The Missing Mario

Recently I had an experience that reinforced my faith in eBay sellers, and collectors in general.  I scored a sweet Mario Lemieux card on eBay that I'd been after for some time, and at a best offer price that was significantly lower than any of the other available copies were going for.  So far so good.

Well after a week, then another, then another, with no card showing up in my mailbox, I contacted the seller.  He got right back to me, which was a good sign, and we agreed to wait another week or two since he's up in Canada and we all know how that goes.

Another couple of weeks without the card showing, I reached out again.  At this point I figured I'd end up with a refund, which was a bummer considering how much more expensive the other available copies of the card were.  To my surprise, instead of a refund the seller pulled his personal copy of the card from his bindered set and mailed it off.  Now that is customer service!

My Saturday mail just arrived an hour or so ago, and tucked between some supermarket coupons and a couple of bills was a small bubble mailer containing the card I've been so patiently waiting for:

How great a card is this?!?!  Arguably the best card in my small but growing "players with the Cup" collection, and certainly the most valuable as these retired stars Canvas inserts demand a pretty penny.  Worth the wait, for sure.  Unbelievably it's only the second best Canvas Mario that I now own. 

I know there are plenty of bad eBay experiences out there, so I wanted to share one with a happy ending.  Now, I can only hope the original is still floating around out there and will one day be delivered.  I'd love nothing more than to re-route it back to the seller and make his day.