I think you should have made it explicity clear
in the auction description that you were using
another person's scan & that your cel did not
include a sketch. It would have prevented all
this hassle for you.
Often times an auction seller will simply post
the image of the cel and the title of the anime
it came, nothing else. Call it laziness. But
most bidders will assume that the cel DOES have a
matching sketch. And in 95% of the cases this is
true.
This occurs more often on Yahoo! auctions than E-
Bay. Regular E-Bay sellers are usually more
communicative of what's included and not included
in an auction up front, because they want to
avoid the pitfalls that you are going through
right now.
Did the buyer have a right to assume there was a
sketch, based on the image you posted and the
lack of information? I think so. But does the
buyer have an absolute right to take action
against you because there was no sketch? I would
say not, but...
You are partly at fault here, especially if you
NEVER mentioned that the auction displayed a scan
of a different cel, and not the one you were
actually auctioning. That is grounds for mis-
representation of the item.
If you were going to use someone else's cel image
(which I hope you asked permission to use), you
should have made it abundantly clear that it was
NOT a scan of the actual cel you are auctioning
but that your cel was identical. Naturally, you
should also describe the differences between your
cel and the one in the image (the difference in
sequence numbers, whether or not there was a
sketch, etc.). This would have been the smart
and ethical way to go.
If I were you, I would extend my sincerest
apologies and try to work out something with the
buyer (a refund of $1-2?).
You are not obligated to do this and you may not
be entirely at fault in this situation, but a
fair seller should admit their mistakes and try
to make up for them. Most regular E-Bay sellers
do and will. |