Seller's Auction Rules And Certification

I have no dog in this fight; I bought one thing on ebay one time, and have never listed anything for sale ... though I expect to, one of these days.

That having been said, I do care about sloppy thinking, especially when it comes to other people's character & motivations.

So let us consider the other side of the coin: a buyer.

If the buyer has, say, three months to expertise an item, that is three months during which that same item might come available at one of the major auction houses, at a dealer with their want list, at their local stamp club, at any of the mittelstand auctions at SAN, or at any of the zillions of folks selling on ebay.

Let's assume innocence: the buyer has stumbled into this temptation, and has not asked for the expertization interval in order to wait for a scheduled public auction to close. It is in the nature of financial transactions that a better deal always looks like a fairer deal, which allows a certain moral flexibility to rear its ugly head.

Meanwhile, on the seller's side, whether/not the item is on consignment, the seller is still being denied cash flow during the expertization interval, still can't show the item to somebody else at an APS stamp show (for example), etc.

Moreover, the seller is aware of the temptation interval, and knows just as little about the character of the buyer as the buyer knows about the character of the seller.

Therefor:

The buyer wants more time, so as to obtain a certificate.

The seller does not want to agree to more time.

The buyer & the seller have not come to terms.

Done.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

If the seller is a professional dealer, which this one is, then he knows about certs and understands that the waiting period is part of the business model. This is just one of many thousands of items he has up for sale so cash flow should have no bearing on it. If it does he needs a new line of work.
There are many philatelic items where getting a cert ranges from "essential" to "highly recommended". Knowing this is also part of the business model.
It seems to me that any stamp in the W-F issues that cats more than a hundred dollars should have a cert if purchased online unless one knows the seller personally. It's a series rife with regums, reperfs, and altered stamps.

Hi Howell1018,
I have thought about this question you asked, my response is= make sure you pay by credit card or through paypal, ask the seller every question you possibly can that you have doubt's about, bid on the item, if you have won, the item will be sent to you, do any checks etc you need to do to satisfy your needs, (referring to the UK law here so make sure you check your law in your country), if the item has been paid or partially paid for through paypal you are covered for up to 45 days from the date you sent the money for your item, if you pay by credit card you have to spend over £100.00 to be covered for bank liability,(the bank will refund you if you are scammed), forget about the seller's term's about the refund, its about time we all knew our rights and stand by them, I dont mean to sound bad but this is the only way I can actually put it, the one main concern for me would be, why he/she is only allowing you 21 days to check it? does he/she not want you to check it? remember the DSR (Distance Selling Regulations), thats is why I tell you to ask all the questions you need to ask, if they have hidden the truth then you can send it back by a recorded letter etc as not as described, Im not a bad person honnest, I have just heard alot of storys about things like this and now know how to defeat the scammer. Remember to check the laws in your country, these are the laws for the UK, I hope you take my response kindly,Take care all,
Turbo

Now that we know which dealer this is, I have to admit they are one of my favorites. In my experience, their practice has been to allow a return and refund of the purchase price after getting a "bad" cert. I eat the cost of the certification, which is generally fine.

They do list a lot of material that ends up being faulty. Typically, I will study the image closely, and if I'm satisfied I don't see any problems, I'll bid. Once the item arrived I'll check it carefully myself. if I find a fault, I'll return it then, and I'm just out the return postage. If it still looks good I'll send it in for certification - sometimes I missed something, but I can still get my purchase price back - even a couple of months after the purchase. Of course, I always let them know in advance that I plan to have it certified once it arrived and it looks good to me..

I've gotten some very nice items from them. They have a huge inventory.

Matt

Now that I know the seller is Ji, I can tell you he has a small army working for him. Doubt he checks every stamp he sells.

Hi,
as I personally have no experience with this seller I cannot comment any further, I wish you the best of luck, Take care,
Turbo

I'm curious as to why you think this is fine. The seller has obviously misrepresented the stamp, leaving you out of pocket. I think paying for a cert to verify what you have is fine, but if the cert comes back bad, the dealer should reimburse you for doing his homework, i.e. properly identifying the stamp.

"I'm curious as to why you think this is fine. The seller has obviously misrepresented the stamp, leaving you out of pocket. I think paying for a cert to verify what you have is fine, but if the cert comes back bad, the dealer should reimburse you for doing his homework, i.e. properly identifying the stamp.";

Congratulations! Your opinion is, in my opinion (no pun intended) exactly "on the money". Not only does he sell many stamps that have undisclosed faults, but also sells a LOT that are completely misidentified, fake coils, fake #519s, cleaned 19th C. stamps sold as unused, etc. He's been around for MANY years. By now, there's no way he should list as many misrepresented stamps as he does. It is patently unfair to expect a buyer to "prove" his purchase is correctly represented and bear the cost if it's not. An ethical seller is always willing to reimburse failed expertizing costs. Check out the terms of sale of high-end honest retail dealers like Century Stamps, University, Ventura, Princeton, Alan Cohen, Chris Rupp, Richard Champagne, etc. They ALL will reimburse failed cert. costs, as will ALL public auctions. It is only the ethically challenged who won't. Buy from such sellers at your own peril. You will end up returning a lot of stamps - and that's assuming you are skillful enough to actually detect any fault(s) that might be present (many collectors aren't).

ckstamps has a similar policy (no surprise since he used to work for nystamps)

"For single stamp Scott CV over $450, if the buyer wishes to send it for identification
and result is not as described, we will cover the $5 identification fee.
Please note we don't cover certification and shipping fee"