Buyer of a board game part just unsolicitedly shipped it back, and so much more

[Doublythumbs]

I’ve never heard of this happening and thought I would get others’ opinions. Three weeks ago, I sold a single piece of a Mouse Trap board game that I parted out. Well today, I received the same box returned to me with LITERALLY every piece from the game except the game board itself. The buyer scratched his name from the shipping label, wrote mine and my address and paid over $10 to have this box mailed back to me, and all without any messages through eBay. There was nothing written on anything inside neither explaining his actions. The weird thing too is, the part that I sold him was included. I matched it up on my listing down to the little tiny imperfections. What the heck an I suppose to do here? I’m wary of messaging him in case he expects something in return. Or that he made a mistake and wants it shipped back to him. Maybe he’s just trying to be nice knowing that I sell these parts. I’m so confused.

[Sharyn]

I think I did have something shipped back to me once without any message, so I just refunded them. If it is still within your return period, perhaps you should just do that?

The only thing I can think of is if they meant to ship it to someone else whose address was on a different box? But then accidentally grabbed your box?

Just out of curiosity, I would want to message him and figure out why he shipped it to you. If he asks for something in return, you don’t have any obligation to do so. If he shipped it to you by mistake, you would have to invoice him through PayPal. I guess that is where it could get a bit sticky.

[VintageTreasures]

I also would guess that the buyer meant to send the package to someone else and mailed it to you by mistake.

I had a lady buy an item from me but before I shipped it she sent a message saying the item was fake and to cancel the sale. I cancelled the sale but sent her back a message letting her know that the item was not fake but that I had cancelled the sale at her request. She immediately sent me a bunch of messages saying she sent the cancellation request to the wrong seller and please don’t cancel. Her cancellation message was really nasty, so I just said “sorry, too late” and sold the item for more later on.

People buying multiple eBay items at the same time sometimes get confused…

[Liz]

I would set it all aside and not say anything. Wait for the buyer to contact you. If it’s a shipping mistake, the buyer will contact you soon. If the buyer is nuts, then you don’t want to poke the bear.

[Jay]

I agree with Liz. When buyers are this bizarre and working outside the eBay policies, we just stay silent. Right now, eBay doesn’t expect you to do anything.

If the buyer writes you, I’d still be hesitant to respond especially if the message is as bizarre as the package.

TLDR: stay silent. see what happens. take it step by step.

[icequeen]

That’s an odd one. Maybe it was a mistake or he thought he had found the last missing piece he needed only to find out he was missing the board and he gave up in frustration. LOL

I’d message him, AFTER I checked his prior feedback left/given for any red flags.

If you find any… I’d have to agree with Liz…don’t poke the bear.

[buytikiselltiki]

Wondering out loud if the person bought the one part from you then sold them were complete set and shipped it incorrectly. Seems a stretch but have you checked to their seller account?
Nothing else makes any sense.

[Doublythumbs]

Okay, I’m going to set it all aside for now until I receive any messages about it. My best guess is that these were meant for someone else, though it did include my original packing slip to the buyer which is odd. My second guess is the guy thought he would be helpful and send me more of the parts to resell, but why go through the trouble of sending me the original part back? Well whatever, I’m just going to let it go and stop thinking about it.

[aperture]

Theory 1: unintentionally sent to doublythumbs because the sender accidentally typed the wrong address.
Theory 2: intentionally sent to doublythumbs for an unknown reason

All things being equal, I vote for theory 2. While my finger may hit the wrong number typing a phone number, there is no way I am going to accidentally type or write fifty characters and send a package to a correct address when I am trying to send something to my brother’s kid.

[Lukastreasure]

I hear what you’re saying about poking the bear, but I think my curiosity would get the best of me. Maybe I haven’t gotten enough crazy buyers yet.

[Liz]

Crazy buyers leave negative feedback, send endless diatribes regarding your merchandise and character, open cases, and start chargebacks. I don’t want to deal with any of that!

[Author]

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