Do You Message Sellers About Mistakes?

Having just sent a message to a Delcampe seller who had listed a forgery as genuine (in the title) but at least had put "may be an official reprint" in the description, I was curious to know if others find themselves compelled to poke their nose into auctions they're not going to bid on.

Do you think there's an etiquette involved? Should you or shouldn't you butt in? I'm talking more about the ones that are probably or possibly honest mistakes - scammers are another matter. And I don't include just overpricing either, there's plenty of that around! I mean more like incorrect identification. I don't make a habit of it - let potential buyers beware and make their own decisions, but sometimes I just can't help myself. I'm always polite and do it in a sharing knowledge kind of way, and so far I haven't been abused, even if they don't agree .

So, are there other's like me that just can't sit there and let it slide when they see glaring mistakes? Or do you think it's not our business to interfere?

Something to ponder.

Balf

If it bothers me that the seller does not properly describe the item, I just dont bid on it

If it is an obvious scam I would say something. That way others will not buy something that they were deceived on.

i just do the logical thing every time which may or may not be logical

I Dont see anything wrong with letting them know that you "think" there could be a mistake in their description.

It could save the seller some embarrassment and a buyer some disappointment.

Good on Ya!

with Greg.




Butch

As an occasional seller, I would appreciate any mistakes being pointed out. It saves on hassles later and cranky customers.

It also could affect the value of the item. Buyers always seem to find the mistakes that are in their favor!

Dan

Ya sure! You betcha!

Most have seem to appreciate the info & make the correction!

Mike

I recently had emailed a seller on ebay about what seemed to me to be an overpriced cachet cover with pictorial postmark ie. event cover. The seller responded that "someone would buy it". The auction still hasn't closed, so we will see.

I do it quite a lot at one auction site for several reasons:

1. Some of the sellers are my buddies, and I know that people make innocent mistakes. I don't want my buddies getting into trouble because of an innocent mistake.

2. To test new sellers. How they respond to my inquiry/notice gives me an idea how they might respond if I bought a stamp from them that turns out to be problematic.

3. It is to my benefit that as many people at the auction site get involved in filtering out fakes/frauds. When we are all active in monitoring, then the site gets a reputation for aggressive action toward scammers and incorrect descriptions, which does deter some of the scammers and pushes sellers to be more accurate in their descriptions.

4. Sometimes I am the one who is wrong. But at least I learned from the experience, and all it cost me was an apology.

Just my thoughts...

k

Folks I do occasionally send emails to complete strangers to let them know about their listing mistakes. However, I hesitate confronting sellers about listed forgeries. After reading the above posts, I feel like I should be more proactive.

I let one person know that he had accidentally either put up the wrong number with a stamp photo, or that he had forgotten to switch photos when he was listing his items.
He sent back a note telling me if I wasn't going to buy the stamp, to butt out and mind my own business. He had bids on the item too. So someone was going to get ripped off if they didn't know.
I'm sure it was an honest mistake. I had done the same thing, and it was brought to my attention. I had left the previous country name in the description when I listed about 6 stamps. A person did have bids on a couple of the mistakes, and I e-mailed them to bring it to their attention. They bid on the photo, not on my description, hoping that the photo was correct. Which it was. So things worked out ok for those sales, and I deleted the other 3 or 4 that I had done the same way. They had been on the sight for awhile, so I wanted to make sure I had described the correct stamp that I was showing. It was a lot easier to start over then to have an argument with a customer.

I have, on many occasions, written to sellers of Israel stamps who wrongly describe their lots. I get very mixed replies, from 'Oh, thank you very much' to 'Mind your own business'. The latter gets answered politely and then I send the complaint to the owner/moderator of the auction/group. I do this 100% of the time without fail. I do not like rude replies when I am only trying to help.

99% of the mistakes are for stamps that are described as having 'Tab' when they only have 'part Tab'. This applies mainly to older issues. The difference in price is quite big so someone is being ripped off.

I only try to help when I am 100% certain I am correct in my complaint.

Londonbus1

I sell a little and buy more online all the time.

I send messages about mistakes (I assume) made in descriptions / titles as a helpful friendly note to sellers sometimes.

I would like it if someone would let me know once in a while if I have listed something incorrectly due to an honest mistake (which I do make at times, but do not notice until days later sometimes!).

It does help keep the site(s) more honest and seems better presented to buyers I feel. So they will come back. And I will go back myself.

Better all around.

We all seem to agree that informing seller about listing errors would be appreciated.
What would you do if you notice a forgery offered on ebay? Seller, for example, has 1000+ feedbacks all positive (100%). Obviously, he has no idea about the forgery.

Hello litphil, (Welcome, by the way),

I do not know enough to tell a forgery from a good stamp. If I did notice something that seemed not quite right I would not hesitate to ask about it and see how the seller responded if they did respond. Sometimes you can tell intentions by how they respond.

I think if I did know enough about something to notice that a stamp item was a forgery I would say something. Depending on the response I possibly then would report the abuse.

I don't mind an honest mistake as that is how we all learn. But outright intentional dishonesty is another thing. I do not like it nor agree with at as a valid way to achieve goals.