Avoid buyer SmartSportsInvestments/Ted Newman of Washington State on Ebay

[legaleagle92481]

I ordinarly would never post something like this but I do not want to see this happen to anyone else so I will. In January Ted Newman of Washington State Ebay ID SmartSportsInvestments won my auction of an Ichiro Suzuki UDA autographed baseball. at a bargain price. I have my auctions set up so that Ebay calculates the shipping, which I think is the fairest way to determine shipping costs. I sent him an invoice designating UPS as how the item would be shipped he sent payment then demanded that I send the item USPS (which Ebay had calculated as a couple of bucks cheaper) and refund him the difference. I gladly did so promptly. I heard nothing more from him and left him a nice positive feedback. After receiving no feedback in return I dropped him a line over a month ago asking if everything was ok with the transaction and requesting that he return the positive feedback. He responded with a nasty email about how pissed he was that I "made money" on the shipping. He based this assertion on the fact that the amount specfied on the package was a couple of dollars less than the amount he paid for shipping costs. I responded with an email apologizing that he was unhappy and explaining to him that there are other costs involved in shipping an item besides the amount on the package such as the cost of the packaging materials, gas to go to and from the post office and time spent waiting in line. When all those costs are factored in I like most sellers actually lost money on the shipping. He did not respond and no feedback was left. He bid on one of my items and lost about two weeks after I shipped him the ball and last week he bid on another item of mine. Rather than deal with him again I decided to end the auction early which would have ended last night. Yesterday he left me negative feedback and said "To beware that I make money on shipping". This was my first negative feedback ever and I messaged him about it and he responded with another nasty email about how he does not care about Ebay and I should take it up with them. I noticed that he is attempting to resell the item he bought from me for double the price he paid for it and I have no doubt the feedback was retailation for ending the other auction and depriving him of a chance to get another bargain deal that he could flip for double. Ironically the shipping cost he lists in the flip auction is a flat rate virtually identical to the amount I charged him. So I am just posting this so others can avoid the headaches this guy brings.

[sammy]

Thanks for the heads up.

He is on my "Blocked Bidder" list.

Don't want to deal with people like this.

[sammy]

Ebay states the user ID: SmartSportsInvestments - is not a valid eBay ID.

[kudu]

I think this is the correct ID: smart-sports-investments

[LA_1968]

Legal Eagles,

I'm not a pro on game used so I thought I'd share on something I do know and could help sellers here.

Of non related sports items, I have about an 8000 feedback on ebay. I probably sold 12,000 items. Average price about $150 USD. As a seller I would never leave feedback first. Ever. Once you do they got you by the 6@11$. Let's face it, seller feedback is infinitely more important than buyer. I wouldn't even leave them neg when they didn't pay because I'd open myself up to them leaving revenge feedback. Out of thousands of "you first" feedback I had about 5 people complain about that policy. I would just say "I want every opportunity to make you happy and once you are I will post my feedback too".

I know it's hard when doing this when you want to raise your feedback but in the end your feedback still goes up and without the threats.

For shipping, I would never print the price on a label. If they don't like the price posted on the auction then they should not bid. I happened to use the free shipping anyway but they were mostly buy it now sales. On auction it's not so easy to do free shipping.

Take care,

Charles

[Antonio D.]

Sorry to hear that legaleagle. However, I'm surprised you sold that guy an Ichiro Suzuki autographed baseball. You have no idea how hard I've been trying to search for an Ichiro Suzuki autographed baseball. So I was wondering if you have anymore in stock?

I could care less about COA's as long as you know you've got them personally signed? Let me know. Also, I can do trades but other than that, I'm a pretty cheap bum. But I'll take my chances and see what you can offer. Shoot me a private message when you get the chance. Thanks!

I ordinarly would never post something like this but I do not want to see this happen to anyone else so I will. In January Ted Newman of Washington State Ebay ID SmartSportsInvestments won my auction of an Ichiro Suzuki UDA autographed baseball. at a bargain price. I have my auctions set up so that Ebay calculates the shipping, which I think is the fairest way to determine shipping costs. I sent him an invoice designating UPS as how the item would be shipped he sent payment then demanded that I send the item USPS (which Ebay had calculated as a couple of bucks cheaper) and refund him the difference. I gladly did so promptly. I heard nothing more from him and left him a nice positive feedback. After receiving no feedback in return I dropped him a line over a month ago asking if everything was ok with the transaction and requesting that he return the positive feedback. He responded with a nasty email about how pissed he was that I "made money" on the shipping. He based this assertion on the fact that the amount specfied on the package was a couple of dollars less than the amount he paid for shipping costs. I responded with an email apologizing that he was unhappy and explaining to him that there are other costs involved in shipping an item besides the amount on the package such as the cost of the packaging materials, gas to go to and from the post office and time spent waiting in line. When all those costs are factored in I like most sellers actually lost money on the shipping. He did not respond and no feedback was left. He bid on one of my items and lost about two weeks after I shipped him the ball and last week he bid on another item of mine. Rather than deal with him again I decided to end the auction early which would have ended last night. Yesterday he left me negative feedback and said "To beware that I make money on shipping". This was my first negative feedback ever and I messaged him about it and he responded with another nasty email about how he does not care about Ebay and I should take it up with them. I noticed that he is attempting to resell the item he bought from me for double the price he paid for it and I have no doubt the feedback was retailation for ending the other auction and depriving him of a chance to get another bargain deal that he could flip for double. Ironically the shipping cost he lists in the flip auction is a flat rate virtually identical to the amount I charged him. So I am just posting this so others can avoid the headaches this guy brings.

[harpt]

Legal Eagles,

I'm not a pro on game used so I thought I'd share on something I do know and could help sellers here.

Of non related sports items, I have about an 8000 feedback on ebay. I probably sold 12,000 items. Average price about $150 USD. As a seller I would never leave feedback first. Ever. Once you do they got you by the 6@11$. Let's face it, seller feedback is infinitely more important than buyer. I wouldn't even leave them neg when they didn't pay because I'd open myself up to them leaving revenge feedback. Out of thousands of "you first" feedback I had about 5 people complain about that policy. I would just say "I want every opportunity to make you happy and once you are I will post my feedback too".

I know it's hard when doing this when you want to raise your feedback but in the end your feedback still goes up and without the threats.

For shipping, I would never print the price on a label. If they don't like the price posted on the auction then they should not bid. I happened to use the free shipping anyway but they were mostly buy it now sales. On auction it's not so easy to do free shipping.

Take care,

Charles

Charles,

Respectfully, I have another take on this. Personally, I can not stand when a seller operates this way. If I have fulfilled my end of the bargain by paying for the item in a timely fashion, I deserve positive feedback for that. My feedback as a buyer has nothing to do with whether or not I ultimately like what you do as a seller. For a seller to hold my feedback hostage until I comment about the back end of the deal is just wrong, in my opinion.

I am sure you are a nice person, and I am not meaning to suggest that you are unethical, but this practice is definately a pet peave of mine.

[LA_1968]

Charles,

Respectfully, I have another take on this. Personally, I can not stand when a seller operates this way. If I have fulfilled my end of the bargain by paying for the item in a timely fashion, I deserve positive feedback for that. My feedback as a buyer has nothing to do with whether or not I ultimately like what you do as a seller. For a seller to hold my feedback hostage until I comment about the back end of the deal is just wrong, in my opinion.

I am sure you are a nice person, and I am not meaning to suggest that you are unethical, but this practice is definately a pet peave of mine.

I totally understand your peave. I really wish it did not have to come to this way of leaving feedback. It hurt to start this policy. My honesty is extremely important to me... to a fault. However, I'm looking at this from a point of view of the seller even though I also buy.

Basically, there is no rule saying you must give feedback. Even so... Look at the Legal Eagle example. As a buyer, don't you think the guy was a terrible buyer? I do. Paying, and paying on time is not the only thing a buyer should do well. He should not behave the way he did. Therefore, in my mind with all due respect to Legal Eagle, he jumped the gun on the positive feedback because as you can plainly see the buyer can turn out to be a major pain and even dishonest. What if the buyer files a chargeback with paypal? Therefore, the only way I will know that he is a good buyer and treated the seller in good faith is when I see the buyer leaving good feedback. If not, it's still an open book. Like I said, I wish it was not this way.

[momen55]

typical ebay shmuck.

[beavisrules]

Personally, I can not stand when a seller operates this way. If I have fulfilled my end of the bargain by paying for the item in a timely fashion, I deserve positive feedback for that.

Scott, I understand your perspective, but I also respectfully disagree with you here. A buyer deserves positive feedback for being a good buyer - this includes not only paying on time, but also not harrassing the seller when the item hasn't arrived after 3 days, not whining about the shipping charge being 50 cents more than the actual shipping cost, not doing a chargeback 14 days later for no specific reason, not leaving negative feedback because there wasn't enough bubble wrap . . . I could go on and on, but I think you catch my drift. If the original poster had held off on the immediate positive feedback, he would have maintained some leverage against any baseless claims from the buyer. Personally, I think it is ridiculous that negative feedback can not be left for a buyer, and wish they would change back to the old system on this.

-Mike