Disappointed.

I know, eBay is always a risk. But I've been buying and selling there for many years now, and the good experiences have FAR outnumbered the bad...so I'm always a little shocked when a transaction doesn't go smoothly.

For some reason, I've had my eye on Bent Creek's "Swirly Sampler" for a long time. I'm not a big fan of samplers, or of folksy-styled pieces, but this one always makes me smile. So when I saw it up for auction, included with another Bent Creek pattern, for $3.50, I figured what the heck, I'll buy it. The shipping charge was a bit exorbitant - almost $6 for the 2 patterns - but the total was still less than if I bought both of the patterns from an ONS or my LNS. The patterns arrived yesterday - and they were MANGLED. The seller had just put them in an envelope marked "do not bend", with not even a piece of cardboard to give the package some stiffness. The envelope was bent and torn, and at some point it got wet. Since the patterns were not in a plastic bag or anything, either, they were warped and wrinkly. I emailed the seller, not to pick a fight or anything, but just to inform her that she might want to package things more carefully in the future, and all she wrote back was "I'm sorry to here (sic) that." Gah!!!! The fact that she used "here" instead of "hear" just got me that much more peeved. Oh well. At least I got the patterns, right? I thought about leaving neutral or negative feedback, but it just doesn't seem worth it. I'm just going to drop it.