Venting

I am a little annoyed right now.  I have been having some difficulties in getting a few cards in lately.  Here are a few stories:

1.  1998 Topps Tek Pattern 1.
I ordered this card off of the Beckett Marketplace.  It was the only card that I ordered from one seller when I was going through and getting all of the Tek patterns I could find.  A few days after I paid for it, I received the notice that it had been shipped.  A couple of weeks later, I still had not received the card so I emailed the seller.  He responded by saying that he did not even realize that there was an open order and did not have any record of the sale.  He then said he would refund my money if I did not receive it within a week.

One week later I emailed him again.  No response.  I waited a little longer and then emailed again.  Still no response.  I have now filed a Paypal claim to try to recoup my money that I paid, but it frustrates me that I am out a Topps Tek pattern.

2.  1998 Topps Tek Pattern 63.
Yep, another problem with a Topps Tek pattern.  This one was purchased on Ebay along with Pattern 67, which I later mistakenly added in another transaction as well.  I received a package from the Ebay seller but it contained a football card.  I contacted the seller to report the problem.  But it took a few days to receive a response.  After that I had to email several times to get a plan of action.  The seller refunded my money, plus extra to send the card to the rightful buyer.  He did the same thing with the other buyer.  I send the football card to the other buyer but after multiple emails and a note in the package, I still have not received my Alomar.  The seller is not really at fault here, but it ticks me off that the other buyer now has three cards, two of which he should not have, and his rightful card, as well as his money back plus extra that he was supposed to use to ship the cards to me.  I was under the understanding that there was an agreement between all three parties to swap the cards but apparently not.

So now that's two Topps Tek patterns that I will not see for a long time.

3.  Other issues.
There are a few sellers on Ebay with some very rare cards that are asking for astronomical amounts.  I attempted to make a Best Offer that was not accepted.  This by itself does not bother me, but I thought my offers were very reasonable for the what other cards had sold.  I researched where the market was for these cards and attempted to point out the previous sales when making my own offer and in fact I was offering considerably more than the other cards had sold for.  Instead I received a snide and nasty remark in the denial of one of the offers and no response in the other.