trade gone bad - what would you do - UPDATE

ad4400

I just executed a trade with someone from another message board. What we agreed to was a handful of his MNH stamps plus a few bucks for an older used US stamp I had. Got my portion of the trade today, and two of the "MHN" were used, one canceled and one where the cancellation was soaked off or non-existent to start with, but certainly not an unused stamp.

My initial reaction was to be irate. Even though I'm only out a buck or less, I thought what gaul to send used stamps when the agreement was for MNH. But then I started thinking that maybe I
should give the benefit of the doubt - maybe a mistake was made.

So, what would you do? Would you point out politely the error to your trade partner, saying you assumed it was a mistake on their part and please make right? Forget the buck and just never
trade with them again? Go with your sceptic instinct and tell the guy the first thoughts you had?

StampAlarm

Well, definitely contact the person and try to see if they know what they did. And then from his initial reaction you might be able to tell if he/she did it on purpose. Please let us know. And if needed you may want to out the person. Even if it is by PM. Sometimes that is the best route at first.



Jerry

dougwtx

Did you know which ones were suppose to be MNH or was it just a lot? If you had specific ones that were to be MNH and those are the ones that are used, I would contact the person. If it was just a lot of MNH, then does your trade still come out "fair"? Sometimes a person will throw in "extras". Its hard to tell without knowing more details. Could be a rip-off, an honest mistake, or plain ole disagreement. Most swappers though will take back the trade if one party isn't satisfied. Did this person have other successful trades by other members? Are they a long-time member, etc... same usual things to check for just like when bidding on eBay or here.

Which other forum was it?

ad4400

A step in the right direction. I pointed out to the trading partner that not everything was MHN. He emailed back apologizing for the mistake and said he would send the right stamps. Hopefully he will follow through.

Got the replacement stamps this week. Horrible. Stamp had a hole that it looks like an attempt at repair was made with what appears to be a big chunck of white-out. Not an expert on this subject but also appears to be regummed - entirely took thick and streaky. Keep in mind we are talking a common $.03 commemorative - who goes through the trouble?

At this point I'll just cut my losses and write off this trade and trading partner. The person either had no intention of dealing in good faith or simply does not know a good stamp from bad. For the record I don't believe this person frequents these boards (to my knowledge) as the trade was posted on Stamporama.

ad4400