Buyer Beware

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Posted By: Mark Burke

I would not be surprised if this topic has not been covered before so I apologize for the potential redundancy.

There is a seller on ebay, jojosportsheaven, (http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZjojosportsheaven) who sells trimmed cards. I tried to shut this guy down by contacting ebay. They temporarily removed his auctions but now they are back. He has added the words, "well restored" to his auctions now which means "doctored" to the educated buyer but probably has no meaning to a good number of ebay buyers. So, I asked my company's attorney whether this seller has violated any laws. Here's what he said:

"It would be fraud if use of “well restored” does not put the burden on the buyer to view the card before purchasing. In other words, does use of “restored” create a “buyer beware” situation where the onus shifts to the buyer, or does use of “restored” not shift burden for something like trimming such that the seller should have disclosed it."

So, the conclusion is "it all comes down to whether the use of “restored” creates a buyer beware situation under law, such that the buyer buys at his own risk if he does not inspect first". In this case, "the Seller made the disclaimer that the condition is only his opinion, and there were no guarantees". In addition, using the words "well restored" even though it does not specifically state or even imply the cards are trimmed, essentially covers the guys legal exposure. So, it appears that the wording in the auction has created a "buyer beware" situation which would eliminate the fraud charge.

So, a cleverly worded product description is all you need to skirt the law and rip people off on ebay. That is very concerning to me because there are a lot of new collectors who must get burned, and subsequently turned off to this great hobby.

I am wondering if anyone here has ever heard of a lawsuit related to this matter and what the results were.