Argh, so i just really want to vent, but any suggestions or help greatly appreciated!

So I have almost exclusively used discogs for purchasing over the years, and for the first time actually listed and sold something, and it's turned into a nightmare.

I sold 2 relatively rare LPs ( a 3xLP and a 2xLP ) from the late 90s to a buyer in the US. These records were/are in absolutely mint condition, because I bought them new myself at Galaxy records, and have never played them. They are worth a bit of money @ $300 NZD combined, so I thought why not sell them and pretend it offsets at least some small part of the buying I've done!

The buyer specializes in this genre of music, and had a copy of each record listed for sale himself on discogs, but on the day he contacted me claiming the ones I sent were damaged, he removed his listings.

So I had cleaned and inspected every side of every record, photographed them and provided those photos before he purchased them. He sent back close-up/partial photos of records with damage that absolutely was not on the records I sent. One side had a scratch extending from the centre label all the way to the edge. My photos prove that there was no such damage on any of the LPs. The packaging (a proper LP mailer) had taken a massive hit, and one sleeve has a small crumple in the corner, but thats shipping for you. I have tried to raise a claim with NZpost out of courtesy, but it requires the buyer to lodge the case with USPS and the buyer is just trying to reverse the paypal transaction instead, and refuses to assist.

So basically, i think this d*ckhead has swapped his lesser condition LPs for the mint ones I sent, and is trying to pass them off as mine and get a refund. I don't want to reverse the transaction, because he will just send me back the damaged versions.

I've supplied all my photos to paypal to counter his claim, but the whole thing is up in the air, and really sucks.

I have had issues with Paypal as well and one just recently.

All you can do is send the info you have to Paypal and just accept what ever happens. There is absolutely no point in stressing as you have no control what so ever.

I don't mean to sound negative but that's the facts and yeah it sucks when you are being ripped off.

Not a good outcome. I've purchased a few via Discogs without any problems but never sold there.
Stories like this tend to confirm my decision to confine any future selling to NZ only. I know it means less return but feel rightly or wrongly that there's a bit more control over what happens.

Good luck.

That's a sad tale, I feel for you!
Not quite sure which word is best used there;-?
www.startpage.com/do/dsearch?query=empathy+vs+sympathy

Let's hope PayPal comes to the party and is willing to purge such a cheap common thief from its system.
Anastrophic vs catastrophic expectations! ;=})

Mind you, one would hope that PayPal has upped its game, and maybe they have.

I had a very good telephone conversation last year, 20-30 min plus, reactivating a decades old account that I'd been locked out of back then because I hadn't been able to prove my identity with bank account (Swift or Iban codes confusion I think) which became immensely frustrating back then, 15-20 calls, each time a different rep, even scanned & sent my passport, to no avail, so had given up, but had to try again because (I forget exactly, but trying to re-register the name & or account number was in use) - and the old ihug email address then was long defunct. But the chap sorted it!

At that earlier time, I'd discovered several sites relating PayPal horror stories, this one is suspended now, but archive.org shows such past use.
web.archive.org/web/*/http://paypalsucks.com
But don't depress yourself with that!

As above, they seem to be much improved, and so let's all hope that it all works out for you !!!
Maybe our thoughts will carry to the minds of the PayPal adjudicators and innate senses of right and fairness will prevail... ;=}}

topmeaning.com/english/anastrophic

Cheers !!!

What a real c u next tuesday of a buyer !

Is Discogs of any help ?

Good idea;- they might have cached images of the rip-off buyer's previous listings, pity Andy didn't take screenshots, but still.

"The buyer specializes in this genre of music, and had a copy of each record listed for sale himself on discogs, but on the day he contacted me claiming the ones I sent were damaged, he removed his listings."

That's a fairly clear indication of deliberate fraud.

Well done you for taking photos of them before they left. Good luck.

looks like the good vibes have paid off guys! I just now got a message from the buyer saying refund him $65NZD for the shipping and he'll close the paypal case. Happy to pay that and chalk it up to (a bad) experience.

Its a shame he's getting away with it, but I can understand you closing it off.
Lets hope he does indeed close the paypal case once the shipping has been refunded.

Feel free to name the seller so that I don't ever buy or sell to them!

It's still extortion, or attempted extortion.
And like Ransomware, you've got no guarantee that he will keep that promise either!

Keep up on the case with PayPal, I'd suggest. You want to keep the payment and shipping costs.

Something I thought of later that I'd thought to note earlier;-
All jpgs from cameras (and phones) have Exif data embedded.
Sometimes even including GPS data, but certainly the device, shutter speed, many details.

Some viewers perhaps provide easier access to it than others - on Windows I always install Irfanview
www.irfanview.com/
Linux viewers vary, I'm not sure what might be best for macOs / OSX beyond built in ...

My idea was, if you have his original photos (of his listings - or even others) and check the exif data...
Hmm. I'm not familiar with that area of Discogs but archive.org seem to have ahem archived it.
web.archive.org/web/*/https://www.discogs.com/

Could you find the listing that he pulled, download the photos, compare with what he claimed were yours?
(Some auction/marketplace sites likely strip out exif data, but still, magnify the pics and compare anyway?)
Minor details might show that he is indeed misrepresenting his old records as your new ones.

Although Discogs is a marketplace in that section, I suppose like TM, would they help too, be concerned about a con artist using them?

Just vague ideas ... on second thoughts the exif data will show the same camera being used, but will have the date and time!
So if those photos were of his own old ones, they may have been taken before yours arrived, with luck, but not necessarily...
He may have planned the fraud and taken pics of his old ones the day they arrived, but maybe he got lazy, used old ones?

Again, I suggest you strongly pursue your case with PayPal, enlist Discogs help if you can, the truth is obviously on your side.
Ideally he might get banned from both?

Refuse to pay even the shipping, if it's not too late.
Let him know you will pursue him, legally, expose his tacky con artist tactics etc.
Easier said than done of course, but the satisfaction might be worth it!

Think like a detective?

Best of luck! ;=})

Thanks everyone for your responses. Yeah it's basically the buyer getting shipping for free in the end, but paypal so often favours the buyer I don't want to risk it. I'm sure i'll see my copies listed soon enough as mint condition. I made him close the paypal case before I paid him though. The fact he was willing to do that makes me think he was really trying to pull a swift one.