Selling My Soul on Ebay

How does one fuck up so bad? I love ebay. I love to sell and buy on ebay. Of course it is mostly rpgs but also included many other things including CD, DVDs, Cell Phones, Bellydance costumes, drum pedal, comic books, and my favorite: Groo Cards.

Groo cards was the best auction I ever had and second most expensive thing I sold on ebay. When I was living in New Mexico a friend of mine was cleaning out his apartment while preparing to move. He found a box of Groo cards which he had packed away. He got them at a comic book store in a $5 grab bag. He did not want to take the cards with him so he gave them to me.

I'm not a big Groo fan, as a matter of fact everything I know about him came from ads in other comics. So I ended up taking these cards and storing them away. When I got ready to move to San Diego I found the cards and decided to throw them on ebay. They ended up selling for over $200!! I was stunned, the bidding started at $3.

Recently friends of mine have been trying to unload their gaming collections. I offered to sell the collections on ebay for half the final bid and I would take care of everything. The first round of this went really well and I sold around $700 in product. Almost all these items were single books or small collections.

Another friend wants to sell his books but this time I decide to take a different strategy and sell a bunch of D&D books in two large collections, one being 25 books, the other around 40 books. The auctions go fairly well and total for over $400.

Now it is time to ship the books. I have shipped over 100 items and had a problem with tarriffs and a package got lost for 2 weeks in Canada. Where did I go wrong here??? I manage to get each set in their own box, one weighs around 35 lbs, the other around 50. I print out shipping labals and I get one ready to mail. Take it to the post office, ship it with tracking and $100 insurance.

The computer is down at my work and I get out early so I decide to mail the heavy box. I take it down and ask for tracking and insurance. I get into a small arguement about insurance with the post office guy (and he doesn't seem to happy that I have a 50 lb package). I put $200 insurance and as I'm walking out I realize he didn't put tracking on. I'm pissed and just leave not wanting to wait in line for another 15 min to put tracking on my package.

A few days go by and I get this wierd feeling that I screwed up. That weekend I check my receits to see where I mailed the packages. I mailed them both to the address where the 50lb package was heading. I flip out. That Monday I race down to the post office to see if there is any way I can redirect the package. "No way" they say. I immediatly email the owner of the heavy box to let him know the situation and offer to refund his shipping cost ($25) if he will remail the package to the correct owner.

The recipient is nice and says no problem. He tells me he got the smaller box but not his box. A couple days go by and I ask him if he mailed the box. He says no, and then tells me that he won't send the box until he gets his box.

I try to track down his box but without the tracking number it is hopeless. I try to reason with him but discover he is holding the other box as collateral as he only has a $280 investment in my box.

....
....
....
My head reels as I try to figure out what to do. I'm currently waiting for a reply on an email I sent offering a temperary $140 refund (half the total value, $20 less than the value of the smaller box) which he can hold onto until he gets his box or I can claim the insurance. He's got me by the balls and all I can do is scream.