So What Was The Last (Slabbed) Coin You Returned...and Why?

Let me add one note lest someone take my comment the wrong way. I have had very good experiences with this seller and they have a great return policy and customer service. This experience was with one particular coin only and I bring it up only as fodder for my discussion topic about returning coins.

I sell on ebay all the time. If someone returns something, I only lose out on the postage one way. Its just a cost of doing business. No big deal.

Photos of the coin in question would be great, especially if they show the bend you mention. The only time I've returned a coin was when I was taking the chance on a terribly photographed coin that had return privilege. I usually pass on a poorly photographed item, regardless of price, but once in a while I'm stupid enough to think the bad photos are all the seller could do.

The bending is something that is noticeable enough in hand to want to make me look away, but I can see NGC ignoring it as it just affects the rim. Here is a pic - the best I can do cropped from a larger pic as I have already sent the coin back.

Oh there is no problem at all with a return with DL - they don't even require a preapproval. I just somehow unethical returning a coin.

I would put a big gold star beside Andrew99's post. I guess as an online buyer I am good because I always pay instantly, but I guess I am bad because I have no hesitation to send a coin back if I don't like it. The coin in hand is simply a different thing from the photographs, even when the photographs are excellent (thanks, dealers who provide great pix). I feel that my obligation to be an "ethical returner," if that's a term, includes promptness and scrupulous caretaking of the coin while I have it. But as Andrew99 says, returns are part of doing business, and if a vendor is courteous and prompt about handling returns, they will have me as a repeat customer. If they perform the digital equivalent of rolling their eyes, I will never patronize them again. At a coin store, I can see the actual item. As Andrew99 wisely acknowledges, buying and returning is the online equivalent of holding the coin in your hand at the store and then handing it back unbought. My last comment on this is that even the best photographs can be deceptive, even if the deception is completely unintentional. As we all know, to use the example of the coin I have posted in the new acquisitions thread, carbon spots can disappear in a straight-on photograph, and then just explode when you look at a different angle.

I recently purchased a 1878 MS 65+ PL Morgan PCGS and the coin had a planchet flaw with pitting on the cheek that did not slow up in the photo and no comment from seller about flaw. I requested a refund and the seller apologized and paid for return shipping. When the seller relisted the coin, the planchet flaw was noted in comments.

When I buy a coin online from photo, I feel that I am entitled to see the coin in hand and returns are part of the online business practice. I have a hard rule that I only buy from online sellers who offer returns.

syeb and Centsei, you are the kind of customers sellers will bend over backwards to retain. The very fact that you even consider that you may have an ethical quandry puts you head and shoulders over most of the public that sellers deal with.

You would not believe the sort of nonsense I've had to put up with dealing with the public. Some people want to use you as an approval service returning all coins they cannot sell at a local show. One dealer I know had an attempted return after the customer cracked the coin out of the NGC holder it was in and then complained that the coin was bent. Do you really think NGC would slab a bent coin? I had someone complain that they were on vacation for a month in Europe and couldn't return my "deceptively photographed" Proof Franklin half for $22. They threatened negative feedback if I didn't take it back after a month. I had someone else claim "significantly not as described" to force me to pay for the return postage on their $25 coin that they decided they just didn't like.

All we ask is that people try to behave in an honorable way and what happens, happens.