The only thing more exciting than buying LEGO pieces on eBay is finding your order in the mailbox or at the doorstep. Before your tear into the package, hold on! Take a few precautions to make sure the contents of the package arrived undamaged.
1. Inspect the package for damage to the envelope or box
Before you even open up your eBay package, look at the envelope or box to see if it’s ripped or crunched. Take a picture of any major damage BEFORE opening the package. You may need to send these photos as evidence of damage to the seller or the insurance company.
2. Open the package carefully
Padded envelopes
Rip any tape off the sealed side of the envelope, then gently rip open the sealed end. Use caution with scissors since you could accidentally cut the items inside the envelope.
Boxes
Use scissors or a box cutter to slice through the tape. Be sure to cut through the tape only, and don’t slice too deeply into the box or else you may damage the items inside the envelope.
3. Remove and inspect package contents
Take the items out of the box or envelope. If anything in the package looks damaged, take a picture BEFORE counting to make sure everything you ordered is there.
4. Count to make sure everything your is there
Sometime LEGO orders on eBay, BrickLink or BrickOwl are missing a few pieces. Look at the paper invoice or the order page online and count everything to make sure you received all of the pieces you ordered. Pay attention to the condition of the items as well. If you ordered new LEGO pieces, make sure the pieces are not dirty or overly scratched up. Some sellers may send you multiple packages for the same order but they might not always tell you. If your order is missing a large quantity of pieces, contact the seller to find out if you should expect a second package.
5A. Leave Positive Feedback
If you’ve counted all of the pieces and assessed the condition of the items and everything looks good, leave the seller positive feedback. If there’s a problem, see 5B.
5B. Contact the seller about a problem
Something with your order went wrong! Contact your seller about the problem as soon as you can and give the seller the chance to fix it. Let’s look at some common problems.
Incomplete order
You counted up the pieces and 5 were missing. Or 10. Or 100 (yikes!). Send the seller a simple message like, “Hi, my order is missing 5 minifig blasters.” The seller should reply with some solutions to problem.
Condition
The items were advertised as new, but what you received looks used. Take a photo of the damage (for larger items) or a scan of the item (for smaller items). Sometimes damages doesn’t show up very well in photos or scans. In this case, send the seller a message describing the damage. For example, “Hi, these minifig heads were advertised as new, but they are dusty and the paint is scratched.” Give the seller a chance to fix the problem.
Damaged through shipping
Receiving items damaged through shipping is not common unless the seller did a poor job packing the items. Gather together your photo of the damaged box or envelope and your photo of the damaged item and email the seller something like, “Hi, my items were damaged in mailing.”