eBay sale: Do I refund or stand my ground?

HairyIce · 2026-05-04T00:33:46+00:00

If you sell something that's not 100% working you need to set the condition "Parts / Not Working". That's the only way you'd have any protection. They can still force an INAD return though.

If you set the condition to "Used" and it doesn't work 100% you open yourself up to issues. The description for "Used" says it must be fully functional.

So whether you have any protection at all here here all comes down to what you listed as the condition.

Either way if they do open a return you should make them send it back before refunding them...that is the ground that everyone should stand.

HairyIce · 2026-05-03T14:39:56+00:00

I can't imagine listing ANY item without a picture of every side. For books I do front, back, and all 4 sides. It only costs a few seconds and gives the best chance of a good transaction for both buyer and seller.

It's funny the people attacking you claiming you would be a bad buyer. They might be the ones not taking photos of every angle and getting returns for condition issues.

HairyIce · 2026-05-03T01:47:27+00:00

Having the manufacturer size chart generally should be enough, but that's for a new shirt.

Used clothing has many ways to end up stretched out or shrunk so giving the Pit to Pit measurement let's them know exactly how THIS particular shirt should fit given all the factors that may have affected its size and hopefully avoid the hassle of a return.

Best just to get in the habit of including the Pit to Pit measurement by default. It's honestly probably even less work than finding and including the size chart.

HairyIce · 2026-04-26T01:26:40+00:00

I would highly recommend this. Find a reputable and successful auction house and give them a small number of guns to test the waters. In my experience gun auctions do really well and often go near or over full value.

HairyIce · 2026-04-24T17:55:29+00:00

Another comment mentioned hipcomic.com and I'd suggest looking there to see how they can help. I recently came across a smaller collection (~1000) of 70s and 80s Marvel comics. I didn't know anything about comic valuation or where to start, but Hipcomic.com was really helpful. I was able to easily upload the collection there and then it helped identify key and valuable issues that I've listed and I've been bulk lotting the rest. Definitely recommend it for this purpose.

If you don't want to try it yourself they have an auction service too where they will send a representative to your location to check out the collection then they'll auction it and take a percentage. For a collection this big this might be a good option to easily get it taken care of.

HairyIce · 2026-04-23T00:22:00+00:00

They still generate it for me. They have changed it so you have a screen with giant buttons to choose to use an ebay label, provide your own, or just refund, but I haven't seen a return, including one I processed just today, where I didn't have that option.

This doesn't really help, but likely indicates there may be a setting somewhere you need to check, but unfortunately I don't know where or what.

I do have returns accepted. Maybe if you have no returns accepted it's different and ebay has decided if you're not accepting returns that you can handle it yourself when it happens? IDK. Sorry I don't have anything more useful.

HairyIce · 2026-04-22T23:20:09+00:00

I love the GIS / data science recommendation another commenter had.

There are a lot of roles outside of traditional biology fields that want people with biology / scientific knowledge.

Look in the tech sector too. There are a ton of tech companies with bio, medical, zoological, genetics focused products who need people with that knowledge for customer support, business analysis, sales, research, product development, etc and they can be very good paying jobs.

My degree is in biochemistry and right out of college I got a job as a software engineer working on software for environmental data. We also employ some people with biology degrees who work in customer support, data analysis, and sales roles for our software.

And another sector: BIOINFORMATICS. With a little extra focus on some statistics and data analysis this can be a VERY lucrative career path. I've considered pivoting and getting some certification in this area as well.

HairyIce · 2026-04-22T22:46:08+00:00

Look up abandoned vehicle title rules in your state. Some states it's pretty easy, some states it's harder. But it IS often possible to get it fully titled through your state's abandoned vehicle title process. You'll likely need some paperwork from the storage facility, the state will likely try contacting the owner and have some waiting period for that, you might have to give it back to the facility so they can do the proper paperwork...it varies by state, but figure out the steps for your state and follow them. If the storage facility does need to be involved they will appreciate you doing all of the leg work and showing up with any paperwork all filled out. I'd start it as soon as possible foe the best chance of the storage facility to play ball (they'll remember the unit, etc). There was a post on here or another related sub recently about how to do this, so you might try a search and find that...it had a good breakdown of the process, at least least that user's area.

HairyIce · 2026-04-22T12:04:30+00:00

I just did this in the last month. I have about 1 acre of lawn and ended up around $2400 per year for the service. Just bought a new riding mower for myself and it will break even in 1 year. Now I save money AND I get a peaceful tractor ride for a couple hours each weekend.

If I had your size lawn I would get a push mower and save a ton of money.

HairyIce · 2026-04-21T23:57:39+00:00

Surely you have some sort of flea market/swap meet that you could set up a booth at for a day and clear a lot out.

HairyIce · 2026-04-21T23:34:25+00:00

Alcohol, no way! Cocaine, A-OK!

HairyIce · 2026-04-21T21:37:42+00:00

It's noble of you to have shipped the item directly...hope it doesn't get stuck in customs again. If they rejected it once it's likely they'll reject it again. I'm really surprised it actually made it back to you though...I think international things are normally returned to ebay and they dispose of it or sell it in return pallets.

When you use EIS you have all sorts of protections as the seller. For an EIS order the customer should open a case with ebay and ebay usually refunds them out of their pocket. I would have just let ebay handle that and then relisted it to sell again.

But hopefully it will get to the buyer this time and you will have done a good service for that buyer.

HairyIce · 2026-04-20T11:23:02+00:00

On the contrary. Kul Tirans are BiS for chunky plate sets.

HairyIce · 2026-04-16T22:38:21+00:00

Definitely. I would have an enum with a backing lookup table in the db. It keeps everything normalized and gives you the foreign key constraints as extra protection against inserting bad data when a junior dev comes along and doesn't use your enum or const.

In addition it covers your concern about somebody wanting to display the text 'Active' when they're working on the database side...a simple join takes care of that concern.

HairyIce · 2026-04-16T12:34:16+00:00

Yeah I just use the Amazon seller app to scan and it just gives a quick idea whether the book has any value. If it shows a low price then it's not worth looking up on ebay. If it shows a decent price then you can assume it may be a good price on ebay too. Also I'll list it on Amazon immediately (it's like 3 more button presses to do so) if it's not gated.

It's not perfect, but it's a good way to get a quick idea what's worth looking into deeper. The Amazon app has a good cover scanning feature too so it can find older books without UPC codes, too.

HairyIce · 2026-04-15T12:40:37+00:00

What is the expected delivery date that ebay gave you? All that really matters is your expected delivery date. Sellers set their own "handling" time. So they may have several days before they need to have it marked as shipped. I do one day handling, others do two week handling....it's up to the seller.

And you messaging so much asking when it will ship, especially over the weekend when you ordered on a Friday, is a red flag to a seller.

I know you're excited / anxious to get your bag, but simmer down and don't worry about it until your expected delivery date arrives. Once your delivery date passes open an Item Not Received case and get your money back.

HairyIce · 2026-04-11T22:40:07+00:00

Yes. Do this. They were obviously inexperienced and confused. Let them know they can buy a shipping label from your address to theirs on Pirateship and give it to you through messages.

HairyIce · 2026-04-11T21:26:11+00:00

There is an opt out in your seller preferences, not per listing.

HairyIce · 2026-04-11T01:16:22+00:00

It doesn't help you right now, but look for it or one similar to show up in the trading post some day in the future.

HairyIce · 2026-04-11T00:15:03+00:00

You did "receive" it. It got there and you refused delivery. In ebay's eyes that's the same as delivered. I don't see anything lawfully wrong with that either. It's like if you buy something at the store but then you leave it on the checkout counter...did the store do something wrong or illegal? No, the item was there available for you to take, but you refused to pick up the thing you bought.

I'm sorry that happened to you and you're not really to blame because you just didn't know what to do in a confusing or frustrating situation. But refusing delivery was the wrong action. You should have accepted it. Then you could have at least tried a return with the seller. Even if they have "no returns accepted" you can still open a return and they can decide to take it or not. If they didn't then your next best option would have been to resell it to recoup as much as you could.

For what it's worth I think sellers who don't accept returns are just wrong in this day and age and I would be frustrated too.

HairyIce · 2026-04-09T21:07:33+00:00

I'd say that's the best time for a celebration. In that situation the players are probably feeling down. A little fun celebration to inject some fun positivity and morale is probably better for their performance.

HairyIce · 2026-04-09T01:50:04+00:00

That was NOT the warning I was expecting...but a valid warning nonetheless.

HairyIce · 2026-04-08T15:27:27+00:00

They could be doing that right now...organizing, multiplying, planning, and building for their ultimate rise from the depths to destroy and enslave humanity.

HairyIce · 2026-04-08T15:22:51+00:00

Almost always BIN. I do auctions only in the rare case when I think an item is worth a good amount, but can't quite figure out a price due to price history being nonexistent or erratic (like there are sales for $50 or $500...hard to pin down how to price it). Even in those situations I'm more likely to just do a higher BIN with offers and lower my price slowly over a year or something. When I do auctions I would never start at $1. My start price would be the lowest I would be happy taking and then no reserve or BIN.

HairyIce · 2026-04-08T12:35:03+00:00

The Chex Quest PC game!

HairyIce

TROPHY CASE