[y2hood]

*deep breath* *gagging from smell emanating from envelope*

Above are front and back scans I took of this Kevin Reddick card I purchased (he's a recent UDFA for the Saints). The text of the listing refers to it as "NM/Mint." Ok, fine, I can accept different people call different things "near mint." I'm not unreasonable. My gripes are as follows:

1. Not related to card condition but upon opening the envelope the smell of *heavy* smoke came from inside. I have read arguments about this issue back and forth on card forums, and I stand by the opinion of I shouldn't have to hold my breath to open my mail.

2. Between the bottom left where the Upper Deck logo is and the k in Kevin is heavy surface scratches.

3. Upper right and lower right corners are damaged.

4. The bottom edge has some obvious flaws.

5. Above the bottom edge the card stock is peeling.

6. On the back where the ER is in Lettermen there's a major indention in the card (which won't show up on the scan unfortunately).

The seller has a "no return policy" and has previous negative feedback for issue #1. Otherwise is feedback is remarkable. I know as a fellow seller what a b**** a negative buyer experience can be.

So I guess what I'm doing is looking for validation or condemnation from my fellow collectors.

Also, is it enough to reseal the envelope and put a "return to sender" or do I need to print a new shipping label? I'm not keeping this thing. He's going to have to issue a refund per the buyer protection policy. His attitude pretty much is going to determine negative/neutral, barring one of you fine gentlemen or ladies recruiting me to a better mindset.

[foleylion08]

Wow, that seems to be much more than could have happened just in shipping. So in my mind, that means they sent the card out knowing its condition and lying about it (Assuming since they sound like they have made a decent number of sales they know what the hell NM/Mt means). I'd give negative unless they are nice as can be when confronted with the problem and give you no problems. Even a hesitation and I'd be all over the negative feedback.

As for the shipping, PRINT OUT A LABEL! I had a nightmare with a return to sender situation and it lasted a couple weeks. It's worth the time/effort. Make sure to get tracking as well so they can't deny receipt.

[jheringa09]

Gotta love these card collectors that don't care huh?

[superynaldo]

Gotta love these card collectors that don't care huh?

"card collector" what is that??? they are far and few between these days... especially on ebay...

[melcmd]

Sorry about what happened. I had a thread about this very subject a couple of weeks ago.

It's unfortunate that the hobby has degenerated into two types of collector.....the collector/fans and the buyer/flippers. The former suffers the biggest emotional loss when tracking something down spending your money and receiving substandard items. This collector feels taken advantage of and misled.

The second is promarily interested in turning a profit as quickly as they can. This often leads to cutting corners and probably not paying attention to some details (like the smoky smell).

This is by no means a knock on all sellers as some still collect.

I'm not so sure the negative will really change much other than getting you blocked from any future purchases from the seller.

In this hobby, the buyer (customer) is not always right.....at least in the eyes of these sellers.

I'm always leery of sellers who have a zero return policy. At least have some flexibility.

[jfrench91]

ive never smoked ANYTHING in my life and ive never been able to smell it from a package and ive opened thousands of packages.. sorry about what happened.

[phinzphan1372]

ive never smoked ANYTHING in my life and ive never been able to smell it from a package and ive opened thousands of packages.. sorry about what happened.

Its kinda simple.... I "Smoke" everyday .... never near cards or collectables or in the house even..... with that said ..... I HATE the smell of cigarettes and cigars!!!!!! .... I can smell it on the cards once in a while. ... Ive done this before especially on a really rare cars....

get a shoebox...... put an open box of arm & hammer in it ... put the card on something like 2 pens to put space between the card back and the box.... leave it for a few days.... no more smell

[y2hood]

Thanks to all for the feedback.

He agreed to the return in a very reasonable amount of time after contacting him. I printed my own shipping label and already have it back in the care of USPS.

Other items of carelessness: It was in an oversized toploader (bigger than the thickness of this card) with no penny sleeve so it was shifting around. He also had a half team bag wrapped around it with the sticky part of the team bag over the opening of the top loader and the rest of the half bag taped to the top loader and a cardboard decoy.

Also without quoting the entire message he did tell me that if I'd read the description I would see that it was nm/mint. It didn't come off as rude but I again question is definition.

Also I let my wife (ex smoker) sniff the envelope to verify I wasn't crazy and she about upchucked on the spot. So it was either really repulsive or she's a drama queen (or both).

[dmasci]

Sounds like you don't have an issue anymore to me. You purchased a card from someone with a no return policy which is a no no for me. But, even with the policy the guy agreed to let you return the card for a refund so you lost a little time.

I don't mean to be a hard a** but we have all bought cards off the bay that were not in the condition as advertised even with the zoom in pictures you can't tell. Besides who wants a new card NM that is a BGS 7 grade! So as long as you can take a chance on condition and get a refund if the card isn't to your liking I don't see a problem. I know though it's a pain....Buy graded cards that will fix the issue :-)

[y2hood]

Well my plan is/was to build the "Tar Heels" plate for Kevin Reddick. I need the "S" and now the 2nd "E" since that one was damaged. Once the plate is complete I'm going to get the whole thing graded.

It's a brand new release so buying graded isn't an option, yet.