funny/strange ebay bidders

mlbfan2 · November 23, 2009 5:45AM

1. Whenever I sell card lots (usually 50 cards or 100 cards) on ebay I put 5 or 10 worthless baseball cards on each end of the stack in order to help protect the cards during shipping, and because some people like getting free cards. So, I sold and shipped a lot of 100 1970s Star Wars cards, and the bidder sent me a message saying "Hey, I got the package today, but you sent me the wrong cards. You sent me baseball cards instead of Star Wars cards." I send him a message saying "Are you sure? Did you look at all of the cards?" He says "Ohhh! I saw the baseball cards on the end and assumed that all of the cards were all baseball cards." The cards weren't wrapped in plastic or anything, so I thought it was pretty odd that he initially didn't even bother to look at the cards, except for the top few, apparently.

2. I sold a bobblehead doll and shipped it in a box with bubblewrap and newspaper. He sent me a message saying that he liked the bobblehead, but the majority of his message was about the newspaper. He said he flattened it out and told me how much he and his wife enjoyed reading it.

3. I sold a $600 item to a bidder from Japan. He tells me "payment sent", but he doesn't mention how he was paying. I figured it would be a money order. About a week later I get his letter (a plain white envelope) and six $100 bills practically fall out of it. I don't know how unusual that is, but I was pretty surprised that he'd send that much cash in a rather risky manner. On the opposite end of the spectrum, another bidder owed me just $3 and was afraid to send cash because he said it was "wasn't safe to send cash through the mail." True......but $3?

4. A bidder wins an item for $5 for $2 s/h. He sends me $9.09 and says "I enclosed $9.09 because my maximum bid was $7.09."

5. A bidder owed me $23 for an item, and he sent $40 cash, and told me to "keep the change." Don't mind if I do!

artistlost · November 23, 2009 5:52AM

People are priceless.

nice read.

mathew

italianstallionyankees · November 23, 2009 5:52AM

Pretty odd folks !

Barfvader · November 23, 2009 5:53AM

<< 2. I sold a bobblehead doll and shipped it in a box with bubblewrap and newspaper. He sent me a message saying that he liked the bobblehead, but the majority of his message was about the newspaper. He said he flattened it out and told me how much he and his wife enjoyed reading it. >>

Guilty on that one myself.

It's always fun to read up on another part of the country and anytime I have received a package using newspaper I have flattened and given it a good read.

vladguerrero · November 23, 2009 6:06AM

I sold a gehrig/ruth game used bat /25 to guy in montreal, I only had a thicker point magnetic snap holder so I included a game used montreal canadians player card to fill the extra space and popped it into a team bag, I also sent it priority with tracking (which he didn't pay for). I get a angry email from the guy saying he wants a full refund as he bought a ruth/gehrig came used bat not a samsonov jersey/ gehrig game used bat. I told him to open the case and calm down and he's welcome for the extra card...

TheHun · November 23, 2009 7:59AM

sometimes the only exercise some people get - is jumping to conclusion.

keep doing what you're doing ...

chees

WeekendHacker · November 23, 2009 8:36AM

Classic post!!!

zep33 · November 23, 2009 8:40AM

cool thread

Bunker · November 23, 2009 8:50AM

sometimes the only exercise some people get - is jumping to conclusion

Thats funny!

SOM · November 23, 2009 9:10AM

Good one, mlb!

Damn...there've been some awfully well-written posts here lately.

Do you get my drift, Joe?

An expansion of this post, plus Keith's on his Alaska card show experiences, would be cool reads in the SMR!

dontippet · November 23, 2009 9:28AM

Very Cool! Neat how all of your experiences are positive. I especially like the one where the guy sent you his high bid, instead of the actual winning bid.

dontippet · November 23, 2009 9:28AM

Ooooppppppppppppsssssssssssssss! Double Post!

mlbfan2 · November 23, 2009 1:47PM

Glad y'all like this thread.

If anyone else has any ebay bidder stories, feel free to add them here.

Dboneesq · November 23, 2009 1:53PM

MLB ... those are PRICELESS ... good read ... lots of laughs!!!

Dobie · November 23, 2009 1:54PM

I had the same experience selling a 1999 Century Legends Gold /99 Griffey auto to a buyer in Japan. Paid in $100 bills, sent by mail in a plain envelope. Didn't know what to make of it, but the buyer left positive feedback, and he/she paid quickly.

hammered · November 23, 2009 2:03PM

I have a story.

Several years ago, I sold a raw 94 SP Marshall Faulk RC to a guy, maybe $20. I advertised the card as NMMT. He receives the card and sends me an email:

"The card is not gem."

I write him back and say I know it's not - I didn't advertise it as a gem card. About a week passes, no reply, then one day another email:

"The card is still not gem."

I answer that he should just send the card back and I will send a money order for the refund.

A few days later I get the card in a PWE, cut into several pieces stuffed inside a toploader.

Dboneesq · November 23, 2009 2:06PM

<< A few days later I get the card in a PWE, cut into several pieces stuffed inside a toploader. >>

WTF??????????????????????????????

nam812 · November 23, 2009 2:11PM

<< ...........A few days later I get the card in a PWE, cut into several pieces stuffed inside a toploader. >>

Which obviously killed any chance of him getting that $20 back.

hammered · November 23, 2009 2:11PM

<< 

<< A few days later I get the card in a PWE, cut into several pieces stuffed inside a toploader. >>

WTF?????????????????????????????? >>

I didn't ask

2cardguys · November 23, 2009 11:13PM

Did you send him back a money order cut in pieces?

2cardguys · November 23, 2009 11:27PM

I had a guy send me a question regarding top loaders vs. cardsavers and the difference of a cardsaver 1 vs. 2. Just getting into the hobby and wanted to protect his cards and do his first submission. I explained the difference and suggested he go for the CS1's if he was submitting. He wasn't getting the difference so I asked him for his addy.... Sent him one of each, and in the cardsaver 1, I placed a card in a penny sleeve; penny sleeve in the cardsaver so he would know how to best protect his cards and/or send in for submission...

About three days later I get this angry phone message from the guy accusing me of bilking him out of money by sending him the wrong item. Now mind you I had done this gratis so he could see and feel the difference. He called eBay and got my contact information from them called me at work and left a blistering message. "I only buy vintage cards, never modern, I don't know what card you were supposed to send me, but you better make it right and send me what I purchased and throw something extra in for my aggravation"....Now at first I don't recognize the guys contact id or eBay account name and I'm going through my pay pal and eBay listings to see where I made the error and what he bought for me. I find my message to him advising I had sent him a free sample and inserted a card into the sleeve so he would know how to submit... I think thank god...

I call the guy back and very nicely ask him wasn't he the person asking me about product and didn't I send him a free sample so he would know... there was dead silence on the other end then uh yeah... now I'm waiting for an apology or a thank you... silence. So I say, well your welcome and now you know... Waited for 2 days to see if he would actually purchase something then he was my first bbl...

Bigjohn69 · November 24, 2009 12:42AM

A couple of years ago i went to a local auction here and needed a box to put some stuff i bought in, well looking for the right size box i noticed the auctioneer left an old mangled Mego superman box in basically the trash, it was in one of the boxes, so i took it home, looked at it and left it in the box of stuff, about a month later i didnt have anything to list so i decided what the heck, i listed the box starting at 5 bucks and as a terrible condition mego superman box, i mean i had pictures of all angles and said in the ad this can probably hold you over until you find a better one, listed it for 7 days, before the night ended after i listed it i had 5 buy it now offers, that actually got up to 100.00, 20 emails which amounted to an off line auction, i was emailing them back when a higher offer came in and they would bump their offers so ide write back to the others, well you get the picture, i almost took the hundo but figured it wouldnt be fair to the other offers so i wrote them all saying its not greed thing but a fairness to everyone deal, if you havent guessed yet it was a rare box. so i let it go and after 7 days it ended at 270 bucks, i was stunned shaking my head saying the ole triple "S" applyed here big time(stupid stuff sells), the guy gets the box and emails me and tells me the box wasnt good enough there was a crease i didnt mention and he wanted a refund,, i thought to myself, i believe this is the first negative im going to get ever for describing a dumb box as being in poor condition and getting told it wasnt good enough for the buyer, i asked him what did i hide i sold a bad looking box as mention and photo'ed, i offered the guy a 50.00 refund because i felt bad and said normally i honor my returns but this needs to be a lesson learned and i had absoletly no use for a crappy box that only had a cool picture of superman on it, he took the 50.00 and needless to say i didnt get the negative. what the heck i found the box in the garbage. ,, bj

dontippet · November 24, 2009 12:48AM

Great stories, keep them coming.

nearmint · November 24, 2009 12:56AM

I've told this story here before, but this is a good place to re-tell it:

I once had a player's daughter accuse me of counterfeiting a $3 1969 football common. She already had one, and her card had an orange background. The background on the one I sold her was a lighter orange, just a variation in printing. I sent a polite response, and I resisted telling her that if I were going to print conterfeit cards, they certainly wouldn't be of her dad. I offered her a refund, but I didn't hear back.

itzagoner · November 24, 2009 1:09AM

dunno if i can recall any particularly funny peeps on eBay, but i do recall nailing some guy who kept stalling me over the payment of an auction until i finally received a check in the mail, as i had given him permission to do so......the check was written from an account held by i think a treasurer for The Boy Scouts of America......turns out the guy was embezzling funds from a Scout Troop to pay for his cards, so i reported him, and for it's worth, he got NARU'd.....shortly thereafter, i received a Money Order from him for the amount owed, but i never cashed it, in fact it sat on my desk for over a year in a pile of paper as a reminder to me just how disgusted i was by his actions......my son was a scout for a couple years and i was a scout Dad, and i know how tough it is to raise funds for such a small group of fish in a big bowl. UGH! i hope that guy didn't resurface as another ID on eBay, but i know better than that.

Bigjohn69 · November 24, 2009 1:17AM

The corniness item ive ever sold on ebay, again shaking my head at this one but it was an electric mouse trap, yes, this bakelite trap had prongs you had to plug in, it was about the same size as a regular mouse trap but looked like a box with a "V" groove on the underside for the mouse to crawl into, it was lined with an electric bar on each side that when a mouse entered and both probes were touched, this little furry animal got what amounted to a date in an electric chair. wow, that invention was stupid, can you imagine the smell of burnt mouse,, i still laugh over it saying, what were they thinking, given the poor nature of electricity back then i guess when the lights dimmed in the house i guess that ment you got one, bahahahaha,, bj

ga5150 · November 24, 2009 1:34AM

So far my most odd buyer story won't amount to much compared to all the ones already listed. I had a buyer last year from Australia ask me to go the post office and have them please NOT put the computer generated white postage sticker on his package. He requested that I purchase as many different denomination stamps on as many different designs and stick them all over his package. He would cut them off and add them to his stamp collection. I spent around 10 minutes with the guy behind the postal counter trying to come up with different combinations to put on this package.

Like I said, it's not a strange bidder, but a little different than what I was used to.

Rodney

EchoCanyon · November 24, 2009 2:09AM

<< Good one, mlb!

Damn...there've been some awfully well-written posts here lately.

Do you get my drift, Joe?

An expansion of this post, plus Keith's on his Alaska card show experiences, would be cool reads in the SMR! >>

So true.

As an ex-journalism student and someone who makes my living as a creative writer, the writers/articles in SMR are very poorly written and often quite dull.

WeekendHacker · November 24, 2009 2:59AM

Not a weird story, but a successful one. I was searching raw cards and placed a $15 bid on a 1964 Mays Aaron card with a lousy picture or scan. When it arrived; it was as if I stepped into a DeLorean and was energized by 1.21 jigowatts of electricity through the flux capacitor and was sent back to the summer of 1964 - because the card was about as pack fresh as they come. So I decided to send it off to PSA with a few other cards and it comes back as a PSA-8. I flipped it on EBAY and sold it for $270 about a month later.

funny/strange ebay bidders

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