Have any members had a really negative sale on any groups or forums?

[manic _miner]

 Just wondering if any members have had any bad experiences selling stuff on the various groups or forums?

 Only asking as i have had one recently.This is a first for me so it has knocked my confidence selling stuff.I have been made to feel like a criminal and even called so.Also banned from the group too.

 Any thoughts from others would be greatly appreciated.

[throwsFireball]

I've seen a few on the Facebook trading groups. Mainly for Games Workshop junk. I guess it's the moronic culture that GW seems to try to breed in their customers.

I saw a guy selling really, really old kits and he was accused of selling recasts because the resin was a different colour. Despite the fact FW's resin has changed colour a bunch of times over the years.

I don't think any recasters even have the kit he was selling.

[Cory]

I got stiffed by a trade on an RPG site a few years back where the other fellow had several thousand posts. I kept bugging him to pay up, send the stuff he promised, or return what I had sent him.

Instead a couple of months later he relisted what he was supposed to send me as well as listing the items I had sent him. When I posted a warning for others I was banned from the site.

I had really needed those items (I really needed the cash for my items but had a buyer for what he was sending) so I definitely harbored some ill will towards the guy for a while and for a little longer a bit more for the moderators who stepped in to shut me down because the other person was "a great guy and terrific poster".

Still, I realized there wasn't anything to be done so I let it go. It hasn't even made me that cautious on trades and sales since as I had lost some naivety but wasn't about to lose any decency over that fellow.

[CptJake]

I've been screwed over pretty decently a handful of times.   Two in particular, one from the Dakka forums and one from TMP before Bill locked my account.   

In both cases I sent stuff in trade, one the trade was for painting service so the fucker also got the stuff he was supposed to paint.   In the other I sent out my stuff and the bastard receiving it never sent his.   In each case I ate a couple hundred bucks and was less than happy.   

[Gunbird]

Recently, nothing that a little reminder or nudge could not solve on a FB group or Forum, and 1 local chap who I filed a police report for but the stuff showed after 2 months so I let that slide. In the past twice with trades and the other side dropping off the side of the planet or something and me losing out on stuff. Just chalked it up to a life's lesson, and got on with it. There is always a bad apple in the bunch, somewhere, that takes advantage of others. 99,9% of the others are cool.

[Cubs]

It's not particularly negative, but the worst I've had is someone saying the miniature never arrived, about a month after I posted it. It was from the UK to Holland and I had no reason to disbelieve him, so I made the decision to refund his money.

I have no way of knowing if it really arrived or not, and he made the choice of going with unrecorded postage because it was a lot cheaper, so I could easily have just kept the money. But I figured losing a couple of quid (I think it was about £6 all told) was a small price to pay really to have it wrapped up harmoniously. I just assumed he was telling the truth and it got lost and voluntarily gave him his money back (he never even asked for a refund). The vast majority of times I've dealt with other collector's it's been fine and drama free.

[eilif]

I've had dozens (perhaps hundreds...) of trades online and never gotten screwed.  I've done a few at Dakka and Lots at TMP and Bartertown.   It's good to have lots of outlets.  

These aren't hard-and-fast rules, but I've found that:
-Oddities, historicals and older stuff in the USA moves quickly on TMP.
-GW moves quickly on Dakka
-GW and other modern stuff sells quickly on Bartertown and when oddities and older off-brand stuff shows up there you can often get great deals.

I'd start using Lead Adventure too if the mods would get around to requiring country of origin stamps on the subject line topics.  Otherwise it's a needle in a haystack looking for USA-based sellers and I've no interest in paying cross-ocean shipping charges.

Regardless of venue I occasionally trade and when I do it's either a small deal and/or the guy with less feedback ships first.  Bartertown is great for this since it's easy to see the experience of who you're dealing with and the mods are quite good about policing the site.  I've been around long enough that my feedback usually means I have leverage to ensure that my things come first when dealing with a newer trader.  As regards shipping, I require Tracking #'s for all but the smallest/cheapest packages.

Off-gaming, I've also had very good experiences buying and selling instruments and parts at Talkbass.com.  They have a feedback and moderation system that is similar to Bartertown in it's effectiveness.

[rebelyell2006]

I got stiffed by a trade on an RPG site a few years back where the other fellow had several thousand posts. I kept bugging him to pay up, send the stuff he promised, or return what I had sent him.

Instead a couple of months later he relisted what he was supposed to send me as well as listing the items I had sent him. When I posted a warning for others I was banned from the site.

I had really needed those items (I really needed the cash for my items but had a buyer for what he was sending) so I definitely harbored some ill will towards the guy for a while and for a little longer a bit more for the moderators who stepped in to shut me down because the other person was "a great guy and terrific poster".

Still, I realized there wasn't anything to be done so I let it go. It hasn't even made me that cautious on trades and sales since as I had lost some naivety but wasn't about to lose any decency over that fellow.

Did you ship to a PO Box?  If not, then couldn't you have contacted the police about theft or fraud?


I haven't had any bad experiences directly through buying from people on TMP, but I did buy more than what I should have, which hurt a few months later.

[Ray Earle]

Not generally. I've only traded on LAF, Steve Deans site, Oldhammer forum and a couple from sales groups on Facebook. A lot of times I've paid by PayPal as a gift and, I suppose, luckily never been ripped off.

I've only ever had one parcel go missing (as a buyer) and despite not asking for a refund, the seller sent some replacement figures which was extremely generous of him.

I'm sorry you've had a bad experience manic_miner. 

[fred]

Generally on forums I have had very good experiences.

Only had one that didn't go smoothly - swapped some old 1/72nd plastics for some medieval metals. The guy wasn't too pleased with the plastics - even though I had sent some photos and offered more before agreeing the trade. Ended up sending him £10 to balance the deal. Wasn't a big deal, more the hassle of it.

Largest hassle was over £1.50 of green stuff off eBay. Seller was really hard work, to get him to send it again.

[throwsFireball]

I must be lucky, I've never had a bad deal off here.

Worst was paints not showing up off eBay but the seller (flying tigercat, in case you're wondering) replaced them immediately. It was over the Christmas period and deliveries are always a mess around here so that wasn't a big deal.

[paintinglittlesoldiers]

I have had one bad sale on a local wargaming forum but everything else has been fine. The sale in question was due to the purchaser lying that he had not received the goods and then had the stupidity to post a picture of his home based game showing said vehicle in it.

[Cory]

Did you ship to a PO Box?  If not, then couldn't you have contacted the police about theft or fraud?

I could have but honestly that would have been throwing more time and possibly money away. Plus the website with the details was blocked to me.

[robh]

I have been caught twice on forums, (both times on Bartertown), a couple of times on ebay as a buyer (pay me by gift scam) and a seller (item never turned up claim) but 3 times with fraudulent painting services. Twice I have had to resort to police action and once open a legal dispute under the EU small claims procedure. 2 of the 3 got resolved but each left me well out of pocket.

The most common scam I see these days is the "payment only by paypal gift". Which when you reply "OK send me the stuff first and when it arrives safely I will pay you by gift", surprisingly scammers never will. Has happened to me once on here.
I report that to PayPal now.

[Malebolgia]

@robh: I think that with trades here on LAF the "paypal as gift" works well. I can relate if the seller doesn't want to pay the paypal fee and IMO it makes more sense if the buyer pays it.

I have had one scam on eBay, where I bought an expensive aibrush in Asia...which never arrived. And as soon as I couldn't get the money back through paypal, the seller went silent.
Here on LAF I had two trades which left me with a sour taste. Both involved painted miniatures which were inadequately packed. So the metal miniatures were severly chipped and the plastic miniatures were broken. A shame and unnecessary.