Slimeiest thing that's happened to you on ebay

koshka

To be fair to the seller he has provided an almost instant refund and told me to keep the item. So how do I go about identifying what Mega Bloks set I've got? Lots of dark red, yellow and dark grey with support columns that could resemble something a little bionicle like.

SumoLego

I would deposit the blocks at the local Goodwill or UK/Sweden equivalent.  

koshka

SumoLego said:

I would deposit the blocks at the local Goodwill or UK/Sweden equivalent.  

Good idea. We have something called Stadsmission in Stockholm.

inklingbricks

Please allow me to vent. I've been selling extra Lego on eBay for the past six months, and haven't had an issue until TWO came up in the last week. The first item I was selling was the train engine split from the Cargo Train set, which I explicitly said did not come with any power functions (including the train motor). The lady who bought it complained it was missing the forward wheels. Grr. Fine. Partial refund so she could buy some wheels.

Just now though, a guy bought £60 of Lego off me last week, he signed for it two days ago (his signature is on the online tracker!), and now he's put in a Paypal dispute saying the item wasn't received. No other contact, he has the item and is claiming he doesn't. Can't get my head around such scummy behaviour. I guess this is the same scam I read about on the last page. 

I've uploaded the tracking number which links to his signature to Paypal's dispute page, and now I just have to wait for Paypal to review it. Does anyone have any advice on anything else I should be doing? £60 worth of Lego is a lot to have stolen.

SuperTramp

If he's signed for it. Paypal will close it in your favor so don't worry about that.

Thing is you'll now get a defect on your account now he's opened a case(meaning he's not happy for some reason). i would give Ebay CS a ring when Paypal have closed it and try and have the defect removed.  

SprinkleOtter

I believe you would have to go through paypal to have it removed.

SuperTramp

Paypal don't deal with defects at all. 

SprinkleOtter

Then there is no defect- he said the scammer went through paypal, not ebay.

Dad

Mouseketeer said:

Please allow me to vent. I've been selling extra Lego on eBay for the past six months, and haven't had an issue until TWO came up in the last week. The first item I was selling was the train engine split from the Cargo Train set, which I explicitly said did not come with any power functions (including the train motor). The lady who bought it complained it was missing the forward wheels. Grr. Fine. Partial refund so she could buy some wheels.

Just now though, a guy bought £60 of Lego off me last week, he signed for it two days ago (his signature is on the online tracker!), and now he's put in a Paypal dispute saying the item wasn't received. No other contact, he has the item and is claiming he doesn't. Can't get my head around such scummy behaviour. I guess this is the same scam I read about on the last page. 

I've uploaded the tracking number which links to his signature to Paypal's dispute page, and now I just have to wait for Paypal to review it. Does anyone have any advice on anything else I should be doing? £60 worth of Lego is a lot to have stolen.

Just keep an open mind though. I ordered 2 gift cards at Christmas that I never received and the online tracking showed that they'd been signed for in my name. What had happened was the delivery company had posted them through an address at the other side of town and signed for delivery on my behalf. The house was unoccupied. Then between Christmas and New Year I got a phone call from a girl who was periodically checking on the house to say she had some mail for me and she brought it down to mine. Not everything is always as it seems.

 

Pitfall69

@Mouseketeer  Good to know about the train engine and not including PF. I was going to do the same thing, but now after your post, I am going to include the train motor and wheels. I will also put in my listing multiple times that it does NOT include the IR, battery box and Remote.

inklingbricks

Thanks for the advice everyone. Still waiting on Paypal's decision (and I hadn't heard about defects on eBay! Good to keep in mind).

Pitfall69 said:

@Mouseketeer  Good to know about the train engine and not including PF. I was going to do the same thing, but now after your post, I am going to include the train motor and wheels. I will also put in my listing multiple times that it does NOT include the IR, battery box and Remote.

My error was that I used an official photo of the engine, so even though both the name and description clearly said the motor wasn't included ("PLEASE NOTE" and all that), the buyer claimed it didn't match the photo. Next time I'll be photoshopping things like that out of the image.

Pitfall69

^The motor is relatively cheap. I do not know if I would risk it. 

pharmjod

@MouseketeerYou could also actually snap a picture of what you are selling. Here is a piece of unsolicited advice: never use stock photos for something that you are parting out. They are usually fine for new, sealed sets. Not so much when you start sell off bits and pieces.

TheLoneTensor

^ Problem is, all he had was a pile of bricks in a bag, which doesn't lend to a cool photo of an engine.

At the end of the day, just put the "exception" very, very (very) clearly in the title and description.  That's really all you can do.  Btw, photoshopping a picture could lead to other issues.  Ebay doesn't like doctored, overlayed or text-inserted photos.

mfsinger

A few years back, I really wanted to get my hands on an Alien Conquest 7066 Earth Defense HQ. The shipping rates were a bit high and the seller told me it was because of the size of the box. Since boxes don't always mean much to me, I offered to buy the item for reduced shipping and told the seller he could just open it up and throw the box away. That way, he could squeeze it into a smaller box. When the item arrived, it was missing the first bag which contained most of the minifigures as well as the little alien spaceships. The seller accused me of lying about it and refused to do anything. I exhausted every other avenue with eBay and Paypal but they were both useless. Paypal was especially useless and I vowed to never use their crappy service again.

Fortunately for me, my story ended on a rather positive note. I can't sing the praises enough of how awesome LEGO is as a company. I emailed customer service and asked if I could buy just the parts associated with the first bag of the set. This was the first time I had reached out to LEGO for assistance with anything. A few days later, I got an email notification telling me my stuff was on the way... no charge. Not only was it free, LEGO sent the entire set! I can only hope karma came back on that seller in some appropriate way.

TigerMoth

Steady on!

It's not unheard of for sets to be missing whole bags. It shouldn't happen because everything is weighed a dozen times over, but it does. TLG will normally fix any problems, but the readiness to fix this may simply have meant that it was a known issue, not that the seller was shafting you.

Of course, these days, figures are generally spread around multiple bags to avoid this sort of thing.

madforLEGO

TigerMoth said:

Steady on!

It's not unheard of for sets to be missing whole bags. It shouldn't happen because everything is weighed a dozen times over, but it does. TLG will normally fix any problems, but the readiness to fix this may simply have meant that it was a known issue, not that the seller was shafting you.

Of course, these days, figures are generally spread around multiple bags to avoid this sort of thing.

Yeah, waiting to hear someone complain they got one of the Fire Brigades that were missing a few bags and be mad at the person selling it. I'm kinda surprised that more people have not run into that one actually.

TigerMoth

madforLEGO said:

Yeah, waiting to hear someone complain they got one of the Fire Brigades that were missing a few bags and be mad at the person selling it. I'm kinda surprised that more people have not run into that one actually.

But are people actually opening Fire Brigades any more?

Hasn't that set got to an age where people are shelling out a relatively large sums of money to complete their collection but then not daring to open it, either because it was too expensive to build, or because now they've finally got one, they think they'll be able to sell it at a significant profit in a few years' time?

How many people are sitting on "valuable" sets or, worse, have bought them at inflated prices, when they are in fact incomplete? Of course, by the time they are actually opened, TLG is no longer likely to have the appropriate parts.

Does somebody have a "MISB Millennium Falcon" stashed away that is just a box full of random Mega Bloks pieces?

Be afraid out there. Be very afraid.

Pitfall69

Yeah, I sold most of my Fire Brigades, but I checked the codes on the seals and none of them were associated with the Fire Brigade batch that were missing bags. 

madforLEGO

TigerMoth said:

madforLEGO said:

Yeah, waiting to hear someone complain they got one of the Fire Brigades that were missing a few bags and be mad at the person selling it. I'm kinda surprised that more people have not run into that one actually.

But are people actually opening Fire Brigades any more?

Hasn't that set got to an age where people are shelling out a relatively large sums of money to complete their collection but then not daring to open it, either because it was too expensive to build, or because now they've finally got one, they think they'll be able to sell it at a significant profit in a few years' time?

How many people are sitting on "valuable" sets or, worse, have bought them at inflated prices, when they are in fact incomplete? Of course, by the time they are actually opened, TLG is no longer likely to have the appropriate parts.

Does somebody have a "MISB Millennium Falcon" stashed away that is just a box full of random Mega Bloks pieces?

Be afraid out there. Be very afraid.

I would hazard to say that Fire Brigades are still getting opened, same with Grand Emporiums as they are still relatively cheap (at least compared to Market street, Cafe Corner, and Green Grocer). I would hazard to guess that even Town Halls are being bought and opened, same with the Haunted House.

But yeah, I'm guessing that Market Streets, Cafe Corners, Green Grocers, Grand Carousels,and UCS Falcons are at the point where you are not opening it unless you are insanely wealthy, real 'die hard' AFOL, or curious as to if the box is really filled with used MB.

TigerMoth

madforLEGO said:

But yeah, I'm guessing that Market Streets, Cafe Corners, Green Grocers, Grand Carousels,and UCS Falcons are at the point where you are not opening it unless you are insanely wealthy, real 'die hard' AFOL, or curious as to if the box is really filled with used MB

Do I get to choose?

Where's that Green Grocer...

madforLEGO

TigerMoth said:

madforLEGO said:

But yeah, I'm guessing that Market Streets, Cafe Corners, Green Grocers, Grand Carousels,and UCS Falcons are at the point where you are not opening it unless you are insanely wealthy, real 'die hard' AFOL, or curious as to if the box is really filled with used MB

Do I get to choose?

Where's that Green Grocer...

Hey, I'm crazy. I have a NISB Cafe Corner and NISB Green Grocer that will be opened once I get the space to display; then again I got them for retail (actually under as these were on sale often). I will be keeping the boxes though, as those seem to do better when being sold ( that is, if I ever decided to sell them after opening).

KingAlanI

When percentage fees also apply to expenses, it can be hard to sell an item for enough extra to cover your costs and fees. The face value of collectible currency comes to mind.

@koshka - that sounds like a return scam, fraudulent buyer brings back a box filled with junk, the store thinks it's legit and resells it.

Dawn

Not sure where that guy was selling : http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_29520208/police-arrest-southern-colorado-man-14k-star-wars

MattsWhat

madforLEGO said:

TigerMoth said:

madforLEGO said:

But yeah, I'm guessing that Market Streets, Cafe Corners, Green Grocers, Grand Carousels,and UCS Falcons are at the point where you are not opening it unless you are insanely wealthy, real 'die hard' AFOL, or curious as to if the box is really filled with used MB

Do I get to choose?

Where's that Green Grocer...

Hey, I'm crazy. I have a NISB Cafe Corner and NISB Green Grocer that will be opened once I get the space to display; then again I got them for retail (actually under as these were on sale often). I will be keeping the boxes though, as those seem to do better when being sold ( that is, if I ever decided to sell them after opening).

Then you are officially as crazy as your name suggests.  Both these sets go for maybe 2 times the price for NISB over used.  Anyone even thinking of opening them is just putting the best part $1000 straight in the bin, there really is no good reason to do that (even if you did buy them on sale).  If you want to build one then please, please, please sell your NISB one, buy a nice used one and send the difference to fairy bricks.  Or me, you know, I won't complain.

JudgeChuck

Dawn said:

Not sure where that guy was selling : http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_29520208/police-arrest-southern-colorado-man-14k-star-wars

"Police say his victims, who lived throughout the United States and beyond, never received their Legos"!

Aaargh!

SprinkleOtter

JudgeChuck said:

Dawn said:

Not sure where that guy was selling : http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_29520208/police-arrest-southern-colorado-man-14k-star-wars

"Police say his victims, who lived throughout the United States and beyond, never received their Legos"!

Aaargh!

I always play a game with articles talking about LEGO products. It's called "How fast can this writer show that he/she doesn't know anything?" Usually, it is within the first sentence.

ColoradoBricks

Dawn said:

Not sure where that guy was selling : http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_29520208/police-arrest-southern-colorado-man-14k-star-wars

From the Article "Murray would request the victim send the money prior to him sending the Lego set"

Isn't it how online shopping usually work ? Would to see how long Amazon, eBay, etc would be in business if payment was due after the items are received :)

TheLoneTensor

JudgeChuck said:

"Police say his victims, who lived throughout the United States and beyond, never received their Legos"!

Aaargh!

SprinkleOtter said:

I always play a game with articles talking about LEGO products. It's called "How fast can this writer show that he/she doesn't know anything?" Usually, it is within the first sentence.

By "doesn't know anything" I assume you mean doesn't know the restrictively specific and non-intuitive way that a particular company wants their products to be referenced.  That's a little harsh.

This comes up every now and then.  Again, anyone not in America needs to understand that nearly every American calls them legos, every time, all the time.

JudgeChuck

^ Well, stop it, all of you! ;-)

MattsWhat

^^wait so Lego is an uncount noun? Or values is an uncount noun? Or both? Or neither? I can't count the amount of uncount nouns about here.

SprinkleOtter

TheLoneTensor said:

JudgeChuck said:

"Police say his victims, who lived throughout the United States and beyond, never received their Legos"!

Aaargh!

SprinkleOtter said:

I always play a game with articles talking about LEGO products. It's called "How fast can this writer show that he/she doesn't know anything?" Usually, it is within the first sentence.

By "doesn't know anything" I assume you mean doesn't know the restrictively specific and non-intuitive way that a particular company wants their products to be referenced.  That's a little harsh.

This comes up every now and then.  Again, anyone not in America needs to understand that nearly every American calls them legos, every time, all the time.

Anything about the subject matter.

goshe7

SprinkleOtter said:

By "doesn't know anything" I assume you mean doesn't know the restrictively specific and non-intuitive way that a particular company wants their products to be referenced.  That's a little harsh.

This comes up every now and then.  Again, anyone not in America needs to understand that nearly every American calls them legos, every time, all the time.

Anything about the subject matter.

Applying the same rationale and standards, I am left to conclude that the 450,000 members of BrickLink know nothing about LEGO as well.  Light Bluish Gray?  We all know that the correct reference to this color is Medium Stone Grey.  

CCC

MattsWhat said:

madforLEGO said:

TigerMoth said:

madforLEGO said:

But yeah, I'm guessing that Market Streets, Cafe Corners, Green Grocers, Grand Carousels,and UCS Falcons are at the point where you are not opening it unless you are insanely wealthy, real 'die hard' AFOL, or curious as to if the box is really filled with used MB

Do I get to choose?

Where's that Green Grocer...

Hey, I'm crazy. I have a NISB Cafe Corner and NISB Green Grocer that will be opened once I get the space to display; then again I got them for retail (actually under as these were on sale often). I will be keeping the boxes though, as those seem to do better when being sold ( that is, if I ever decided to sell them after opening).

Then you are officially as crazy as your name suggests.  Both these sets go for maybe 2 times the price for NISB over used.  Anyone even thinking of opening them is just putting the best part $1000 straight in the bin, there really is no good reason to do that (even if you did buy them on sale).  If you want to build one then please, please, please sell your NISB one, buy a nice used one and send the difference to fairy bricks.  Or me, you know, I won't complain.

But then they won't have the joy of being the first person to open that box and use that set. If they bought it to build it, good on them for having the balls to pop the seals and build it instead of keeping it as a forever sealed collectable.

bandit778

^  here, here. I totally agree. 
That is what it was made for after all.

bandit778

But that is coming from someone who buys sets simply because I enjoy building with Lego.
I do have unopened sets but that is purely because I don't have the time to build as much as I would like or the space to leave more than one set out at a time.

TheLoneTensor

I agree completely with the selling the sealed and buying a used* suggestion.  I did this with a few sets and looking back, would do it again.  The moment you drive the car off the lot, it's used, and that moment goes by quickly.

* Obligatory warning of doing lots of due diligence when it comes to buying an expensive set used

bandit778

Back on topic though, the worst thing that happened to me on eBay was non Lego related.
It was for the purchase of a bulk lot of Kenner Star Wars toys.
All the items for sale were individually listed in the lot, and there was some quite rare and expensive toys listed.
When I first won the auction (for a very good price for what was listed) the seller was obviously having a bit of regret as they contacted me to say that they had underestimated the shipping cost and would I mind paying more for the shipping than what had been first agreed.
I declined his generous offer as I had already paid for the item and shipping.
When I eventually received the item (after about 3 weeks), I went through it all to check it and found out that one of the rarer items wasn't there.
I messaged the seller, who was very pleasant in the communication, who said he would then put it in the post.
Two weeks went past and still no item so contacted the seller again.
This reply wasn't quite so pleasant, basically the reply revolved around what a great bargain I had brought and that what I had was worth more than what I had paid and that it had cost them a fortune to ship the items,  but.... as they didn't want negative feed back they would get the item to me as soon as they could.
At the time I was relatively new to eBay (also known as the lesser spotted idiot) so was a bit unsure of how to proceed, so I did wait for another two weeks and when I went to message the seller again, the account was no longer active. 
As I had only brought a few things on eBay before that, I didn't know about the claims through PayPal, ebay etc (young and stupid for not reading t & c) and I let it slide, unfortunately when I did get round to knowing about how to make a claim, it was obviously way to late to do anything about that particular case.
It did make me a lot more cynical when it came to buying off ebay and I will now only buy from people with a very good percentage feedback and if it is less than 100% I will read through the feedback to see what it was that gave them a less than perfect score (as I know that sometimes the buyers are not all they are cracked up to be as well).

SumoLego

MattsWhat said:

^^wait so Lego is an uncount noun? Or values is an uncount noun? Or both? Or neither? I can't count the amount of uncount nouns about here.

... creeping up behind @MattsWhat with a sharpened thesaurus and ninja stars made from Schoolhouse Rock! DVDs...

SumoLego

TheLoneTensor said:

* Obligatory warning of doing lots of due diligence when it comes to buying an expensive set used

I wish I could 'like' thus comment 100 times.

TigerMoth

MattsWhat said:

Anyone even thinking of opening them is just putting the best part $1000 straight in the bin, there really is no good reason to do that (even if you did buy them on sale).

Ah! Somebody who likes to twist facts.

I put £97.87, and not one penny more, "in the bin" (called a brand store) seven years ago for a Green Grocer. Fact. And the end of the matter.

The additional facts that it's still sealed, is waiting to be built, and that I fully intend to build it soon, do not change, and will never change, the fact that I paid £97.87 for it. At the time, I exchanged the money for the future experience of building it, whether that was to happen in seven hours, seven days, seven years, or more in the future. That is what I intend to happen.

As for a good reason to do so - it's mine and I can and will do whatever I please with it. I don't need any other reason.

It will no doubt disappoint you that I built the Café Corner I bought at the same time, although the freebie gold minifig key chain is still sitting around unused.

legomental

Good for you Tiger moth and enjoy every moment. I will too when I get round to opening some of my sealed boxes (sadly not a cafe corner though)

SumoLego

TigerMoth said:

It will no doubt disappoint you that I built the Café Corner I bought at the same time, although the freebie gold minifig key chain is still sitting around unused.

Keychain?  Did someone say unused keychain?

One day I will be breaking open a UCS SSD, probably to similar horror...

pharmjod

I'm just really happy for all of you that have so much money that the prospects of making upwards of $1k and still being able to build the set is trivial. Bravo to you.

SumoLego

^ There is a such thing as enjoying a product for its intended use.  Even if a ridiculous after-market value is placed on the set.

I don't fret at eating a $0.59 orange today, knowing full well it may be $2.00 six months from now...

And there's no guarantee that one would realize the 'market' value without the hassle, risk and possible loss of a sale.

Pitfall69

TigerMoth said:

MattsWhat said:

Anyone even thinking of opening them is just putting the best part $1000 straight in the bin, there really is no good reason to do that (even if you did buy them on sale).

Ah! Somebody who likes to twist facts.

I put £97.87, and not one penny more, "in the bin" (called a brand store) seven years ago for a Green Grocer. Fact. And the end of the matter.

The additional facts that it's still sealed, is waiting to be built, and that I fully intend to build it soon, do not change, and will never change, the fact that I paid £97.87 for it. At the time, I exchanged the money for the future experience of building it, whether that was to happen in seven hours, seven days, seven years, or more in the future. That is what I intend to happen.

As for a good reason to do so - it's mine and I can and will do whatever I please with it. I don't need any other reason.

It will no doubt disappoint you that I built the Café Corner I bought at the same time, although the freebie gold minifig key chain is still sitting around unused.

I am wondering why you haven't opened and built the Green Grocer yet? You said you have opened and built Cafe Corner; why not the Green Grocer? Have you not built any Modular since Green Grocer retired? If you have; why have you ignored the Green Grocer? Could it be that it is worth a lot of money and you have been hesitant to open it?

pharmjod

@SumoLego arguably not one of your finer arguments =) An orange? Seriously? (Note that I typically find your posts hilariously excellent).

All I'm saying is that you can have your cake and eat it too. If being the first to pop the seals and build a set is worth the lost opportunity of making $1k whilst still being able to experience the build of a previously built set is that important to someone then nothing I or anyone else on this forum can say will change their minds. That is a fundamentally different worldview and comprehension of money management and values from me and those with similar perspectives to me.

Pitfall69

I don't see how building a used set is any different than building a new set other than opening the the numbered bags. Obviously, you have to sort all the parts instead of just the parts in the numbered bags, but the build experience is still the same.

willobee498

I have to agree with TigerMoth. Money is fine and dandy, but he isn't actually losing money (since he bought the set at a sane price). He's just saving himself a big hassle. 

TigerMoth

pharmjod said:

I'm just really happy for all of you that have so much money that the prospects of making upwards of $1k and still being able to build the set is trivial. Bravo to you.

That's just silly. Whether I have "so much money" or not is totally irrelevant.

Most people here buy LEGO sets. The vast majority of them will be worth more in a few months time, and quite a lot more in ten years time. On that basis, why would anybody ever make any of them? Each and every person that makes any new set is throwing money away. With a tiny bit of forethought in picking the sets, that can be maximised. That said, most people here not only buy sets, they build them too.

Pitfall69 said:

I am wondering why you haven't opened and built the Green Grocer yet? You said you have opened and built Cafe Corner; why not the Green Grocer? Have you not built any Modular since Green Grocer retired? If you have; why have you ignored the Green Grocer? Could it be that it is worth a lot of money and you have been hesitant to open it?

No. Why do some people have to try and put a different spin on things? I have quite categorically and emphatically stated that I intend to build Green Grocer, and what I consider to be it's value, and you still want to question it.

White is white; don't come along and ask me whether I actually mean it's some shade of purple.

Why haven't I built it? Because I've had other things to do.

You might've missed that I bought Café Corner and Green Grocer at the same time, and yet I've made one but not the other. I've built some modulars and not others. When I find the time, I build sets according to what I fancy building at that time, without any reference to their age or potential "value" to other people, and indeed don't even know what that "value" is, except that's is very inflated, nor do I know which is my most "valuable" set.

With that in mind, I distinctly remember looking at Green Grocer and Fire Brigade at one stage a few years ago, and deciding to build the latter because it looked to be more fun. Green Grocer might've been next except that life intervened. Maybe this year. I've even thought that I might dismantle those modulars that are currently built and then building them all in one marathon session, either in order, or in reverse order, to see how they compare. That might be fun; it might not. If I had nothing better to do today, I'd settle on rebuilding the Eiffel Tower or perhaps the Taj Mahal. Tomorrow, I'd probably favour something else - maybe even Green Grocer.