Hi Lee,
if you want, members of this forum can tell you how to get an excellent reproduction key made. And some of us also prefer handcuffs to be nicely cleaned, as yours appear to have been, so I'm not sure that its true that cleaning affects the price you'll get. About your bad experience, was it anything the forum would find helpful to know about?
Sorry for my delay in responding to this. I will try to explain the difficulties that I encountered during this transaction and hope that my experience might make others aware of pitfalls.
In the first instance it is probably fair to say that the problem was the fault of my own naiveté. When offering insurance for despatch of any item sold to another party I have always assumed that such would cover the buyer in event of the loss of item in transit. For this reason I have always, when selling on eBay stated that I accept no responsibility of loss and that a buyer should indicate if they wish a quote for insured shipping.
This all began in October of 2011 when I sold a rare piece of military scrip to a party in the U.S.A. I contacted the successful bidder indicating that the quoted shipping charge did not include insurance and asking did they wish me to obtain a price to include such. In the event, given a recent hike on postal charges by the Royal Mail, the cost was to say the least prohibitive. Basic cost was expensive and to cover full sale price of item made it even more so. This was for Royal Mail Airsure, which guarantees delivery in 4 to 6 working days. It also allows tracking of item outside the U.K. Some might not be aware that any other service does not provide this, and if the sender goes with a cheaper service then there is no way of determining if an item has been received by the other party.
So, given that the said service appeared to offer a watertight option, the buyer chose the cheaper band of cover obviously to keep their cost down. I heard nothing from him until the 24th December, at which time he thought to inform me that the item had not been received. I still dont understand why it took so long for him to get in touch re. this. However, I replied to his e-mail saying that we should wait until after Xmas and I would then look into things from this side of the Atlantic.
The next thing that I heard from him in early June was that he had instructed both his credit card company and PayPal to recover payment unless I could suggest and alternative. I replied that I was happy to do this through the auspices of PayPal and would wait for them to contact me. I was not prepared just to issue a payment to him unless there was a record of what it was for. I contacted PayPal re. the situation and was surprised to discover that they purport to have not only buyer, but also seller protection, and was assured that because I had proof of posting that I was safe from having the money taken back from me. I contacted the buyer explaining this and saying that I would now seek recompense via Royal mail on his behalf.
Next thing I know I have a very terse message from PayPal to the effect that money has been taken from my bank account and the seller reimbursed.
So, in conclusion, neither Royal Mail or USPS would take responsibility as to who had lost the item. USPS indicated that they were waiting for despatch from UK and Royal Mail said that item was with USPS. I had lost a very valuable bank note which sold at a fraction of its real value; I had had money taken from me when the fault lay with postal service; I was able to get reimbursement from the Royal Mail less than the sale price of item. So I was out pocket and minus my property.
My advice is dont trust PayPal; dont trust eBay; dont trust the Royal Mail. I no longer sell anything on eBay nor will I send anything outside Europe.
I hope that this might be of use to members and make them wary.
