Does this pony look "Near Mint," to you? - UPDATE! Negative removed? :/

[aero_oceana]

UPDATE 9/18! - So, the seller initiated the refund on the 10th. I kept a close watch on my paypal account waiting for it to clear... today, it was canceled. My guess is because she used her bank to fund it and she didn't have the money for it in her account! I contacted ebay to step in and help me today. I hope I get my money back. 

ANOTHER UPDATE 9/18! - Ebay stepped in VERY quickly and got me my refund. Yay!

YET ANOTHER UPDATE 9/18 - Wow... just wow... so, I left what I deemed to be appropriate negative feedback. She got it removed! I am blown away! Apparently, she was able to appeal something and it removed the negative feedback automatically? I don't know how it happened. The refund showed as canceled in paypal for me this morning, so that's why I escalated it to ebay. Ebay got me the refund ASAP... she is claiming she had to pay the refund TWICE? She sent me a gloating message about getting the negative removed. I asked her not to message me again, and she messaged me more gloating. I called ebay and made a formal complaint against her. Guys, seriously... beware of this seller. She is awful.

Hey everyone...

I have been selling on ebay recently and received a lovely $25 coupon to spend on anything I wanted. I don't buy anything for myself often as I am unemployed and ebay is my only source of income at the moment. I scoured ebay looking for something awesome... and I found this listing;

http://www.ebay.com/itm/201256942996?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

I was SO excited! I couldn't understand why no one had bought him yet. I e-mailed the seller;

Just wondering if you could specify his issues since he is "near mint"? Tried to spot flaws in the photos, but am not seeing anything obvious!

Thanks!

She responded;

I always say near mint to mint because I don't want to have to worry about a buyer coming back and seeing something I didn't and therefore making it an inaccurate description. I always tell my customers to view all pics because they provide a better description than words do. I can't find any flaws on him either. He looks like he just came out of the package. I was rather surprised I hadn't sold him already as I've been a my little pony dealer for years and the big brothers never stick around in any condition much less looking like him with all his accessories. I've lowered his price by 20 dollars since I listed him and his hat sells for over 20 by itself. Anyway, hope this answers your questions.
Briana

That was enough for me! I bought him and paid for him immediately. I hadn't bought a new G1 for my collection in some time, let alone a boy pony (my favorite of all). I waited with excitement for him to arrive!

He arrived packed in a dingy ziplock baggy in one of those thin plastic envelopes. What I found, I didn't think was near mint AT ALL. Please tell me what you think?

All of my photos can be found here. I took the photos in photo box. Please select the zoom options on the photo, you'll see more detail that way.
http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Aerosmith_Gal/library/Big%20Brother%20Tex%20from%20Ebay?sort=3&page=1

Do you guys think he looks near mint/mint? Especially after the seller messaged me after I asked for more details and said he looks like he just came out of his package? :/ Please tell me if I am in the wrong for asking for a return/refund on this guy. I was so disappointed when I opened the plastic envelope and saw him.

The seller is acting like I'm lying about the condition he arrived in, acting shocked at his condition. Even when I uploaded the pictures, she said she couldn't see any of the flaws? :/

Thanks for your input.

~Micayla

[Nightbow]

A bit shady if you ask me. Looks like there are spots and nicks on his body, and one of the symbols clearly has a mark. Is that a mark on his butt?
http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Aerosmith_Gal/media/Big%20Brother%20Tex%20from%20Ebay/IMG_7506_zpsntrdvljo.jpg.html?sort=3&o=10

[Tap Dancer]

Looking at the first auction picture, I can see some marks near his symbol. To me, that's not "near mint" and I wouldn't have bought a pony based on that picture. "Near mint," IMO, means it looks like it just came out of the package. If it looks great but has a flaw, I'd probably consider it to be "excellent" condition.

[Libelle]

I can see brown spots in at least three of the auction pictures (pictures #1, #3 and #4). While I admit to having a "trained eye", and wouldn't expect a non-collector to identify these on their own, I would expect a regular MLP seller to do so, and I would certainly expect anybody who is specifically asked to look for flaws to spot them - collector or non-collector.

Moreover, I can clearly see some pinkish stains and tiny black dots (smooze?) in your pictures. So, no, it isn't near mint, and it definitely wasn't in a near mint state before it arrived at your doorstep, because those brown spots are visible in the auction pictures.

I've experienced something similar in the past (asked a regular MLP seller specifically to list any marks and/or stains, they failed to disclose a number of age spots and claimed the pony was near mint). I opened a case with ebay, described the age spots as being non-removable, added clear photos of the spots and referred to the communication between the seller and myself. As I had paid via paypal I immediately received a refund and all was well.

[Whippycorn]

Nope! 

He looks like he's got a small blush rub, some pale pink marks on his leg and what are those little black dots...maybe with a little clean he would be 'excellent', but not NM.

I hardly ever list ponies as NM and I only do so if I have pored over every aspect of the pony. The seller either didn't do this or has very poor eyesight? 

[aero_oceana]

Thank you all for your responses. I honestly couldn't see anything majorly wrong with him in the auction photos. Anything I did spot, I thought it was just surface dirt. Nothing like the permanent highligherish makrs and the tiny black pin dots. I tried to remove them, but no luck.

The seller has been very rude about my asking for a return/refund. She has given me quite a few reasons why she feels she shouldn't need to refund me (ebay is her sole source of income, she had back surgery, she is 5 months pregnant, lives with her mother, etc.). I submitted pictures through ebay with a return/refund request and she wrote that if ebay granted me a full refund, she'd be appealing it because she "doesn't deserve this." & "you can't even see the flaws she's speaking of in her pictures! In a photo box with flash!"

After another message from me, she did finally say she had accepted the return... but I am not seeing that stated anywhere on my page. It's still just saying we have until October 16th, 2015...

Yes, Nightbow... he has several permanent spots near his butt on his right side.

[Skeen]

Well, the seller took really bad auction photos so I can see why it would be hard to spot any damage in them.  I can see some spots but probably only because I was actively looking for flaws because of this thread.  Her photos look blurry and the colors are off.  Some sellers turn up the contrast to hide flaws but I think this is just without flash.   

Regardless of whether or not she thinks she should have to accept the return, she does have to.  Tex is nowhere near "near mint to mint" (and her justification for classifying him that way seems really weak too - sounds like she doesn't know what "mint" actually means) so he is not as described.  As a long-time seller, she should know better. 

[ponybanker]

I can see why you are unhappy.It looks like 2 different ponies. I hope it all works out for you buddy!

[archidraca]

I saw some small flaws in her pics but nothing that would've alerted me except that the photos were doubled up in a couple of instances and blurry or overexposed in most of the rest. Plus there were angles where no clear/close photo was taken. The only reason I might've bought at that price is to get the hat and bandanna but it's clear that either the seller doesn't know what NM is or they were trying to take advantage of someone. 

[bluerose9978]

You can see the red spots near the symbols in the auction photos. They caught my eye right away. Would never have called him near mint!

[achab1984]

Those are horrible pictures, the camera is washing it out! Its very hard to see the issues on the pony!

[ClosetAvalanche]

Make sure you escalate the dispute. You have to escalate it and ebay should decide in your favor and tel you to return it--send it back with tracking.

[aero_oceana]

Thanks for all the replies and advice. This has never happened to me before, and I hate to make someone feel like they are being attacked... I think she felt like I was just trying to attack her and I feel bad about that. However, I won't back down this time. I want an awesome G1 for my collection, not a "meh, it's ok," one.

Special shout out and hugs to my fellow SD'ers who commented, by the way.

How should I go about leaving feedback for this seller? Since she was defensive/rude in her messages to me? She has accepted the return, so there IS that. Should I leave a neutral, or would that be considered in poor taste? I want more people to be aware that they should proceed with caution with this seller.

[Tiara546]

Situations like this are horrible.
If it were me, I would consider the situation and the way to a solution as too unpleasant to just leave a neutral.

[CupidStrikes]

Thanks for all the replies and advice. This has never happened to me before, and I hate to make someone feel like they are being attacked... I think she felt like I was just trying to attack her and I feel bad about that.

How should I go about leaving feedback for this seller? Since she was defensive/rude in her messages to me? She has accepted the return, so there IS that. Should I leave a neutral, or would that be considered in poor taste? I want more people to be aware that they should proceed with caution with this seller.

No no, she was trying to guilt you out of demanding a refund - a situation she got herself into by lying about the condition of the pony. Please don't feel bad at all - you are not asking anything unreasonable and her response makes me think she was fully aware of the pony's condition all along and just wanted to get away with lying to you about it. Her situation is not your problem, and it's common scammer behaviour to try and worm out of refunds by claiming they have xyz going on in their life that somehow relieves them of responsibility.

I would leave negative feedback just for her response alone, to be honest. I could forgive the condition of the pony - things go wrong and mistakes are made, but your seller's behaviour was completely out of order. I'd leave something along the lines of "Item arrived not as described, seller was rude and reluctant to have the item returned". She only accepted the return because her guilt trip didn't work, don't forget that.