Saturday, July 07, 2007

E-What the Hey?-Bay

As you might imagine, I've got a lot of games and cards in my closet. When I need a few extra bucks, I haul out the stuff, take photos, and put it up on e-bay. I have a 100% positive feedback rating, and nobody has ever complained about my items or auctions...until just now.

This is the message I got:

You're totally wasting your time. You're showing HORRIBLE pictures and giving completely useless descriptions of the condition of the cards. I'm referring to all these auctions you just put up and are wasting out time with.

Send me a list of the REAL conditions of each card you have for auction based on REAL grading techniques.

Or don't and watch all of these end at a fractin of their real value.
Wow! I'm a bit shaken up by it, honestly. I pride myself on being as fair and honest as I can be, and this person really attacked me. My crime? Not knowing how to grade used magic cards. I am totally guilty, BTW. I thought it was pretty simple - Poor, Fair, Good, Near Mint, Mint. Most of my cards are Fair-to-Good, though one was in pretty darned good shape, so I said Good/Near-Mint (with a clarification that it wasn't quite near mint.) There must be a Very Good or something that I'm missing. After a slightly calmer give-and-take, I've asked for a URL with the grading system I should be using. I'll update all the auctions once I know how to do it properly (at least in the eyes of this potential buyer.)

[sales pitch]
Well, since nobody is going to bid on my cards, I suggest you check them out. You'll save a bundle, apparently.
[/sales pitch]

UPDATE: Myself and the angry e-bay-er have exchanged a couple more e-mails, and I've since revised my auctions using this rating system. While I'm still not sure how I should take the original e-mail, my auction descriptions ARE better now. Show me the money!

UPDATE 2: Now we've exchanged a few more e-mails, and everything's cool. I even feel bad calling him (or her?) the angry e-bay-er, although it's still kind of funny. Luckily, nobody reads my blog!

-Adam!!!

No comments: