Seller admits his cards are not really MINT even though the advertisement says they are

DeutscherGeist

There was the big seller of cards on ebay. I was interested in some of the sets he had for sale. He advertised them as complete and MINT.

I emailed him because I wanted to know if there is any recourse in case some cards are banged up at the corners. In light of what one of our fellow board members had with a seller of an Upper Deck set, I had to ask to see what confidence I have with this seller. A collector's standard for MINT is different from a dealer's (I don't have to play that tune, do I?)

Here was his response:


Hi - I didn't want your email to just go unanswered, but I don't have very encouraging news for you in regards to doing business together. I don't think I am the Seller for you.

We examine the cards we put into sets ourselves & judge them as MINT. Our standards are set to the Industry norm & our customers are satisfied with our grading. We do not allow for a bidder to exchange random cards if their standards are higher than ours (i.e. requests for upgrades for insignificant oddities or defects).

After all the years we're in business, we know that if someone is out "looking" for something to be wrong, they usually find it. I think your standards are probably too high for us & would result in unnecessary additional work on my part to meet those standards for you. The card sets that you are looking at are already being sold off at deeply discounted prices. In order for us to maintain the high-volume & high-quality work that we do we need to be relatively certain that the transactions we make will be quick & hassle-free.

Good Luck finding the right seller for your needs. I wish you luck.

Sincerely,
Cliff Hopkins






I don't know if its just my interpretation, but this letter was kind of condescending. He could have just said that these cards are not cherry picked and come from packs, so some are better than others and they don't do exchanges.... that would be enough. To go on and say that it would be a hassle to check the cards out and that my standards my be higher than theirs is just so condescending as if I am the one with a problem.

DeutscherGeist

Here is a link to one auctionLink

Wizardsguildcards

My question is why do they describe them as mint then?? Why not say near mint. I never list an ungraded card as mint, highest grade I use is near mint.

divecchia

At least he responded. Got to give him credit for that.

Donato

DeutscherGeist

I guess you see another angle to this problem .... It is very misleading to describe them as MINT. Pack fresh would be more accurate because that means a range of possible conditions.

EagleEyeKid

My question is why do they describe them as mint then??

Because they're jerks and the word "mint" may entice you to bid.

ctsoxfan

I'm inclined to agree with you, DG - the tone of the email is definitely condescending...but then I looked at his feedback, and he must be doing something right to garner such numbers. Still in all, if I were you and someone told me not to bid on their auctions, you wouldn't have to tell me twice.

DeutscherGeist

Its a buyers market out there, I am certainly not going to think twice about avoiding his auctions. Good riddance.

donnnster

I bet the seller has received this question before and uses this standard email he has tucked away to answer any questions on his MINT sets. I bet if someone else asked the same question in one of his auctions they would get this exact reply.

bxb

What the seller means is they were, at one time, mint, and although they are no longer mint, he prefers only to have customers who don't know the difference.

fiveniner

In my experience most of the Professionaly ungraded material I buy has been overgraded,however there are several fine sellers of raw material out there that you can depend on.

WinPitcher

Andre

What i did not understand was you were not asking to exchange cards that may have a printing flaw etc. YOu specifically asked if cards had banged up corners. For him to reply in the manner in which he did leads me to believe that he just did not want to be bothered.

He could have said if a card is banged up of course it can be exchanged. My sets are mint therefore no banged up cards are included (as far as I know) or something like that.

Steve

DeutscherGeist

Steve,

My point exactly. I can deal with a printing flaw, I just did not want banged up corners and that is all I asked about. I don't care what his feedback is, this is not someone I want to deal with. He just wants customers that don't complain, which is fine with me because I can go elsewhere very easily.

He uses the term "industry norm"....Since when does MINT mean banged up corners? Pack fresh is more accurate a description.

basestealer

I think it's funny that he mentions not allowing people to exchange their "mint" cards for better examples when they don't meet their standards, when a "mint" card is technically as good as the card can ever be in the first place. It's either mint or it isn't.

On the flipside, I ran into a woman selling a baseball card collection describing the cards as "in very good condition!" when in fact they were near mint or better. She didn't know the lingo.