Buyer wants a €100–200 partial refund on a PSA 10 because of print lines – how would you handle this?
Hi everyone,
I'd like to get some opinions on a situation I'm currently dealing with on Cardmarket.
I'm a private seller from Austria and sold a Japanese Charizard V 103/100 from Star Birth, graded PSA GEM MT 10, for €420 to a buyer in France.
Before purchasing, the buyer specifically asked me:
“No damaged slab or card?”
I told him no. The slab has no cracks or damage and, as far as I was aware, there was no damage to the card either.
The package arrived safely, but after receiving it, the buyer contacted me because he found two print lines on the card.
I genuinely hadn't noticed these print lines before selling the card. From my understanding, print lines are printing/manufacturing imperfections rather than actual damage like scratches, creases, dents, etc.
The important part for me is that this is an official PSA GEM MT 10. The card is still in its original PSA slab and the exact card was graded by PSA in this condition.
The PSA certification number was also available, meaning the buyer had the possibility to look up the exact card and PSA's scans online before buying it.
The buyer then asked me how much I could refund him. I asked him what amount he had in mind, and his first response was:
“200€ Will be okay Because in reality its not a real 10”
This surprised me quite a bit. Whether someone personally agrees with PSA's grade or not, the card was sold as a PSA 10 and it is PSA certified GEM MT 10.
€200 would also be almost 48% of the entire €420 purchase price.
Even though I don't believe I misrepresented the card, I wanted to find a reasonable solution and offered him €40 as a goodwill refund, which is roughly 10% of the purchase price. I also explained that I genuinely hadn't noticed the print lines before the sale.
He then came back with:
“Make a refund of €100 so everyone is happy”
I declined and told him that €40 is the maximum I'm willing to offer as a goodwill gesture. I also explained that I don't consider manufacturing print lines to be the same thing as damage to the card and that PSA's grading standards can allow minor printing imperfections even on a GEM MT 10.
I told him that if we can't agree, I'd rather let Cardmarket Support review the situation.
I've now opened a ticket with Cardmarket Support explaining the entire situation and I'm currently waiting for their assessment.
So my main question to other collectors and sellers is:
How would you have handled this situation? Am I in the wrong here?
Would you have offered any partial refund at all, accepted his €100 request, asked for the card to be returned, or simply let Cardmarket Support handle it?
I'm genuinely interested in hearing how others would approach this, especially people who regularly buy or sell graded cards on Cardmarket.