Likely Victim Of The British Cartel

Surely any seller that receives a request for a refund is capable of this. I know ebay is not perfect but they do protect the buyer quite well. Paying through paypal is a good way to CYA and to add the chips to the cookie I use a CC with paypal as Clark mentioned. I'm not too worried about getting my money back if not satisfied.

Kevin,
Yes, seriously. There are people on this forum who have come under attack. The bad part is that many folks are not willing to come forward for fear of more attacks. It's great that you got a refund, I am a bit surprised you would fall for one of his listings. You can search http://mugshots.com and find this fellows picture for the crimes he committed while living in Utah (use his real name). I guess if folks want to tell others to go ahead and buy from convicted felons and just be 'buyer beware' or count on returning items, then so be it.

But I don't think that blaming the victim, who is self described as being new, is in any way good for the hobby. I think bad sellers hurts good sellers and can cause our hobby to lose starting hobbyists. And if my point that folks should be well informed not only about the material but also about who they are buying from is misguided, then I guess we will just have to disagree.


stallzer,
Understood. But note that no one gets any money back from a seller if he simply closes his account and walks away with the cash. Some protection may be afforded if, as mentioned, a buyer uses a credit card.
Don

Look at this auction and tell me what you think. I feel someone should warn the bidders there is a good chance the stamp is regummed. It looks regummed from the picture shown. How does a stamp get that faded and have such perfect looking gum... Whatever you think of the sellers in question eventually it comes down to trust. Once you lose trust in a seller don't buy from them again.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/US-Columbia...AOSwJcZWd-qr

ebay hides the bidders identities specifically for reasons like that. Just think, every time I saw an item I wanted I'd just contact my competition, slander the seller and hope to chase the competitive bidders away.

Don....why the OP does not post the item #?

I think it is fishy!!

Kevin,
Perhaps you are right. It doesn't appear that he has come back since posting yesterday and that seems a bit odd. Time will tell.
Don

Sorry, in my opinion this is the worst advice ever. If we cower out of fear of retaliation for demanding that a bad transaction be put right, protective measures for consumers will become meaningless and bad sellers will become the norm instead of the exception. Don, I presume you're referring to someone who pursued these sellers relentlessly and not a "regular" buyer. I don't think fear mongering for the majority of ebay transactions helps anyone.

dbocca if you were sold a misidentified stamp, file a Paypal chargeback for item not as described.

Hello,

Thank you all for the great advice. I am not in town currently and have sporadic access to post. Anyway, as Kevin stated, if the stamps are all as described - and currently don't have any evidence to the contrary - there is nothing I can do but to accept the reality. On the other hand, if any stamp turns out to have been misidentified, I will pursue action through ebay.

Happy New Year to all on this forum.

dbocca you wrote,


And then,


dbocca, this is confusing to me.

A very informative thread !

When e-bay first arrived, all the trendies were telling us it was a Good Thing.

I used it to fill a few gaps in my UK collection - about 60 transactions in all. The first fifty were fine (literally "fine used") and won at a reasonable price. The promised land ?

However, in the last ten purchases there were three transactions where the stamps were not quite as described (by coincidence (?) all were KE VII varieties) In each case, my initial email was responded to by instant refund and instructions to "keep the stamps".

You might reason that was fair enough, but it did ring a warning bell in my mind. All three might have been honest mistakes, but I couldn't help thinking "This was a try-on, and the vendor does not want any trouble."

So I ceased buying by that route, and reading the reports of others since, have no reason to regret my decision.

There might well be "bargains" out there, but I decided I could do without the hassle of dealing with potential swindlers.

The old Latin saying "Caveat emptor" might have been designed especially for this type of sale.