Saturday 22 January 2011

State of frustration

As a collector from the UK a lot of the cards and packs I buy will come through eBay. This means I have to put a lot of trust in sellers, whether this trust comes in the form of actually shipping my goods or not searching the packs that I buy from them. I try to buy from those who have hobby shops, which would hopefully mean they would take this seriously and not see it as an opportunity to put one over on a customer. However I sometimes get tempted into buying packs/boxes from those who seem to do it as a one off not as a business. I always make sure I buy from people with a good rating, and mostly positive comments, but I have recently discovered that this doesn't guarantee an honest seller. Two sellers I bought packs/boxes off just before Christmas have deactivated their eBay accounts and won't reply to any emails I have sent them. eBay do seem to be on top of the situation, having refunded some of the disagreements at the time of posting this. I just don't understand why people would do this, I can't see them getting away with the money, and it just causes a lot of unnecessary hassle and me feeling even more suspicious of those I buy from. I will never know whether the packs I buy have been searched, this is blind trust that I will never be able to know is being lived up to.

Whilst this has been going on I have started to discover that collecting isn't merely about the acquisition of cards, it's also a community. A community that I'm more and more starting to feel part of, so I'd like to round off a post about negative experiences with a thank you to those who have made me feel welcome into the collecting community, not just on here but on the sports card radio forum as well.

1 comment:

  1. It is a shame that you can't trust everyone you deal with online. There are however some great people still on eBay. I recently got a card that was bent down the middle and the seller quickly issued me a full refund without even asking for a picture!

    As for the community you hit the nail on the head. I've been doing this now for about a year and I'm amazed at the people I've met and their generosity. So many have helped me fill in holes in sets or just sent me cards they thought I'd like.

    ReplyDelete