A minor trading problem - advice please

Thorf · Post by **Thorf** » Sat Mar 01, 2008 2:59 am

I recently bought a full set of English METW Limited cards on ebay.  They arrived yesterday, and although in general I am happy, unfortunately there are a few problems too.

First, the cards were packed poorly.  As a result, two cards, one rare and one uncommon, were bent.

Second, although the full set is present, three of the cards are not English, but French.

Third, although the description listed the cards as mint or near mint, some of the cards are very clearly play-worn (all commons, so it's not the end of the world), while most of the rare site cards are very mildly warped.

I e-mailed the seller to inform them of these problems, and stated my desire to come to some sort of amicable compromise that allows me to come away from the transaction with a good feeling, and thus avoid leaving negative feedback.  I can forgive the third problem without comment, since it is just a few commons really that are not near mint condition, and in fact I didn't mention it in my e-mail at all.

But the first two problems are more serious.  The end result is that I paid for a full English set, and ended up with a full set minus 5 cards, plus 3 extra French cards.

Has anyone had problems like these before?  How would you/did you deal with it?  I'd be interested to hear some advice on what sort of compromise would be appropriate to smooth out the problems.  Obviously the best solution would be for the seller to provide the 5 missing/damaged cards, but that may well not be possible.

tbadiuk · Post by **tbadiuk** » Sat Mar 01, 2008 6:57 am

For what it's worth:

I've been collecting for 10+ years now and have learned the hard way the NM/M means different things to different people unfortunately.  

  Nothing beats opening sealed booster packs!  (Although, I've noticed starters tend to have some damage on the first card in the pack which is a rare, plus some languages were printed with very poor/dull card cutting, but I digress)

I've actually had similar to what you write below happen to me in trades and purchases multiple times.  Usually in trades things have worked out well and the other party has been very helpful exchanging/replacing cards.  

Purchases, when money is involved, not so much.  What I've done in these cases (when the seller won't co-operate) is just re-list the item on Ebay/etc (as I knew that I now would never be happy with the cards) with a more accurate description and eat the loss.  Either that or do a paypal claim where applicable.  It's not an optimal solution I know (sucks,really) but I've found it's the one that gives the least heartache in the long run...sort of like ripping a bandage off quickly!  :lol:  

Ted

Thorf · Post by **Thorf** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 1:56 pm

Thanks for the advice.

It seems that I have been lucky this time: the seller not only offered to replace the cards that were in the wrong language, but also to give me some extra cards from my wants list as a gift.  And he responded promptly and politely.  I couldn't have asked for more.  :)