Are fruitcakes running rampant on eBay lately? Selling, buying, listing, feedback, etc...

[oneknightr]

2 hours ago, $20 on joe vs dan said:

side note...I know from recent experience FedEx actually refuses packages wrapped in parcel paper only (I was sending a pair of kids shoes (<$15) in original box wrapped in parcel paper).  So an outer box is The Standard IMO and should be expected.

Years ago, I sold a Star Wars TIE Fighter prop replica and wrapped it in brown paper so people wouldn't know what was inside. FedEx refused to ship it that way, and I asked why. They said that if the brown paper is ripped off during transit, the shipping label would be lost with it, and then the package would be SOL. It made sense.

Edited May 26, 2020 by oneknightr

[Shortbus311]

Anyone else getting return requests? I literally got a email from Ebay saying congratulations I have earned top rated seller status and not 2 hours later I get 2 return requests. One from the buyer of my 75257 Millennium Falcon I sold last week for $220+ shipping (this came back in stock at Amazon for $160 a couple days ago) saying that his arrived damaged and the pictures he sent make it a ridiculous claim.

 

The second was from a buyer who bought 2 used Speed Champions sets from me, no boxes. He mailed me before purchasing asking if I could combine 2 listings for him because his freight forwarding company would charge him for each separate transaction. I combined them. They have been delivered to the freight forwarder. Now he mails me stating that his freight forwarder cannot send him the sets because they are not in the original packaging and he wants to know if I can accept a return...

 

Update: Millennium Falcon buyer accepted a $20 partial refund and decided to inform me that they have never received a set that wasn't at least double boxed and that Lego actually triple boxes anything over $500 ... another box licker buyer to block...

[iahawks550]

The person isn't a box licker, he (she) just knows the right things to say for a discount. 🤢

[Mark Twain]

The thirst is strong on the bay lately. Lots of offers or just messages asking for a discount and free shipping and to ship it out of the US. Woof.  

[MotorCityMuscle]

10 hours ago, Shortbus311 said:

Anyone else getting return requests? I literally got a email from Ebay saying congratulations I have earned top rated seller status and not 2 hours later I get 2 return requests. One from the buyer of my 75257 Millennium Falcon I sold last week for $220+ shipping (this came back in stock at Amazon for $160 a couple days ago) saying that his arrived damaged and the pictures he sent make it a ridiculous claim.

 

The second was from a buyer who bought 2 used Speed Champions sets from me, no boxes. He mailed me before purchasing asking if I could combine 2 listings for him because his freight forwarding company would charge him for each separate transaction. I combined them. They have been delivered to the freight forwarder. Now he mails me stating that his freight forwarder cannot send him the sets because they are not in the original packaging and he wants to know if I can accept a return...

 

Update: Millennium Falcon buyer accepted a $20 partial refund and decided to inform me that they have never received a set that wasn't at least double boxed and that Lego actually triple boxes anything over $500 ... another box licker buyer to block...

what is in your description? are you covered at all by what you actually said? just curious. that sucks, btw. 

[exracer327]

11 hours ago, Shortbus311 said:

Update: Millennium Falcon buyer accepted a $20 partial refund and decided to inform me that they have never received a set that wasn't at least double boxed and that Lego actually triple boxes anything over $500 ... another box licker buyer to block...

That is a royal pain. 

What is "triple boxed"?  The best I have ever seen is a LEGO set inside the LEGO shipping carton inside another box.  But I would call that "double boxed."  I can't imagine what triple boxing is or why anyone would do that.

[Phil B]

5 minutes ago, exracer327 said:

That is a royal pain. 

What is "triple boxed"?  The best I have ever seen is a LEGO set inside the LEGO shipping carton inside another box.  But I would call that "double boxed."  I can't imagine what triple boxing is or why anyone would do that.

I have long since moved on to quintuple-boxing all my shipments. Especially polybags.

[RightDwigt]

2 minutes ago, exracer327 said:

That is a royal pain. 

What is "triple boxed"?  The best I have ever seen is a LEGO set inside the LEGO shipping carton inside another box.  But I would call that "double boxed."  I can't imagine what triple boxing is or why anyone would do that.

I agree with your interpretation. I think the buyer was just counting the Lego box itself has a box. My UCS falcon came in the Lego box, inside the custom sized shipper, with one exterior box on top of that. That was the only case where I got "three boxes" but it was actually two.

I've actually had a pretty good run with no buyers complaining about anything recently, knock on wood. Maybe it's because I've improved my packaging and put it plainly in the description that there could be shelf wear or minor damage whilst not being crushed. 

I recently sold a lot as have many of us, so I'm half expecting one of my transactions to have an issue. $20 seems like a lot of money for what is shown in those pictures, but I guess it keeps the buyer happy and there's no chance they should bawk at that. 

[exracer327]

2 minutes ago, baublitz said:

I agree with your interpretation. I think the buyer was just counting the Lego box itself has a box. My UCS falcon came in the Lego box, inside the custom sized shipper, with one exterior box on top of that. That was the only case where I got "three boxes" but it was actually two.

I had the same experience with LEGO sending me a UCS MF and Ninjago City that way.  But as you said, I would call that "double boxing" not including the set itself.

2 minutes ago, baublitz said:

I've actually had a pretty good run with no buyers complaining about anything recently, knock on wood. Maybe it's because I've improved my packaging and put it plainly in the description that there could be shelf wear or minor damage whilst not being crushed. 

Same.  Ever since I purchased new boxes and placing brown paper around the set inside.  The only time I use air pillows is with used sets or stuffing them inside an open box to maintain its shape.

[Shortbus311]

what is in your description? are you covered at all by what you actually said? just curious. that sucks, btw. 

If my sets have shelf wear or damage I always put that in the description. This had neither though as it had set on the very top shelf of a game stop store and probably hadn't been touched since it was put out.

Even if you put that the item may have shelf wear and have selected that you do not accept returns, Ebay will force you to accept a return if the item is damaged during shipping.

This guy knew that and probably wanted his money back so he could buy it cheaper on Amazon. In my initial response I told him that I cannot afford to accept returns as I am just a one person shop and not some big operation and asked if he would be willing to accept a $20 partial refund. He paid $220 + shipping originally, and I had purchased the set for $50, so I had a bit of wiggle room. I would have lost more if I had had to pay for the return shipping and then relist it at the now lower price. That's the biggest issue I have with selling sets that are only temporarily out of stock, buyers have a lot of remorse once they realize that they panic bought for no reason. Return requests on those items are a lot higher than normal.

[fuzzy_bricks]

Looking at used sets.

Title says - 99% complete

Description says - Over 700 of the 746 pieces

I'm no math wiz, but I can't get to 99% and show my work.

[rpaulson7]

7 minutes ago, fuzzy_bricks said:

Looking at used sets.

Title says - 99% complete

Description says - Over 700 of the 746 pieces

I'm no math wiz, but I can't get to 99% and show my work.

So many are clueless on math. 

My favorites are craigslist and facebook sales for "tons of Lego".  Tons plural?  You have 4000+ pounds of Lego?  That's worth your asking price of $300.  But the photo you have looks like about two gallons of crappy parts and I cannot see even one minifigure. 

[Darth_Raichu]

15 minutes ago, rpaulson7 said:

So many are clueless on math. 

For the most part, that is how eBay make their money.  Why do you think their monthly bills are so hard to read?

[iahawks550]

26 minutes ago, rpaulson7 said:

My favorites are craigslist and facebook sales for "tons of Lego".  Tons plural?  You have 4000+ pounds of Lego?  That's worth your asking price of $300.  But the photo you have looks like about two gallons of crappy parts and I cannot see even one minifigure. 

I consider it a win if people understand the difference between "sale" and "sell" on either of these two platforms. Let's leave math out of this.

[Phil B]

In the same vein, I'm getting a little tired of EBay sellers putting "RARE" and "EXTREMELY RARE" in their listings for items that are not at all that rare.

 

I love the listings that say "Complete" in either the title or the description, because >75% of the time there are clearly pieces missing and I am happy to point that out post-purchase.

Edited May 28, 2020 by Phil B

[Captain_chaos]

1 hour ago, Phil B said:

In the same vein, I'm getting a little tired of EBay sellers putting "RARE" and "EXTREMELY RARE" in their listings for items that are not at all that rare.

 

I love the listings that say "Complete" in either the title or the description, because >75% of the time there are clearly pieces missing and I am happy to point that out post-purchase.

I'm convinced that a lot of people see things like 'complete' and 'BNIB' and just assume they are standard listing parlance rather than words with meanings.

[$20 on joe vs dan]

Folks can keep mis-representing their products to their own self-detriment...as far as I care.  In pretty much every incident I was able to recoup 20% refunds or more.

ebay isn't amazon for better or worse...and I like to think I'm more well informed than most buyers and sellers of LEGO thanks to BP so I'm typically ahead.

[stackables]

2 hours ago, iahawks550 said:

I consider it a win if people understand the difference between "sale" and "sell" on either of these two platforms. Let's leave math out of this.

omg, funny thing I am a math teacher and my grammar is pretty subpar but I have lost track of how many times especially on facebook that posters get sale and sell mixed up. I have honestly lost track. 

[c4dreams]

4 hours ago, Darth_Raichu said:

For the most part, that is how eBay make their money.  Why do you think their monthly bills are so hard to read?

I saw a listing for an item that said, "only 1 left."  next to it, it said, "1 sold."

Below that, it says, "More than 49% sold"

really?  They couldn't just say 50%?

[legorunner]

Received a lot of "new" sets today. One set obviously had the seals cut, so I opened it up and sure enough its missing most of bag 1 and a manual. A second set didn't sound right when I shook the box, so after carefully inspecting it I opened it and found that bag 1 is open and the parts are loose (I haven't inventoried parts). I could not find ANY sign that it had previously been opened: has anyone ever bought and opened a new set that legitimately had a bag that was slashed open from the production process? 

[$20 on joe vs dan]

2 minutes ago, legorunner said:

Received a lot of "new" sets today. One set obviously had the seals cut, so I opened it up and sure enough its missing most of bag 1 and a manual. A second set didn't sound right when I shook the box, so after carefully inspecting it I opened it and found that bag 1 is open and the parts are loose (I haven't inventoried parts). I could not find ANY sign that it had previously been opened: has anyone ever bought and opened a new set that legitimately had a bag that was slashed open from the production process? 

honestly I am surprised how those thin crinkly bags stay sealed as much as they do...reminds me of the rice paper that warps white rabbit candy

[SLL]

14 minutes ago, legorunner said:

Received a lot of "new" sets today. One set obviously had the seals cut, so I opened it up and sure enough its missing most of bag 1 and a manual. A second set didn't sound right when I shook the box, so after carefully inspecting it I opened it and found that bag 1 is open and the parts are loose (I haven't inventoried parts). I could not find ANY sign that it had previously been opened: has anyone ever bought and opened a new set that legitimately had a bag that was slashed open from the production process? 

yes, came across one I actually picked up from Walmart, upon opening up one of the bags were torn open, good thing is there were no parts missing

all seals looked intact, very much like in your case

 

[legorunner]

Just now, superlegolover said:

yes, came across one I actually picked up from Walmart, upon opening up one of the bags were torn open, good thing is there were no parts missing

all seals looked intact, very much like in your case

 

Thanks for the quick responses. I also just read up on some other forums like Eurobricks and it looks like this is uncommon but happens. Without opening the inner bag within the main bag to fully count it looks like nothing is missing - its a low end Minecraft set anyway and the Minifigures are there, so I think all is well. I'll talk to the seller about the obviously opened one and let this one be. Thanks!

[exracer327]

4 hours ago, Phil B said:

I love the listings that say "Complete" in either the title or the description, because >75% of the time there are clearly pieces missing and I am happy to point that out post-purchase.

I got 50% refund for just such a case.  The guy listed the ebay auction as an AoH used 98% complete (pics were a pile of pieces and a few AoH minifigures). 

After I received it I called out the seller for putting together a bunch of pieces and calling it AoH at all.  The only thing that made it AoH was about 1/2 the minifigures.  The pieces had stickers from different sets, none of which were AoH at all.  *facepalm*

After I bricklinked the missing pieces and minifigures I ended up with a 100% complete AoH for around $100.

[Mark Twain]

OfferUp madness. I bought a hidden side train for the kids for $30 listed as “Has been opened and been put together but very carefully by an adult so I garentee 100% absolutely no missing pieces. Cost $90.00 at the store so your saving alot of money doing this way. “

I paid, the seller shipped two days ago. Before the package arrived I get the following message:
“ hey, I just realized that there’s a couple of missing pieces and I accidentally left out all the little guys from the set. I can’t afford to ship the missing things to you until the payment clears from the LEGO I already sent you but I already have the other pieces in a mailer. Is that okay with you?”