Bad eBay Experience - Keith Champagne

I am grateful to the men and women in the industry who produce the comic books that I enjoy. One of the ways that I've shown my appreciation, and one that has a direct financial impact, has been to buy art in the form of original pages and commissions. I am happy to report that my interactions have generally been positive. The one involving this page was one of the few exceptions.

I'd won this on eBay as part of a 4-page lot of bluelined Mahnke pages from inker Keith Champagne (eBay ID: keithchamp) on March 2012. After sending payment, I asked that he hold the pages so that I could bid on his future auctions and thereby save on shipping. He was responsive at that time, readily agreeing and assuring me that he had put the art safely away for me. It was a different matter, though, when I did want the art shipped. It took many unanswered emails over several months and a long-distance call to learn that 2 of the pages couldn't be found and may have been sold. I told him that it would be ok for him to substitute other GL pages for the missing ones. He did not take me up on my offer but promised, as compensation for "the hassle and drawing things out this far", to refund the purchase price within a week and to send me the remaining pair of pages anyway. That would have been a generous gesture, and one which I appreciated at the time. But a promise not backed by action is nothing. It took more follow-ups and 2 more months before he returned my money, in December 2012. No art was ever sent.

The lesson from this for me is that I should not have let the 45-day eBay/PayPal dispute period lapse. Without the ability to leave negative feedback or to file a dispute, I had no leverage.

I've heard worse stories - of collectors waiting many years for promised art. At least, I eventually got a refund, right? But even so, I remain angry over this episode. While I was a fan, I was also a customer who'd entered into a business transaction in good faith. If he wasn't able to deliver on his end, why make me wait months for an explanation? Why not just return my money without any hassle? And why promise art in apology and then send nothing? Is this any way for a comics professional to behave?

UPDATE (May 2015): Keith has sent me a page from "Katana" that I did not pay for. There was no note but I will interpret this gesture as his apology for this incident.