Idiot Ebay Buyers - Morphed - Customs Debate

Sorry, but no I don't.

If ebay didn't have the feedback system so messed up and slanted toward the buyer, I'd neg these people just for asking me to risk everything I've worked so hard to get in my life. In my opinion, trying to justify it is completely absurd. If you don't like the way Canada taxes you... move. Don't ask me to falsify a government document so you can screw over your country, that's ignorant any way you slant it.

I've had a bad experience with a buyer, too. I was selling a roll of wheat cents and I stated that it had 1909 VDB on one end and a 1920 on the other end. I also stated that rolls would have a good mix of mint marks and dates from 1909-1958. The roll sold for about $19.00 with shipping. I sent it out immediately and a few days later I got a very nasty email from the buyer. He called my roll a bunch of junk and he claimed that it was a regular 1909 coin and not a v.d.b. and also that 43 of the coins were from the 50's. He threatened to give me a negative feedback. I knew for a fact that he was lying about about the v.d.b. and the 43 coins from the 50's. I put that roll together and I knew that I had put a v.d.b in there and I knew that more than 30 of the cents were from decades other than the 50's. I normally do not offer returns on these rolls, but I told the buyer that I would give him a full refund if he would send me back the 50 coins and that I would reimburse him for his return postage. He stated that he threw them in a pile with other "junk coins" and would not be able to send them back to me. He then whined that he really needed a 1909 vdb. I told him that I couldn't help with a vdb, but I offered him a $5 rebate. He was very happy with that and gave me positive feedback. If I had really cheated him the way he claimed, would he really be happy paying $14 for 50 "junk" wheat cents?

Anyway, is there a way to ban specific buyers from bidding on your auctions?

I offer a 10 day "no questions asked" return policy on both ebay and my webstore. I clearly stipulate that if the holder is tampered in any way, this voids the return. I have sold many coins and have never had a problem.
Folks wanting something for nothing is another story.
Clearly state your terms of sale to CYA.

Dramatic or not, it doesn't change the fact it is an illegal action.

WpgLwr, Thanks for the informative post. I happen to be in the camp that would not mind at all checking "gift" on the custom's form for a fellow coin collector.

Not likely. I'm sure Canada Customs has more important things to do than to check for the odd person ticking off "Gift" on a Customs form. The amount of money they would spend on a multitude of transactions wouldn't be worth their while.

Besides, they have no jurisdiction outside of Canada. The only person who might be called to account for the situation might be the receiver of the package, but the whole thing is such small potatoes, again, it's not really worth their while -- don't forget, "Gift" value only goes as high as a paltry $60.00 CDN, and coins are usually duty-free, anyway. Likely the only thing that would happen is a forced collection to the receiver, and only after they prove it wasn't a "Gift", which would mean finding out people's bidding aliases, something that likely could only be proven by seizing their computer -- something that it is highly unlikely a Judge would allow. It would have to be a multitude of transactions between the same two people, also, and even then, after they occurred, the receiver could show the coins he'd received and easily proclaim himself a collector.

The only interest expressed by Canada Customs regarding ebay has to do with items prohibited in Canada, although the income tax branch has been interested in Power Sellers resident in Canada declaring any income derived from ebay, but that's the extent of it.

"Risk"? In all reality, who's to know in any event?

I have no problem if a seller chooses to check the gift box, but I think it is outrageous for a buyer to give negative feedback to a seller for not checking the gift box.

I am reading the comments about the customs forms. UK is just like Canada with regards to this.

I would like to open discussion up a bit more since I have following things happen to be on purchases of coins from the US since a few times, my purchases ended up going to customs and I had to pay a VAT charge plus a handling fee.

Here are some cases where my coins have gone to customs for them to review.

1) Sellers adding the postage amount onto the price paid for the coin(s) which in some cases can be equal to or greater than what I paid for the coins.

2) Sellers placing the RedBook value on the customs form, not the amount paid.

3) I also had a seller claim that they just made a mistake and put the wrong amount on the form.

4) I also had a seller put the face value of the coins on the custom form....normally this is fine except when they are not US coins.....country in question at the time had an exchange rate of $1 to 10 of their dollar units.

5) I also had an issue where package was insurance for an amount which more than the value on the customs form.

So now, I would ask questions about the customs forms when buying the US but I will respect what the seller wants to do.

I do thank the people on here who have sold me coins with no issues at all by sending them to me in UK or to my folks in the US.