When a card comes damaged what do you do?

MalePro

I bought a graded card on ebay and received it in several pieces due to the card coming in a regular envelope/no padding, etc.

I paid via paypal thru my bank account.

Unfortunately, i'm not covered by paypal cuz i received the item. i tried filing thru ebay but since I bought the card via paypal, i keep getting directed to paypal's website.

I did purchase insurance on the item. If the seller is understanding of my situation, do i ask for the total price i paid - card final bid + shipping handling + insurance paid, or what is fair to ask for?

Thanks in advance.

Iseeyou

The only insurance amount you can get is whatever amount insurance the seller had the card covered. Anything else, he would have to cover. Get on it right away, insurance claims can sometimes take a while.

DeutscherGeist

paypal changed its rules and now covers items that are not as described and so on.

This is where postal insurance sucks, as it only covers purchase price, not the shipping or insurance. I received a card that was damaged in the mail too, but all I got was the purchase price and nothing else when I filed a claim at the post office.

I am sure the seller would get irritated if he had to contribute money on top of the insurance, but I understand where you are coming from.

I would simply email the seller and explain what happened to the card and ask where to go from here. Leave it open ended. He can send a replacement card (if he has multiples in the same condition). Either way the seller will tell how he is going to handle it. He may feel obligated to just give you a full 100% refund and file the claim himself.

Its a tough call whether you can really get back the shipping and insurance fees.

dontippet

I agree with DeutscherGeist. Email the seller, tell him what happened, and ask for his response. Leave it open ended. Every package that I have received damaged, or that was lost in the mail, was replaced or money refunded by the seller. I can think of four or five situations. All of these packages had no insurance, but the seller felt obligated anyway. One or two of those was due to bad packaging.

Don

jrdolan

A lot of sellers state that they are not responsible if the item is lost or damaged in the mail, if you don't buy insurance. This is incorrect. If you used PayPal, they are responsible if it never arrived. PayPal will do a chargeback unless they have a delivery confirmation tracking number.

Now PayPal does look at "not as described" claims, whereas before their computer automatically rejected them without a human ever seeing the complaint. I'm not sure if broken in transit counts as "not as described." I would think so.

Anyway, they use that "not responsible" language to pressure you into paying for the insurance. It really covers them, not you. They file the claim for a broken or lost item, they get the settlement. You only see the insurance money if the seller sees fit to give it to you.

cardfan07

Maybe graded cards shouldn't be mailed in regular envelopes...just a suggestion.
I think you'd have a real beef with the seller for that reason alone. Improper shipping won't get covered by anyone, but the seller should make right on this.
My opinion.
Ryan

boggs301012

I bought insutance and a graded card was mailed in an envelope the cliam was denied due ti inmporper packing I appealed and lost . The claim was never paid by the PO and of course the seller never paid.

James

julen23

I purchased some cards a while back and they came in damaged and not in the shape I paid for them. I contacted paypal via e-mail and the seller refunded my purchase soon thereafter. I never got any confirmation from paypal or the seller, but I did get my cheeese back.

The seller is no longer on e-bay either, btw, but maybe I just got lucky and caught a break?

TGIF


julen

PlayBall

Malepro,

I'm in the same situation. I sent a stern, but polite e-mail to the seller with a picture of the damaged slab. The auction stated "not responsible for lost or damaged item without insurance", but once the seller saw the card (it was sent in a regular envelope as well), he replied that he was embarrassed and offered to refund cost of card and shipping both ways. He is new to shipping graded cards and thought the slab would be sturdier. Moral of the story - there are good sellers out there, so contact him and see what he says.


My damaged card......

Tabe

<< <i>A lot of sellers state that they are not responsible if the item is lost or damaged in the mail, if you don't buy insurance. This is incorrect. >>


Exactly. Sellers are required to get your item to you in the condition promised, regardless of whether you buy insurance or not. Does Amazon require insurance in order to get your DVDs to you in one piece? Land's End, with your clothing? No.

Insurance on Ebay is just a scam a lot of sellers use to try and protect themselves against being held responsible for their crappy shipping methods.

Tabe

habs71

<< <i> bought a graded card on ebay and received it in several pieces due to the card coming in a regular envelope/no padding, etc. >>



In order to collect insurance, the item & packaging must be presented to the PO. In all likelyhood your claim would be rejected due to improper packaging. So you have to deal withe the seller to recoup your losses.



Skip

boggs301012

<< <i>Exactly. Sellers are required to get your item to you in the condition promised, regardless of whether you buy insurance or not. Does Amazon require insurance in order to get your DVDs to you in one piece? Land's End, with your clothing? No. >>



Because they self insure it.

James

easttexascardsandgames

Postal Insurance most likely will not cover this due it inadequate protection. Paypal will not protect the seller if you file an Item not recieved.

Another note on Paypal even if the seller has DC if the item does not showed delivered and shipPed within 7 days the seller will have to be refunded.

yankeeno7

For the most part, I have to defend sellers that use the "not responsible for lost or damaged items with no insurance"...
there are just as many buy scams out there as there are selling scams. You may send a mint card then receive a request for refund...you honor the refund, get the card back, and it isnt the card originally purchased!
In the extreme case of the PSA card, it was good of the seller to help you out.
I just recently purchased a NM/MT 1975 Mini Robin Yount....well packaged in a bubble mailer....my jackass of a postman CRUSHED the envelope in my mailbox. They have been told repeatedly that packages that don't fit need to be placed between my two doors. Well, I opened the package just hoping the guy did a good job packing...he did and my Yount mini ended up with a giant crease anyway! I emailed the seller hoping he would/could help me out...but, alas, he did not and I cant say that I blame him. I only spent 20 bucks on the card so I didnt purchase insurance. I know I cant go back to the post office and request they reimburse me for these damages....not only that, they would just think I was trying to scam them anyway.
I obviously wasnt happy about this but what can I do? And from what I hear...even if insurance IS purchased and your card becomes damaged, it's a hassle because it is a sports card. In part, I can see their point...buyer gets 100 bucks of insurance on a 10.00 VG card...card comes and a claim is made to the PO that it is damaged and attempts to cash in for the 100 bucks.
Anyone here ever try to make an insurance claim to the PO on a damaged card? I would love to hear that story.

jrdolan

I agree that buyers run PayPal scams, too. Some of them, their thing is to buy and flip cards repeatedly on eBay ... until they get that high-value card that arrived without delivery confirmation. Usually from a relatively new seller trying to save a few cents in shipping.

I'm convinced this happened to me when I was new, because shortly after PayPal forced me to issue a refund the same buyer got another big refund from another newbie for an expensive nondelivered item. I saw this in the pissy feedbacks they traded. I pointed this out to PayPal, but I'm sure it never got past the screening computer.

So now I use DC for everything I sell on eBay. Signature confirmation if it sells for more than $250, because that's what PayPal requires as proof before they'll deny a chargeback.

I have seen the damage of the sort shown above by PlayBall. I've had a few cards arrive that way, and I've sold a couple cards that arrived that way. Makes you wonder what the hell is going on in the Post Office. What kind of impact could shatter a slab like that? Somebody pounding directly on that specific bubble mailer with a sledgehammer? Is it the extreme cold in the cargo hold of an airplane, and the slab becomes very brittle? I wish somebody knew for sure. It doesn't seem possible that normal tossing around of a mailbag, stuffed with hundreds of other envelopes, could result in that kind of high-impact damage to a PSA slab. Would inserting some cardboard have saved it, with that much force involved?

Anyway, what are you gonna do, ship every $5 or $15 card in a box? Then you have to charge a shipping fee that will turn most people off. I guess the breakages in bubble mailers don't happen too often, when you consider the volume, and it's just a cost of doing business.

metsfan

I don't think any card should be shipped in a regular envelope. If it's in a regular envelope,postal workers will try to run it through the machine. Thats how slabs are cracked.Many sellers send slabs unprotected. They should put cardboard around them. I always send cards the way I would like to receive them myself.

ctsoxfan

<< <i>

<< <i>A lot of sellers state that they are not responsible if the item is lost or damaged in the mail, if you don't buy insurance. This is incorrect. >>


Exactly. Sellers are required to get your item to you in the condition promised, regardless of whether you buy insurance or not. Does Amazon require insurance in order to get your DVDs to you in one piece? Land's End, with your clothing? No.

Insurance on Ebay is just a scam a lot of sellers use to try and protect themselves against being held responsible for their crappy shipping methods.

Tabe >>



This is a great point, and I agree 100%. If you want to be a seller on Ebay, take some responsibility for the sale.

jrdolan

metsfan, are you saying bubble mailers also go through a machine? If so, would does stamping Fragile on it avoid the machine?

Iseeyou

You have to remember something. A letter in an envelope may be light, but but a few thousand of them together, and you have some weight that could crack a holder pretty easily. Postal workers are just regular people getting hired. Some aren't very careful and some treat your package like a new born. You just have to hope for the best. About the insurance claims with the post office. If they think you over insured the card to profit from the damage, do they ask you for a sales receipt, or anythng like a price guide?







<< <i>I agree that buyers run PayPal scams, too. Some of them, their thing is to buy and flip cards repeatedly on eBay ... until they get that high-value card that arrived without delivery confirmation. Usually from a relatively new seller trying to save a few cents in shipping.

I'm convinced this happened to me when I was new, because shortly after PayPal forced me to issue a refund the same buyer got another big refund from another newbie for an expensive nondelivered item. I saw this in the pissy feedbacks they traded. I pointed this out to PayPal, but I'm sure it never got past the screening computer.

So now I use DC for everything I sell on eBay. Signature confirmation if it sells for more than $250, because that's what PayPal requires as proof before they'll deny a chargeback.

I have seen the damage of the sort shown above by PlayBall. I've had a few cards arrive that way, and I've sold a couple cards that arrived that way. Makes you wonder what the hell is going on in the Post Office. What kind of impact could shatter a slab like that? Somebody pounding directly on that specific bubble mailer with a sledgehammer? Is it the extreme cold in the cargo hold of an airplane, and the slab becomes very brittle? I wish somebody knew for sure. It doesn't seem possible that normal tossing around of a mailbag, stuffed with hundreds of other envelopes, could result in that kind of high-impact damage to a PSA slab. Would inserting some cardboard have saved it, with that much force involved?

Anyway, what are you gonna do, ship every $5 or $15 card in a box? Then you have to charge a shipping fee that will turn most people off. I guess the breakages in bubble mailers don't happen too often, when you consider the volume, and it's just a cost of doing business. >>

easttexascardsandgames

If they think you over insured the card to profit from the damage, do they ask you for a sales receipt, or anythng like a price guide?

You usually have to prove the retail value of the item, I once asked my postmaster about insurance on graded cards. He told me that the USPS is actually only responsible for the fair market value of the raw card due to the opinionated prices of graded cards. I asked another Postmaster the same question. He verified that, but added that if the claimiant can show the prices three recently sold cards graded the same and by the same company then they will pay up to the lowest one or the insurance amount whichever is the least.

MalePro

Wow,
Thanks for all of the replies. Playball, the picture you posted of your card looks similar to the damage my graded card went through.

I did try going thru paypal to help resolve my issue but this is the return email I got from them:
As stated in our User Agreement, PayPal's Buyer Complaint Policy only
applies to the shipment of goods and does not apply to disputes about
the
attributes or quality of goods received. Therefore, we regret to inform
you
that we are unable to reverse this transaction or issue a refund.

We encourage you to continue to work directly with the seller to
amicably
resolve this dispute and apologize for any inconvenience. If this
transaction occurred on eBay, you may file a Standard Purchase
Protection
Program claim through eBay.
Text

Of course, when I went thru ebay, I was redirected to the paypal site.

Well, the next best thing was that I contacted the seller who was pretty understanding of the situation; however he told me that he had sent many graded cards out the same way: in a regular envelope with no padding/cardboard, etc. without any problems. Yikes, I hope he learned his lesson.
He asked for scans/pics of the damage and upon receiving the scans, he refunded me the actual price of the card + the shipping and handling. I ended up just $1.30 short (for shipping insurance) of what I paid in all for the item.

I don't think I could have gone through the post office, because I think the buyer self insured the item. There was just the regular shipping postage fee on the envelope.

All in all, i guess I ended up paying 1.30 for a cracked case and a previously PSA 9 card.