I initially created this thread before the board was disrupted, so I support it, though I have never felt a need to use it. Part of collecting is taking risks, and most of the time when you try to locate something new you won’t get what you expected. I also have an established reputation as a seller and a buyer, and am quick to ship or send payment. I live by fidelity, meaning that if I say I will do something, I will. Period.
That being said, I am one to stand by the mail system as being reliable. I have
never once had a letter or a shipment lost in transit be it to Europe or any place in America. These days it seems that people are quick to use the mail system as an excuse, but I just don’t buy it. I use that preface because after a thread about a month ago with MarvelouZ I exchanged some instant messages and TB PM’s with the guy and agreed to purchase a few items from him. I mailed payment, but thanks to confusion between a number and a letter on the envelope it was returned to me from the Poland postal office. I received the letter back, and messaged MarvelouZ both privately and in his thread on the board to which I simply received a “
”. Not knowing if this was him trying to be cute or whatever, I retrieved his address from someone else he sold singles to and verified it was the same as I had. I re-sent the letter containing payment, with tape over the text to protect it, and expected to hear from him within 7-10 days, the time required for overseas airmail. No word came, and after trying to contact him repeatedly I finally managed to speak with him on AIM. He plainly stated that he never received my payment, and moreover he claimed that we never set up a deal. I had printed my PM with his agreement to the deal and included it with my payment no less. I was skeptical why someone who is so active on eBay claimed he did not have a working PayPal account, and I am left thinking that he elected for me to mail money instead of using (insured) electronic transfers is that he entered the “deal” with dishonest intentions. So here I am, $50 poorer, and the seller claiming we never had a deal, and that he never received his payment to begin with. I reiterate, I have never once had mail to or from Europe be lost in transit in all of my hundreds of dealings with overseas collectors since 1998. MarvelouZ cannot claim the same. Numerous people he has traded with have since told me of his excuses and run-around tactics regarding his being too busy at school, the address used was his home address, etc. I too use multiple addresses, but I choose the most appropriate one to ensure I will be there to receive a letter. It is preposterous to have a letter sent to an address that you will not have access to for weeks at a time.
I’ll wrap it up. I set up a deal with this guy and made good on the payment. He, on the other hand, seems not to even remember the deal and claims never to have received payment. Plain and simple, my contribution in this thread is to caution establishing any transactions with MarvelouZ. On the other hand, I have had successful trades with several board members, including 221, Pittsey, Imy, and others, and successful sales with well over 50 TB members. If there’s a problem, I will fix it.