What should I do? Part II

wybrit

I won an ebay auction for a shilling advertised as BU a while back from a seller I have done business with before. The picture in the listing looked OK. Upon arrival, I saw hairlines galore - coin was unacceptable.


(My picture of the coin)


Asked to return it and got this as a reply:

hi tom,

i have havent had one coin returned to me in all the time i have been doing
this,and i decided before i started that i would not except returns which is
why i very rarely grade items,however you have bought off me before so i
suppose so.

I returned the coin March 6. It apparently never arrived.

The guy has stellar feedback but recently has been sending me substandard material. This shilling was the last straw for me.

Neg? Neutral? Nada?

I want to neg him for the bad attitude and the lack of anything in the description indicating that it had been harshly cleaned.

Placid

Returning items is one of those things you really want proof that the person gets it from the postal service.
So if the post office really lost it then its not your fault nor the sellers. If you failed to send it in a manner that it needed a signature then while you might suspect the seller got the coin but is telling you they didn't you really don't know for sure.

wybrit

I think the guy is honest regarding a return. I just think it was disingenuous to sell a harshly cleaned coin as a BU. The loss/stolen coin as a result of the return is almost immaterial. The seller has culpability IMO.

Aethelred

Did you send the coin back insured?

wybrit

No. Can't send it insured to the UK unless it's in a one pound or more package (other than registered).

The economics of sending coins insured, unless the coins are very expensive or unique, makes no sense. If I spend $7.50 to register each and every package to me, for example, I'm just out the $7.50 per package. Theft/lost rate is less than 1%, so you are ahead if you do not insure.

If theft rate increased, than I might consider that as a necessary expense.

Bottom line - coin was sent to me not as described. Seller has responsibility as well for that.

wybrit

Here is the original picture. Looks OK here.

Placid

Seeing as he did offer to let you return it I wouldn't neg him. I would probably do a neutral.