Dave,

I've got more than a few eBay transactions under my belt, and based upon what you've told us (a link to the actual auction is always nice to help your "advisors" get the full picture, you certainly did nothing wrong, and the bidder has no case for misrepresentation. eBay is indeed a "caveat emptor" environment, and your description included statements that "Please note that both have replaced cents. The cents are ***not*** original. The cents are loose and are easily removed." How can the buyer then say that the coins were tampered with, and he wants a refund? You TOLD him in advance they had been tampered with.

You do not "have" to refund any of his money, nor are you technically required to return his coins at your own expense since he sent them back without a return authorization. A bidder should never just mail an item back without first getting permission to do so, and should always insure the item, or get a signed delivery confirmation that the item was actually received by the seller. Many buyers have scammed sellers by saying "I returned the item, where's my refund?", when they never really returned it at all! It's happened to me on several occasions.

That's not to say that you shouldn't give him a full or partial refund, you may well choose to do so for customer service reasons and peace of mind. I want to give good service to my bidders, and do not wish to have any unhappy customers.

However, a certain percentage of the bidding public is flakey and unreasonable, and I do not like to reward this bad behavior with refunds, especially if it may encourage the bidder to do the same thing to the next eBay seller he deals with.

Buyers must read the descriptions of the items they bid on before they bid, and satisfy themselves that what they are bidding on meets their needs. Some eBay sellers may have a Nordstrom's like "no questions asked" refund policy, but the vast majority do not.

Many sellers also allow bidders to run all over them out of fear of getting a negative feedback, which is wrong, in my opinion. If the buyer does neg you, you can always respond directly under the negative comment with something like "item was exactly as described, buyer did not read the description before bidding".

Again, there's nothing wrong with refunding the guy's money (other then encouraging a flake to treat other sellers the same way), and do so if you choose. But recognize that you are free to establish your own return and refund policies, you do not have to let bidders dictate your terms of sale to you.