I Lost 91 Dollars Because of Mercari

In the past, I tried to sell some old comic books online using the Letgo app. Unfortunately, I didn't sell anything and spent the majority of my time on that app blocking and reporting users. One man sent me a message to tell me he'd been in prison for ten years and thought I was the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. Another man asked me if he could smell my feet. It was disturbing, and I wanted nothing more to do with the app, so I just kept my comic books.

I was hesitant about joining another selling app because I thought I'd have the same experience. I finally gave selling apps another try when I fell on hard times, so I downloaded Mercari. My experience with Mercari was positive at first. I sold the comic books that I'd held onto for all those years, and I'd gotten rid of old wallets and other things that I no longer had a use for. I wasn't making a lot of money, but the extra ten dollars here and there helped cover my phone bill.

The trouble started when my car stalled on my way home from work. I didn't have any money to fix the issue, so I reached out to my work about their employee relief fund. I was firmly denied within a week. My hours were also cut, so I could barely pay my existing bills. I knew I had to do something, so I made the painful choice to sell some rare books I'd been collecting.

These books were special to me. Some of them had the memory of my late father tied to them. He used to bring me to pick them up or drop me off at Barnes and Noble so I could look at all the books. I had never wanted to sell these books, but life had backed me into a corner.

The books were from a now non-existent publishing company that had a publishing deal with New Line Cinema. They were original stories based on the world of Final Destination and A Nightmare on Elm Street. The publishing company was the first company that I ever reached out to when I started my writing journey. I even wrote a Final Destination fan fiction about fast-food workers who suffer from an accident. I tried submitting it to them, but they rejected me.

It was almost painful for me to list these books, but I had to. I took a deep breath and prepared myself to list them. I sold one of them almost immediately and shipped it with no issue. The money came at a much-needed time, as I was taking an Uber to work every day.

I sold a few more without issue until I noticed that one of the Nightmare on Elm Street books wasn't moving. It had been at its destination post office for about a week, so I reached out to customer service. I thought they would help me, but what they did instead only hurt me.

I thought Mercari would come up with a solution that helped both me and the buyer, but they canceled the transaction. They refunded the buyer and removed the item from my account so that I couldn't claim shipping protection. This means that while the buyer got their money back, I won't get my money back from the valuable book that was lost.

I never requested to cancel the sale, so I'm not sure why they canceled it. I'd been trying to use the protection that comes with using a Mercari label, which I did. I even had to add a dollar to cover the cost of shipping, since they didn't cover the entire cost.

Now I'm desperately trying to get in contact with Mercari hoping they give me the money to cover the cost of the book. I've also sold another of those books, but I'm not sure if I want to risk mailing it and it being lost after this. Hopefully, Mercari helps me, but I'm not counting on it and have removed all of my listings from their app because of this issue.

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