Welcome to Modernculture!

Doesn't it drive you crazy to see an auction on Ebay where the seller's "policies and sales terms" are twenty times as long as the item description? Us too! But we've learned over the years that policies are necessary, so instead of cluttering up our auction listings we've put them here on this web page.

CONDITION AND DESCRIPTION

We try to describe an item as accurately as possible and provide clear, detailed photos. When possible, we test electric and wind-up items to determine whether they're still in good working order. But something that may be insignificant to us may be vitally important to you the buyer, so please read the descriptions carefully, look at the photos with a discerning eye, and e-mail us with any questions before bidding. Be sure of what you are bidding on before you commit your money!

PLEASE READ: WE DO NOT SELL PERFECT ITEMS! We sell vintage and antique items that have been used and loved for many years. Please, PLEASE keep this in mind -- if you've just won an 1890s silverplate bowl that we describe as being "in good condition" that still means it will have 100 years of use and therefore some rub marks and light scratches! We have noticed that over the last year or so, there has been a great influx of newer users to Ebay who don't really understand that "vintage" and "antique" means USED, not store-bought perfect.

PAYMENT POLICIES

We want to make purchasing as easy as possible! Therefore we accept money orders (both Postal and other), personal checks, and Paypal. We believe in the basic honesty of most Ebay users, and will not usually ‘hold' a check until it clears before shipping an item. However, we do reserve the right do to this, especially for very expensive items.

SHIPPING POLICIES
All of our auctions (where the item weighs under 5 pounds) list shipping costs up-front, so you can bid knowing what your final cost will be. Because of the Post Office's sliding rate scale, we use an averaged shipping cost table. What this means, is that the actual postage cost may be a bit more or a bit less than our shipping charge. That may work to our favor; often it works to your favor and it ends up costing us more to ship something than we've charged you!

All packages are shipped via the U.S. Postal system. Modernculture ships out items within 3 business days of receipt of payment. We have scheduled pickup days from the Post Office every Tuesday and Friday (i.e. that's when the USPS sends a truck to our shop). When our mail volume increases (such as during the Christmas shopping season) we also arrange for extra USPS truck pickups on Mondays and Thursdays. We can often accomodate other shipping requests, such as Federal Express or UPS, but handling charges will be incurred. The post office comes to US every Tues and Fri; if we have to haul a package somewhere it costs us time, and therefore money.

AUCTION WIN CONFIRMATIONS

Many buyers are now using Ebay's excellent check-out feature, or pay with Paypal soon after an auction ends. But regardless, we send a confirmation e-mail to every auction winner stating the total owed and giving you our mailing address.

RETURN POLICY

Buying a "previously owned" item over the internet can be intimidating. Unlike a traditional store you can't pick up the item, look it over, and talk to the store owner. So Modernculture has a comprehensive return policy.

RETURNS: GENERAL RULES
If you are requesting a refund, you must contact us within 10 days of receiving the item. You must mail the item back within 10 days of requesting a refund, and when we have it in hand will issue you a refund either by check or Paypal.
IMPORTANT! We do not issue "partial" refunds. We have been burned several times by individuals who basically want to "renegotiate" a deal after the deal is done. So our policy is, it's either all or nothing. Either you're unhappy with the item and you want to send it back for a refund, or you're happy enough with the deal to keep the item.

RETURNS: MISDESCRIBED ITEMS
We try to be accurate in our descriptions, but we're not experts in everything and sometimes get something wrong, or miss a detail that is important to a collector. If you receive an item that is not as described or pictured, send it back for a full refund of purchase price! (That includes the amount you paid to have the item shipped to you, but NOT the amount you spent to return the item to us.) However, we are not responsible for you not reading a description fully, not checking the photo carefully, and assuming based on your *hopes* of what the item will be, rather than what is expressly shown in the pictures and stated in the description. If you want to return an item for a problem that has been disclosed in the description, or shows up in the photo, we consider that "Buyer's Remorse" not a misdescribed item.

RETURNS: BUYER'S REMORSE

Once in a great while someone will buy something, get it, and then decide they really don't want that 6' inflatable Gumby, or it's not what they hoped for. We want you to be happy so if you just plain change your mind, send the item back for a refund of purchase price, minus any fees we've incurred (such as eBay and Paypal charges), and a 10% labor fee. (That's because our time is not 'free' -- when you send an item back just because you changed your mind, we've spent time packing it, and will spend time unpacking it, rephotographing it and relisting it, and that time could have been spent photographing/listing something else!)

"AS IS" ITEMS

Keep in mind that we deal in vintage collectibles and often cannot guarantee their working condition. Unless we expressly state in our auction description that an item is in good working order, it is being sold "as is" with no implied warranty. If the item is advertised as being in good working order and it arrives at your door NOT working, then of course we'll issue a full refund. If you buy an "as is" item in hopes that it works, but it doesn't, you can still send it back but as a "buyer's remorse" refund; see above for details.

SHIPPING DAMAGE
Although we pride ourselves on our careful packing, we can't guarantee that the Post Office will treat the package with due care; they're usually darn good and have had minimal breakage but bad things can and do happen. Therefore we can't be responsible if a package falls out of an open door of a USPS vehicle and gets run over. We do not require that buyers purchase postal insurance, but highly recommend it in cases of fragile items. Remember, we will not be responsible for damage caused in shipping, so if an uninsured package is damaged in transit, that's your loss.

NON-PAYMENT POLICY
Our auction descriptions clearly state that payment is due within 10 days. We will usually give that some leeway, especially if the buyer contacts us to let us know the status of the payment. But we can't pester every late payer with e-mails reminding them that their payment is overdue. We do a "sweep" of our auctions every week, and if an auction comes up more than a couple weeks overdue, we will have eBay send the buyer a Non-Payment Alert. It is then the buyer's responsibility to contact us and let us know when we can expect payment. If we still don't receive payment within 10 days after the Non-Payment Alert, then we will contact eBay for a Final Auction Value Fee Credit, relist the item for sale, and leave negative feedback.

FEEDBACK
We always leave feedback! We leave positive feedback for every successfully completed auction. This does not mean we leave feedback as soon as we receive payment; that is not necessarily a completed auction! Checks can bounce, items can get damaged in shipping, etc. So we usually leave feedback after we hear from a buyer that he/she has received the item and is happy with it. Also, due to the volume of auctions we run we only leave feedback once a week or so, so even after you've e-mailed us to say you got the item and love it, it may be a few days before our positive F/B for you shows up.