Worst Dealer You Ever Dealt With

A few years back an ebay seller from Flushing New York place a Poland Scott #412a up for bid. The souvenir sheet pictured was almost perfectly centered and appeared to be very crisp and clean with no marks or blemishes. It was described as Mint Never Hinged. I won the bid at about 40% of catalogue value.

The dealer sent me a souvenir sheet that was far off center, heavily creased by being folded in half numerous times, hinged in four place and had a long black mark on the face of the souvenir sheet with other black smudges

I emailed several times complaining that they sent a different souvenir sheet and NEVER received any replies. After a week I returned the souvenir sheet and requested a refund.

Finally after 3 weeks and many emailed refund requests, I received a refund for the souvenir sheet but nothing for my postage cost both coming and returning.

This dealer still sells on ebay with very low starting bids but I refuse to even look at ANY of his offerings. I may have been burned once but I'm never going to be burned by them again!!!

Hmmmm, now I need to figure out who's in Flushing NY :)

Peter

Franny The Nanny? LOL

Flushing, NY. NYStamps & CKStamps same owner. NYStamps is the 0.01¢ starter.

Thanks Randy - I was being sarcastic

Peter

13 or 14 years ago, when I was just returning to philately, I had reached the point where I was ready to take a plunge into (for me) larger-scale buying and selling. A big mixed lot of 19th-century postal history got my attention on ebay and I decided to bid aggressively. Only after winning the bid at something north of $5000 (as I recall) did I examine it still more closely and, with growing unease, ask (the late) Bill Weiss to opine. He pointed out what I had suspected, that there was enough faked and other dubious material in the lot to make my winning bid unrealistic. I asked the seller to release me and he said no, I should have been prepared for some junk. (There was a lot more than just "some.") Bill was sure that no honest dealer would hold me to the bargain. Alas. As I had foolishly committed my money to PayPal already at this point, the only way I could secure a refund was to offer to pay the difference between my bid and the underbid. Thus I paid dearly for the education.

This dealer was at the time an up-and-coming member of the philatelic establishment, who has since gone on to accolades and prestige.

Postscript: I told myself that if I ever met him in person I would give him a piece of my mind. Lo and behold, I did meet him in person -- at Washington 2006. Standing at the urinal next to mine in the men's room. I opted to say nothing after all.

I'm dealing with one now. I've really never had a bad experience buying but about a month and a half ago I bought a $10 Bermuda stamp from an ebay seller. After not seeing it in 4 weeks (Seller located in NY, not NY Stamps) I contacted the seller who explained "There have been delays lately. Not sure why. I have another that is from a block of 4. I will send another. Or would you like a refund?"

Since I wasn't in dire need of the stamp I chose to have him send another. That was 2 weeks ago and still no joy. I'm giving him until the end of the week and then I'll ask for a refund, if I don't get it from him I'll file a claim with ebay. After reading his feedback I see I'm not the only one complaining to him about not getting the item. Note to self, from now on read feedback first!!

Georgetown Law. Hands down.

Jack Kelley

"NYStamps & CKStamps same owner"

Not true. Ji Sun owns NY stamps, Kang Chan own ckstamps.

Worst I ever dealt with was Robert Furman, but has been out of the business for years.

'Postscript: I told myself that if I ever met him in person I would give him a piece of my mind. Lo and behold, I did meet him in person -- at Washington 2006. Standing at the urinal next to mine in the men's room. I opted to say nothing after all.'

You can meet interesting people that way, it's a great leveler. Some decades ago I was visiting Washington DC with friends; this was before 9-11 when tourists could wander around the Capitol building freely. I stopped in a mens room just off the rotunda and stood next to someone. Our eyes met in the mirror while we were washing up; it was the Senate majority leader. To this day few people believe me.

eyeonwall: "worst dealer I ever dealt with was Robert Furman....." Testing my 1970s memories here. Was that Furman Stamps in Las Vegas?

I don;t know where he was in the 70's - I encountered him in the mid/late 90's and he was out of NY then (advertised in Linn's and did shows).

Just to balance things a bit, I will relate a really good recent story about a dealer.
Just by chance, when NOJEX occurred it coincided with the regular monthly youth stamp club meeting which I volunteer for. As part of the meeting we took about 14 kids around to see some of the exhibits for about half an hour. When we were finished, we happened to be right by Coverman's booth. Alan and his wife called us all over, asked each child what they collected and what they liked, and GAVE them all 2 or 3 covers. Just handed them out like Halloween candy. Awesome thing to do.

There is one stamp dealer in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Bill Robinson. He is one of the finest gentleman I've ever known, scrupulously honest, treats children and beginning collectors like treasures. It's pure pleasure visiting his shop. I had to put this in, in contrast to all the bad dealers I have been reading about.