I purchased the National Treasure soundtrack, which is OOP in the U.S., for $25 plus $5 shipping from a seller in Canada. The condition was listed as new. When you click on the word "new" on ebay, a window pops up that says it has to meet all of the following criteria to be new. One of the things listed is that it has to be unopened in all original packaging, and clearly hadn't been used. I got the CD in and it was in a loose cd packaging clear plastic slip case, similar to the ones you see FYE and wherehouse music use for used CD's. It wasn't even closed all the way, one side was completely open. The whole plastic packaging clearly didn't go with the CD. The CD didn't have any of the stickers that go along the top/bottom/sides. I want the CD but I don't want the seller to go on selling used or opened CD's as new. I am a new user to Ebay and want a good rating, which I probably won't if I post negative feedback for the seller. Should I try to work this out with the seller, and either get a partial refund via paypal, or return it for full refund (i'd be out the shipping cost to send it back to canada and hope she returns my paypal money)? Any opinions?

You can start a Chargeback via PayPal for the goods not being as described. If they rule in your favor, they'll issue you a refund once they receive confirmation the item has been returned to the seller.

That's the route I'd take, personally.

Always start by contacting the seller and trying to resolve the problem with them. I would expect them to pay return shipping when they have misrepresented the item. If they won't work with you, then use the PayPal dispute process.

Thanks. I guess that's what I'll do, contact the seller and if it fails, use the dispute process.

You dont have to leave negative feedback. If nothing is resolved by communicating with the seller you can simply simply mark your feedback as "Neutral" and then explaing why you chose it.

I received an email from the seller saying they will refund it, but I have to send it back to them for inspection first. Is that something I should do? I mean, when I buy it, I pay them before they ship it. Shouldn't I get the refund before I ship it back? It makes sense to me. They also said all CD's they sell are like that, packed in very flimsy slips with no stickers, all from Best Buy. Not sure about that. What would you experienced ebayers suggest I do? Pay to send it back before getting the refund?

It makes me a little suspicious because they could come back and say that you opened it or something, but if you ship it back, the easy way to cover yourself is make sure you use delivery confirmation so you get some kind of reciept that you shipped it and they got it.

That won't work. Paypal will only initiate an investigation if you don't receive ANYTHING. Scammers get around this by sending a box of of newspaper clippings, because then you have admit that you actually received something.

The clamor over the above is what partially led to the "buyer's guarantee". If you didn't pay for that, you are SOL.

So this means that you're not going to take them up on their offer to give you a refund if you return it, right?

I've never put tracking on anything to Canada but isn't it expensive? Don't you have to use Global Priority or something similar? Probably not worth the cost if that's the case.

That is a situation where you will want to use the PayPal dispute. They will handle a dispute when you've received an item that was not as represented in the listing. They will ask you return it with tracking. You'll give them the tracking number and when the return is verifyed, they will issue your refund. I've done exactly this when I bought something that was misrepresented in the listing.