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A Quandry Seeking Opinions...


Whadjisay

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Ok so there's this Ebay auction lasting 10 days with a 'no return' policy.

The offering was for 65 Popeye marbles with a 600.00 reserve. At auctions end a person hawks the bid and wins.

As part of the auction I posted 3 detailed 14 MP pictures of the marbles, turning them in sequence for each pic.

The winner had never emailed me with any questions in the 10 days prior to auction's end.

The winner pays and requests that I package securely for shipping - I shipped within 36 hours.

After receiving his shipment, the buyer sends an email advising me that there are 14 out of the 65 Popeyes that he believes are 'patches' and asks to send those back for a partial refund.

Now I'll freely admit that I'm not the world's greatest marble aficionado, and perhaps I may misidentify a mib on occasion. But from the best of my knowledge there IS such a thing as a popeye 'patch'

and while I did not differentiate between the two in the listing, I would think that any potential buyer would be able to accept the group as a whole (as being Popeyes) or simply not bid on the item because it did not meet their expectations.(There were 17 other bidders).

I could offer to refund the entire purchase, but how can I be certain that this person would not switch out part of the popeyes with some he already has before he sends them back? OR, how can I be confident that the bidder would ship as securely as I did

I want all my buyers to be satisfied with their purchase, but at the same time I don't believe I should be held accountable for what I see as a case of 'buyers remorse'.

So tell me, what would be the best course of action?

Thanks in advance for your opinions. -W.

post-2694-0-72743500-1318953101_thumb.jp

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I saw your listings and have to admit it was a tempting lot. However, I too, saw they were not all popeyes, so I did not bid.

There was a time when popeye patches were highly sought after and your listings error might have been overlooked.

Your winning bidder has a point if he did not know, for sure, they were not all popeyes. He has a bit of a point since your

description was essentially incorrect. I would not know how to determine the values, but believe a partial refund may be

in order. Since your winning bidder saw your "no return" policy, he should honor it, but maybe receive a small refund

to cover your error. Just a thought.

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if the guy you sold to is from Maine, then you have a problem,,,, with ebay being a buyers market ONLY, you have no recourse and the no return policy is just for show, sellers do not have a chance against SNAD claims if he paid through paypal, Tell him/her to send the group back, relist them correctly and hope like hell he/she sends the ones you sold back to you and not some beat up mibs you never seen before, just hope he doesnt do a bait and switch on you, good luck,, bj

just an FYI, a popeye patch is a popeye that did not cork during the manufacturing process, they used to be sought after but with everyone trying to put box sets together and upgrading existing sets then have lost their appeal.

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IMO There are also some marbles made as Patches that resemble popeye corkscrews. Even though they are called Popeye patches I really do not consider them Popeyes and neither do a lot of collectors. Give them a partial refund or take um back would be the right thing to do IMO.

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Assuming I read the initial post correctly, it sounds like the buyer wants to return those that are not Popeye corks and get reimbursed for the ones that are being returned. My fear would be that your math and his math might be based on a different formula. I'm not sure what you or others here have in mind on a partial refund, but I would almost think/expect that, since about 1/5th of the marbles are being returned, s/he'll be looking for a 20% refund.

Personally, I would almost suggest that you have them all shipped back and give a full refund. My thinking/reasoning for that suggestion is that there may have been other potential bidders who noticed these odd ones and didn't bid or quit bidding earlier than they otherwise would have because of the "dead weight" they didn't really want. If the two types had originally been separate out and only the true Popeye corks made available, it may be that the final bid would've been higher, when averaged out per marble. (But then again, maybe I'm off in my thinking on that one.)

Based on the one photo I saw above, I would think the size and quality of your photos will allow you to confirm that what you sent is what you get back, should you go the return route -- partial or full return.

Holly

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Those 2 look like popeyes to me,,just not the greatest corkscrew action.

Communicate with your buyer,and see what is suitable,between you,and them.

Everyone has there own "standard" of what is and is not,a corkscrew,obviously,by the differant opinions posted here.The only one that realy matters,is your buyer.

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look, bite the bullet ask for them all back for full refund,, yes its a hassle, BUT, looking at the picture i see a couple in the group with 3 colors including orange if my eyes aint deceiving me, those blends and bleeds and all hybrids deserve a separate auction, you will make up for the loss,,, im just like you i hate selling individual mib auctions, i figure to save buyers ship cost but they have been trained by the biggest sellers out there that buying more than one mib per auction mean mibs are junk,, as it sits the original buyer got a heck of a deal at an average around 13 bucks a piece,, if hes knit picken you for the patches, then get that lot back intact and sell them acordingly,,, if you dont mind taking the hit, send partial,,, but like marble novice said you will basing the refund as a group which will alow the buyer to get a bigger deal because of the great mibs in the group,,, GET THEM ALL BACK,,bj

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Thanks everyone for your opinions!

I emailed the buyer to sent the lot back. Actually it was the first thought in my mind when I woke up this morning.

The way I see it, this buyer had a chance to own a piece of history, not just 65 Popeyes from the same run.

I'm pretty sure there's several who won't mind having this lot regardless of whether some are not fully corked.

Big John is absolutely correct, there ARE many in the lot that some will consider as hybrid.

Easy come, easy go I guess.

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And now for the rest of the story...

I thought the problem had been solved. The buyer wasn't happy with their purchase, right?

So I send email to the buyer to return the entire shipment for a full refund and confirm my address and shipping instructions.

Then I filed a cancel transaction so Ebay would waive the final selling price percentage fee. So Ebay sends the buyer an email to confirm the cancellation and the buyer responds that he's decided to keep the shipment and will decline a refund. Go Figure :rolleye-842:

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