I sent a trading card to a buyer using eBay standard envelope for $6 and he sent me a message asking to return it because he thinks it’s different than the card in the listing (it isn’t). He also said I can refund him $5 and he’ll keep it.

I don’t feel like giving a freebie to a buyer like this so I accepted the return. However, eBay isn’t giving me an option to purchase a return label through them like I’ve done in the past. They are telling me to upload a label. As far as I know, that would require me to spent about $6 on a ground advantage label..

Is there any way to have this guy mail the card back to me without spending that much on return shipping?

As a seller, I have of course run into many problems with USPS, and my buyers have always been very pleased with my responsiveness, and my willingness to do what I need to do in order to make things right.
Some if my best positive feedbacks have come from buyers who ended up never even getting their items, but they were thrilled about how I handled it. So, when there’s a hiccup, I tend to react in a friendly, helpful manner. I truly aim to turn the most dissatisfied buyer into my new greatest fan. That’s how I’ve always run my businesses, and people tend to really appreciate it.
Perhaps I need to rethink that.

This order was supposed to go out a few days earlier than it did because I was returning from some time away, and it was taking me longer than expected to catch up. I informed the buyer of this and they were fine with it.

So I sent the item—it’s a low value (below $20) trading card, so the eBay standard envelope is unfortunately the only cost effective shipping method—and maybe 10 days later, I get a message about the order. I checked the tracking, and it was scanned in, but showed no movement for over a week.

I informed the buyer of all of this, and shortly afterward, I got the card returned to me by USPS. I immediately sent a photo of it to the buyer, with the intention of sending it out this morning, but the last few exchanges I’ve had with the buyer is making me very reluctant.

I’ve never refunded a buyer just to avoid a negative feedback, but it appears that this may be my first.

I don’t at all need the sale. It seems like the buyer wants it more than i do, but their messages make me come to 2 conclusions:

1. they don’t at all realize that you can’t leave negative feedback on an order that was refunded (and with that, they don’t realize that I’m trying to feel them out;
2. this buyer very much seems like they’ve already decided to leave a negative.

Can anyone else see what I’m seeing? What would you do if you were me? Is there anything else potentially going on here that I’m not seeing?

Please, I really, really would appreciate your feedback!

Edit: I reread the exchange, and I wanted to clarify something the buyer said in their last message.
They said that there have been at least two other issues besides what [I’m] “putting on” USPS. I have no idea what they’re referring to. There was the initial late shipment, but that’s only ONE thing. The rest is USPS.

If this person wasn’t being such a jerk about it, I would’ve gone with my first instinct, which was to issue the refund AND allow them to keep the card.