So I've been auctioning groups of world coins, and one lot was Japan. I switched to earlier this week, so an international buyer is receiving both Japan (the first one was sent in error, the second one I'm sending on Monday is actually his win from a couple weeks ago).
The lot that I messed up on was current Japanese yen. I have to say, the shop owner is my hero, he found a few bags of Yen and gave them to me to search. I was able to replace half the coins with exactly the same date, the other half with the same type but a different date. The only ones I couldn't replace were the 1 yen (lowest value and most common to find), but I'm going to the shop in a few days and will look around some more.
I did refund the buyer since I don't have HIS coins that he won, but offered replacements as a bonus to make up for the mistake so he won't go away empty handed. In my shop I have a policy that what's photographed is what's shipped, not a replacement that you can't look at when you're bidding. So that's why I had to refund even though I replaced his coins.
The shop's staff doesn't know the difference between current Japan and no longer circulating Japan, so even the two that weren't in circulation were replaced with the exact same date. I'm going by the assumption the buyer bid for the three high face value coins and the two not in circulation, so replacing all of those was most important.
I haven't heard from the buyer yet (I just messaged him with a photo of his coins), so hopefully he'll be happy with what I've done. I really tried to go above and beyond on a Saturday morning to fix the mistake I made earlier in the week.
C.
