JustinD]

Originally Posted by Runscott

I then called ebay back and they told me that the negative feedback stands, but that if the buyer had NOT closed the case, the negative would have been removed when ebay found in my favor

This is exactly why I avoid selling on eBay at all costs. There is absolutely zilch for seller protection if you have a crappy buyer. From the massive fees, constant Non-payers, the negative feedbacks for nothing and stupid return policies I gave up long ago. I liked the days when I could know a poor bidder from their feedback, now there is no way to warn the next seller.

Been using ebay since the Cowboy days of the mid- nineties when I could order some amazing piles of prewar cards for 10 bucks titled simply "old cards" and everyone didn't have a shoebox of 1988 topps with a starting bid of 2k. The only upside since then is not waiting 2 weeks for someone to mail you a bad check when you clearly stated money orders only and finding out you just gave your items away and got a 20 dollar bad check fee from the bank...lol.