Badly Described Ebay Auction, What Would You Do?

True to a point Lorddenning. Since the link above is no longer active, unless you saw the sellers description before the link got killed then there is no way of knowing if the written description was misleading.

The lot can be seen if you go to ebay Germany and do an advanced search. This is the description:

Siehe Scan. 3 Ganzsachen Ägypten. 2 x ungebraucht, 1 gebraucht. Bei dieser Auktion handelt es sich um eine Privatauktion. Umtausch, Garantie oder Rücvknahme sind somti ausgeschlossen. Ein Bieter erklärt sich durch die bgabe eines Gebotes hiermit einverstanden

There were 3 bidders. I don't know if this includes Northwinds.

If the Germany says that the back of the covers are faulty there is no issue.

But if it does not say that the back of the covers are faulty then the seller breaks the description rules that any hidden fault that is know by the seller must be described.

If not I can start sell $500 Australian KGV's that have paper thins on the back of the stamp without any trouble because I leave out the fact the stamp has paper thins. Tell me which part of ebay's description rules allow me to sell a stamp or cover by deception.

You got it! "clear, accurate, and consistent details about the items you're selling".




When you list on .com from Australia on every listing page before you can finish a listing you have to agree to ebay listings rules. Because we were inter boarder traders and aliens. We were harassed by a very "loud" and detailed ebay notice. I would not like to do battle with ebay's computer if you are not describing a faulty item as exactly that. There is a huge difference between a sound item and a faulty item when it comes to ebay's computer.

All a buyer has to say to the ebay computer is the item is not as described and faulty and the seller is then 200% in the wrong with that computer.

On ebay the buyer is totally right. Even to the point of blackmail.

It simply comes down to the power the buyer has in giving negative and positive feedback at the tip of their fingers.

Go and read the sad stories in ebay's forum. First place to start is the sellers who get negative feedbacks and want to know what to do about it. It is a good place to learn about the ways of ebay's computer and the total power that the buyer has over the seller.

Obviously people here are missing that one little thing that you see on every Stamp sale on ebay, it's right on the item you're looking at page and states very clearly "Seller assumes all responsibility for this listing"

stallzer


Northwinds has gone quite. We still do not know what the German description says.

The above is what Google Translate returns for the German text provided by lorddenning. The only description appears to be "See scan." Absent images of the backs of the covers, I'd say the seller misrepresented the items.

Thanks everyone for their input!
I received this reply from the seller this weekend:

Das tut mir leid, das sie nicht zufrieden sind, aber wir reden über Stücke, die mindestens 100 Jahre alt sind. Da können Sie nicht davon ausgehen, das Sie "druckfrische" Artikel erhalten.

Translation is something like: I am sorry that you are not happy but we are talking about pieces that are at least 100 years old. You cannot expect them to be in mint condition.


After that reply I was going to leave a negative feedback, he does not assume any responsibility and offers no compensation.
BUT I made a mistake, I gave a negative comment but forgot to put the dot in the right place so I gave him positive feedback after all.
Since I paid by banktransfer I think I will leave it at this.....

I have plenty of pieces 100 years old that are in mint condition. Well at least you can chalk it up to experience and move on. I'm not sure negative feedback was warranted anyways but sellers should always insist on their buyers being satisfied, it leads to a thing called repeat business.

The faults I see on the back have nothing to do with age as you can find those kind of faults on item less than 10 years old. The faults are not due to natural aging of paper. The seller should have described the faults or least provide an image of the back. The seller didn't preceive the paper hinge fragments and stains as a fault and that is the mark of a sloppy seller, but as stallzer noted the seller should have taken action to provide satisfication for the buyer. Things like "see scan, no exchange or warrenty, etc." are keywords that you really do not want to deal with that kind of seller. Of course you can always send a message to the seller and ask about conditition, but again this particular item listing was just plain lazy and sloppy work.

GOOD ----you kept the covers ,now as suggested above,you can now repair the covers and mount them ,never to see the backs again .Soak off the extra paper carefully and sand off the dark stain areas.Then a steam iron with a heavy spray strach and WA-LA!! ,a nice cover

From ebay...



It is not my responsibility to ask about thins on every single ten dollar stamp I purchase. If I am interested in a more expensive item and the seller hasn't scanned the back, I'll ask...but the responsibility has not shifted to me.

Thank you Cjd

These are the complete ebay guidelines regarding stamps:

Stamps

Keep the following guidelines in mind when you're listing stamps:

Include all relevant information that you know about the item, such as origin, date of issue, and condition.

Include clear pictures of the actual item being sold—don't use stock pictures. You can add up to 12 photos to your Collectibles listings for free.

All flaws or alterations to the item being sold that can't be seen in the pictures must be specified in the description of the listing.

Include all information about any alterations that may have been made to the item.

Individually identify every item listed to avoid misunderstandings about what is for sale.

Don't make false or misleading claims of sales scarcity, value, condition or investment potential.


This clarifies the situtation. Of course what constitutes a flaw is subject to interpretation but is the applicable law when bringing a dispute to ebay's attention.

This has been a very instructive topic for me.

Thank you Northwinds for sharing this with us.

Yes we have all learnt something in all this but lorddenning's & Cjd's ebay quote has got me. It is the term flaw or am I misreading the quote?

lorddenning does open the issue up.





As a collector I have been taught that a stamp flaw is something that happens to a stamp during the process of printing the stamp.eg Line Through Four Pence, Rusted Cliche, DieII in Penny Red's,etc

A fault, in a stamp is damage that occurs after the stamp is printed. Damaged perfs, Paper Thin On Back Of Stamp. Rip, Crease, Rounded Corner,etc

To me there is a big difference between a Flaw and a Fault and I use these term a lot in my descriptions.