An Ebay transaction first -soliciting opinions

[packs]

If I sold someone an unopened 1952 Topps pack and that person took it upon themselves to open it, no way is it acceptable to expect a full refund for an unopened pack of cards you decided to open.

An unopened poster is unopened. There is no reasonable expectation for the seller to know the condition of something that has never been opened. Using the unopened pack as an example, would it be appropriate for a buyer of an unopened pack to expect a refund if they opened the pack and found the cards were off center? If the piece of gum inside the pack stained the top or bottom card?

[Jim65]

Originally Posted by packs

If I sold someone an unopened 1952 Topps pack and that person took it upon themselves to open it, no way is it acceptable to expect a full refund for an unopened pack of cards you decided to open.

An unopened poster is unopened. There is no reasonable expectation for the seller to know the condition of something that has never been opened. Using the unopened pack as an example, would it be appropriate for a buyer of an unopened pack to expect a refund if they opened the pack and found the cards were off center? If the piece of gum inside the pack stained the top or bottom card?

Big difference is off centered cards don't happen by seller storing improperly.

[packs]

That's as much an assumption as anything else. Just my opinion but the seller sold a sealed poster and delivered a sealed poster. If the buyer wanted a poster it could see the condition of, there was probably an opportunity to buy one that wasn't sealed. By buying something you can't see, you are assuming the risk of what it turns out to be.

[steve B]

How much was it?

I didn't have many problems, and none on anything that was any decent amount of money.
Most of the stuff I sold was cheap, and if the buyers were at all pleasant about things I'd usually just refund them and move on without asking for the item back.
If they weren't nice about it, I did things differently.

Each case was different, but I usually went with the easiest thing.

[drcy]

Unless there was obvious 'external circumstances' damage to it (obvious from the outside that it was damaged-- torn, dented, mildew, water damage) the item is sold "as is." The seller is not expected to be a savant or svengali, and the buyer is often buying an unopened box for the gamble.

However, eBay is eBay. They can and often are wrong, but have final say.

Maybe it will happen that a buyer will want a refund because he didn't pull any 10s from an unopened box-- and perhaps eBay will give it to him.

[hcv123]

Again - thank you all for your input - the conflicting perspectives highlight well the dilemma and questions.

1) Is it reasonable to expect that the buyer would keep the poster in its unopened state seems like the really important consideration.

My thought after mulling this over is that it is a more reasonable scenario in the case of a poster (significantly different in my mind from an unopened pack of cards) that a buyer will want to open and display it and would be purchasing one that was unopened expecting it to be in better condition than an opened one.

2) There was no "intent to deceive" on either part - of course I couldn't know about the damage and nor could the buyer.

3) The poster including shipping was about $200 - somewhat irrelevant in my mind to the question at hand.

4) Everything that has been stated about Ebay - in my experience is 100% accurate and if it got to a "not as described case" I am almost certain Ebay would side with the buyer - regardless of reasonable mitigating circumstances.

5) The buyer has in the mean time communicated he wants a 100% refund. I am going to give it to him - 90% because I believe that is reasonable given the circumstances and 10% because any other decision would more than likely come back to bite me in the ass with Ebay!

[tschock]

Originally Posted by hcv123

Again - thank you all for your input - the conflicting perspectives highlight well the dilemma and questions.

1) Is it reasonable to expect that the buyer would keep the poster in its unopened state seems like the really important consideration.

My thought after mulling this over is that it is a more reasonable scenario in the case of a poster (significantly different in my mind from an unopened pack of cards) that a buyer will want to open and display it and would be purchasing one that was unopened expecting it to be in better condition than an opened one.

2) There was no "intent to deceive" on either part - of course I couldn't know about the damage and nor could the buyer.

3) The poster including shipping was about $200 - somewhat irrelevant in my mind to the question at hand.

4) Everything that has been stated about Ebay - in my experience is 100% accurate and if it got to a "not as described case" I am almost certain Ebay would side with the buyer - regardless of reasonable mitigating circumstances.

5) The buyer has in the mean time communicated he wants a 100% refund. I am going to give it to him - 90% because I believe that is reasonable given the circumstances and 10% because any other decision would more than likely come back to bite me in the ass with Ebay!

Just curious. Are you asking him to return the poster? I think for me, and as someone else pointed out, it depends on the 'pain point'. Again, just curious.