An eBay Seller Tricks Me, and The Russell Martin Spectrum Swatches Rainbow Misses Out On Another Color

So, I've mentioned on occasion that I am presently working on completing a Russell Martin Rainbow in relation to his 2008 UD Spectrum Swatches relics, autos, and plates. I'm getting down to the nitty gritty, and know that anytime I can find one of the remaining cards at a reasonable price, I need to jump on it as short-printing starts to cause me major problems. Many times, what I need doesn't even surface online.

So it came to be that I found a light purple parallel, numbered out of 44, on the Bay. I Watch Listed it, and let it sit for many a moon. I finally decided that the 20% off the seller was offering was as good a deal as I was going to get, and bought the card for six bucks. For such a short-printed and necessary card, I felt the price was solid.

I paid, and waited. The card arrived. This is what I pulled out of the bubbler.

It's a Russ Martin Spectrum Swatches parallel. It is serial-numbered. It is serial-numbered out of 55.

I immediately contacted the seller after some momentary cursing to nobody in particular, and asked as kindly as I could for a full refund and the correct card. The seller responded about a day later, saying he would immediately refund me my money and I could keep the card. I then replied, asking again if he had the correct card. I have yet to hear back.

The most disappointing aspect is that the seller listed the card as /44 three times in the item description (pictured below - click to embiggen), but didn't include an image of the card. Which would have been helpful. I could have passed based on the lack of an image, but to paraphrase what a wise man once said, if you don't ask or take a risk, you will rarely - if ever - be rewarded. It's a pretty damn good life lesson, in all honesty.

In the end, I got a free card out of the deal, and it's slightly different form the /55 version I already have, as a bit of the swatch is popping out of the jersey piece itself at the right corner of the relic area. But still....so close to another notch on the rainbow belt. Well, I knew it would be a challenge, and it's certainly proving to be just that.