So did this eBay seller pull a fast one on me?

Last February I won an auction for a lot of 9 PSA 10 Cal Ripken's regional and oddball cards. The seller was Michael Wynne whose eBay username is holdyoudada. The auction ended at $65 which I thought was a great price for these cards. I paid promptly for the auction, but the following day I received this email:
"Don,
This morning, in my haste to get the kids to school, I left your package of cards on the trunk of my car. I recovered the package but only after it was run over a time or two while on the street. Needless to say, damage to all but 4 of the card holders has been done - the cards themselves might make it, but it looks as if the 1993 Hostess Twinkie card was damaged beyond any attempt to have it re-capsuled by PSA. I feel absolutely terrible and have been thinking all day about how to make this right for you. I have come up with some options:
#1. Simply issue a complete refund.
#2. Send you the cards that survived (1990 K-Mart; 1990 Woolworth; 1992 Jimmy Dean; 1993 Jimmy Dean) at an agreed upon price and refund the rest. These cards and holders are still the same condition they were in the auction scans.
#3. I will be sending the cracked and damaged cases back to PSA to be re-capsuled (except the Hostess card) - and upon return, if the grades remain - I can send them to you.
#4. I was planning on listing a few Ripken Game-Used Jersey cards (all PSA Mint 9) in the next few days - I could send you 4 of those (easily $20 each in value) in place of the cards you won.
#5. Lastly, I could send you a combination of Jersey cards and the above listed cards that survived the accident.
Please accept my apologies, and again I feel terrible about what happened. Let me know how you would like to proceed. I will be at a class for a few hours tonight, but will reply to you when I get home.
Sorry for the mishap, Michael Wynne (holdyoudada)"
At the time I pretty much felt like the cards didn't sell for what he wanted them to, and he was trying to get out of the sale. But rather than push the issue I took the partial refund and got the 4 cards that didn't get damaged. I did however add all 9 PSA certs to my registry as I felt he was pulling a fast one on me and I wanted to see if anyone else would try to add these certs later. Several months ago I went through my PSA inventory to remove the cards I didn't own. Though, apparently I missed the 1993 Hostess that "was damaged beyond any attempt to have it re-capsuled by PSA". A couple days ago I received an email from PSA:
"Another member is attempting to add the following certification number to his/her set:
08273882 1993 HOSTESS TWINKIES 26 CAL RIPKEN JR. 10"
I emailed Michael the day I got the email, but he did not respond.
So what do you guys think, did he not get the price he wanted so he cherry picked 5 of the cards out and sold them elsewhere, or is there just something else strange going on here?
"Don,
This morning, in my haste to get the kids to school, I left your package of cards on the trunk of my car. I recovered the package but only after it was run over a time or two while on the street. Needless to say, damage to all but 4 of the card holders has been done - the cards themselves might make it, but it looks as if the 1993 Hostess Twinkie card was damaged beyond any attempt to have it re-capsuled by PSA. I feel absolutely terrible and have been thinking all day about how to make this right for you. I have come up with some options:
#1. Simply issue a complete refund.
#2. Send you the cards that survived (1990 K-Mart; 1990 Woolworth; 1992 Jimmy Dean; 1993 Jimmy Dean) at an agreed upon price and refund the rest. These cards and holders are still the same condition they were in the auction scans.
#3. I will be sending the cracked and damaged cases back to PSA to be re-capsuled (except the Hostess card) - and upon return, if the grades remain - I can send them to you.
#4. I was planning on listing a few Ripken Game-Used Jersey cards (all PSA Mint 9) in the next few days - I could send you 4 of those (easily $20 each in value) in place of the cards you won.
#5. Lastly, I could send you a combination of Jersey cards and the above listed cards that survived the accident.
Please accept my apologies, and again I feel terrible about what happened. Let me know how you would like to proceed. I will be at a class for a few hours tonight, but will reply to you when I get home.
Sorry for the mishap, Michael Wynne (holdyoudada)"
At the time I pretty much felt like the cards didn't sell for what he wanted them to, and he was trying to get out of the sale. But rather than push the issue I took the partial refund and got the 4 cards that didn't get damaged. I did however add all 9 PSA certs to my registry as I felt he was pulling a fast one on me and I wanted to see if anyone else would try to add these certs later. Several months ago I went through my PSA inventory to remove the cards I didn't own. Though, apparently I missed the 1993 Hostess that "was damaged beyond any attempt to have it re-capsuled by PSA". A couple days ago I received an email from PSA:
"Another member is attempting to add the following certification number to his/her set:
08273882 1993 HOSTESS TWINKIES 26 CAL RIPKEN JR. 10"
I emailed Michael the day I got the email, but he did not respond.
So what do you guys think, did he not get the price he wanted so he cherry picked 5 of the cards out and sold them elsewhere, or is there just something else strange going on here?
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Comments
Patrick
//////////
Seems likely.
Whenever I get an excuse-email that is too complicated from an EBAY
person, I just assume they are lying.
........
Gotta be one of the most complex $65 transactions in history. And,
it's still going on!
<< <i>
Seems likely.
Whenever I get an excuse-email that is too complicated from an EBAY
person, I just assume they are lying. >>
That's exactly how I felt at the time and why I added the cert numbers. I guess I can't complain too much, he took the average price of the 9 cards and refunded me that amount for each of the 5 cards that didn't get shipped, but I really would like to have had the rest of the cards!
I just really doubt that he would bother with all that trouble over $65 or $650.
As far as what happened, i have no explanation. Maybe the case got cracked so bad and at first glance it appeared that the card was damaged as well but at a later date when he sent in the others to get reslabbed he noticed that only the case is wrecked and the card was in fact ok?
I dont know.
From what i know of Michael i would probably lay odds that he wasnt trying to pull any kind of scam on you.
<< <i>From what i know of Michael i would probably lay odds that he wasnt trying to pull any kind of scam on you. >>
From what I know about ebay I would take that bet for the max
<< <i>
<< <i>From what i know of Michael i would probably lay odds that he wasnt trying to pull any kind of scam on you. >>
From what I know about ebay I would take that bet for the max >>
Its not just about ebay. Behind every one of those ebay id's is a real person just like you and me.
Some would sell out their brother for 8cents, some would return a briefcase with 100,000 in cash if it didnt belong to them.
<< <i>Some would sell out their brother for 8cents, some would return a briefcase with 100,000 in cash if it didnt belong to them. >>
Roger:
Do you still have my briefcase?