Monday, June 1, 2009

How Am I Supposed to Know??

Like I said in yesterday's post, I'm selling a silverware chest. We got it as a gift for our wedding 10 years ago, but we hadn't registered for it, or a set of silver. Sometimes, people are wacky. Anyway, we thought, hey, maybe we'll get silver some day. Yeah, well, it's been 10 years - still no silver. I am sick of the thing, and it's brand stinking new. So I'm selling it. Now, it's not like I'm an expert on silver chests. There is no information anywhere on the chest except the manufacturer's name, and the name of the store from which it was purchased. So I got this question:

Is the interior tarnish resistant felt?
Thanks


How in the world would I know that? I've taken pictures from every angle, there's no booklet or tags in the pictures, and I make no mention of instructions, booklets, etc, included. I wanted to reply, "Uh, how do I tell??" Because, really, I state clearly that I've never once put a piece of silver in the thing. I sort of assume that all silver chests have tarnish resistant felt, right? It's made by Reed and Barton, who are silversmiths. Am I wrong to assume they would be worried about their own product tarnishing inside?

I was super nice, though, and just replied that I wasn't sure, but reiterated who made it, and that I assumed it was, but was not sure.

It nearly killed me to be so nice.

If at first you don't like the answer, ask, ask again!

I received a question that sounded really familiar. I sat there thinking, wow, a LOT of people from Germany are looking at my items. Then I thought, wait, maybe same person, two of my items?? Um, wrong, super wrong, crazy wrong.

cann you send to Germany?

[insert buyer's name here]has sent a question about :P&P for item #260418220788
Received: May-28-09


can you tell me Shipping to GERMANY
Thank you

You've received a question from [insert buyer name here]about your eBay item #260418220788
Received: May-29-09


Apparently this buyer is either suffering from short term memory loss, or s/he didn't like my first answer and wanted to see if it would change, or the funnier thought I had - this buyer was trying to trip me up and see if I gave two different answers. And before anyone asks, I replied to the first one with the shipping quote in it. I replied that, yes, I can ship to Germany, but since the item weighs 11 pounds and is traveling halfway across the globe, it's going to cost ya a pretty penny, and really, aren't you better off buying new in town rather than paying $75 to ship the thing, anyway?? Because it's a silverware chest, not some one-of-a-kind thing.

Since I tend to envision buyers being up to something, I am leaning towards "Didn't like the first shipping price so trying to trip up the seller."