I won a netsuke (wooden carving) on ebay which the seller listed as having more than one available. It’s of a frog, and the one I got is exactly like pictured, except instead of smooth “skin”, it has bumpy.
I actually like the one I got better, but I figure if I got the wrong one, it might by rights belong to and should have been sent to another buyer.
Should I contact the seller to ask if I should send it back, or assume that he/she considers it to be the correct item? The item description doesn’t actually say that you get the exact item pictured, but that’s generally the assumption, right?
I don’t want to bother him/her if I don’t have to (plus, obviously, I want to keep it). They’re clearly doing this for a living - loads of other netsukes constantly for sale. Also, they’re based in, I believe, Hong Kong. Either that or China. When I’ve gotten incorrect netsukes from sellers in the same area, they all say it isn’t worth sending it back and to keep it.
Having written all this out, I think the answer is to just contact them already, especially since it’s such a small, easy thing to do, but I’ll ask anyway.
If you’re happy with what you got, why would you make a fuss about it? Sounds like the seller has plenty of the things in stock, so I doubt you got the only one with bumpy skin the world will ever know or anything.
When you fill out your seller feedback, include the facts of your case and your rating whether positive, neutral, or negative. Although you may be happy with your purchase, others might not be pleased with not receiving what they paid for.
It’s due dilligence for all e-bay users to report any problems with buyers/sellers so that other users are protected and problems can be avoided. You would expect the same from others.
Sweet of you to be concerned, but it’s not your responsibility. If there’s a problem with another buyer, it’s up to the seller to rectify it. If doing so involves the piece you have received, the seller knows how to reach you.
If it’s something you think that other netsuke enthusiasts might be bothered by, then yeah, I’d say send them a friendly email thru the forwarding system. It’s just an email, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re complaining. Given what you’ve said I can’t imagine they’d want you to return the item.
I agree, if the item you get is obviously different then the picture then they should say so in the description. Generally speaking.
I kind of a similar situation. This was back in '99 when eBay was still fun.
I ordered a used CD, Self Control by Laura Branigan. All went well, till the package arrived, with the used CD and 5 other CDs by Ms Branigan.
I contacted the seller and explained that there must’ve been an error, I only paid for one.
The reply was “I’ve had those damn things on eBay for a year now and no one wants them, they’re your problem now.”
So that was nice of that seller and fortunately I love Laura Branigan.
I would just cut and paste the note you wrote here and email to the seller. Advise while you bought the “bumpy” frog you’re happy with what you got and if it’s OK with the seller you’ll just keep it. If not the seller can arrange to pay for shipping back to him/her and send you the right one
I would be the seller ain’t gonna wanna (ain’t gonna wanna -> the Internet has officially killed my grammar :)) pay for shipping and advise you to keep it. So you get what you want and by doing this you’ll know you did what you felt was correct.
I emailed the seller earlier today to ask if they need it back. Thanks for all the advice, everyone. Knowing how bizarrely attached I am to these things, I’d want someone who inadvertently got mine to do the same.
Bad news, though. I got another frog netsuke (*really *easy to shop for at Christmas time) in the mail, and similar situation, except this one is almost exactly the same. So, opinions: is this enough like this for me to not bother contacting the seller?
Yeah, it’s a pretty bad picture. Sorry. To my eye, the ones in the ebay picture have a distinctly carved um thingie where the ear seems it should be (and is, I assume, though I’m not sure enough to commit to that) and the little one is a bit plumper in the ebay pic.
In related news, I received a reply from the seller of the bumpy frogs, and the person who wrote me said that since they are hand-carved, they often vary slightly from the picture displayed, so I’m going to assume that’s the case with the second netsuke and not contact that seller. Plus I’d have a hell of a time pinpointing exactly what is different, as you can tell from paragraph one. Oh, and also that I may keep the bumpy frog, yay!
Edit: if anyone’s really really interested, I’ll take a better pic tomorrow, but I’m guessing not, and can’t be bothered otherwise, so thanks, and sorry.
Heh, I thought so too at first, but it’s just a smaller frog sitting on top of a larger one. Believe me, there are netsuke that are of people/animals fucking and they are GRAPHIC. (I don’t collect that kind of netsuke, not that there’s anything wrong with that…)
