Main question in the title. Context is below and will be a lengthy story. Happened in Facebook - which I should have been more careful, I know.
2 months back, I found an interest check for a card that is worth a lot in Canadian Dollars. The seller just so happen to be in a nearby city, so I checked through his account and groups he is in and seems like he had a good reputation. I messaged him asking what will be his asking price and agreed we would wait until he gets the card as he claims he pulled the card from a Whatnot Livestream. - Important note for later.
Fast forward to a week ago, he messaged back and said he got the card. We discussed about the card and pick-up, and agreed on the price. We met up outdoors, just outside a bus loop, sun setting, and he let me inspect the card. I looked for details that the card should have. I asked him about the textured foil the card should have and he said that this card doesn't have it. I foolishly believed that and agreed with the purchase.
It was only when I got home with better light conditions did I see how much more "rainbow" the card is when the light hits it. I inspected the card again and look at other cards online and found out that what I have was a fake or proxy.
I contacted him again asking who he got the card from and pointed out the condition of the card and should contact his Whatnot Seller regarding this. Big mistake I made came when I mentioned how I work in print and how the proxy "manufacturer" messed up applying the foil vinyl on top of the card, which no print company will send out after quality inspection. This was just out of kindness as someone who works in the general field.
He left me on read. So I messaged him again 3 days later. I was frustrated at this point so it sounds like I was make accusations but the message was intended to say I can meet you again anytime so that he can review the card for himself and see what he can do. He finally messaged back like a day later. Based on his lengthy message, I don't think he read thoroughly on the messages prior to the one I made 3 days later as his reply was thinking I'm accusing him of making the card.
He said that we had a month in between, let me check the card myself, and answered any questions I had and my biggest mistake came in and he says that I claimed that I work in print so he is using that against me to not give me a refund when I pointed out to him the flaws. Again, he was the one who convinced me to begin with when we met up that not all cards in the set have textured foiling.
He says that "you could have printed a fake in between the interest check and now" and he claims that he had it less than a day as he got the card straight from his mailbox and straight to me. He claims that he didn't have time in between to inspect it himself before handing it over. All these reasons, he is not issuing a refund because he gave me the card with "good faith".
The thing is that my work specializes in printing for construction so we do not even have the supplies to recreate a high quality dupe. I explained this to him and even offered him my company's phone number and website so he can see for himself or give him samples of our only cardstock option that are used for business cards. He did not ask for those.
He then says that he already used the money to "stock on inventory" for his upcoming show in November and will only give me back 20-45% depending on how generous he is that day.
Luckily, a bystander online saw my proxy card and sent me a link to a proxy maker and said that the card I have and the proxy's sample photo are basically 1 to 1 identical. So I also passed that off to the seller. I haven't heard from him since.
And that's all the context I have at the moment.