[HighWheeler]

You said:
“From her own words, it sounds like the seller knew the label was counterfeit.”

— —

I missed where the seller implicated herself by her own statement. Could you show me where those words were?

[bigdirty]

Paypal offers nex to no protection for sellers. They greatly, greatly favor the buyer. There is seller protection but it regularly fails. What’s worse is that as a seller you have to deal with credit card chargebacks that paypal has no control over and can be dragged out over months and even years. If the buyer defrauds you(more often than not) and wins the credit card chargeback(which they normally do b/c CC companies don’t want to lose customers), Paypal will come to YOU looking for the money. There are plenty of stories of Paypal bringing collections agencies against people. Oh, and they also charge a fee against you if you get a chargeback against you(even if it’s a fraudulent one that is eventually found in your favor.

Avoid using paypal unless you absolutely need it.

[visualops]

The buyer, however, disputed the label -- which isn't uncommon, Erica claims, but shouldn't detract from the craftsmanship of the instrument

If you are selling something, and you believe it would be "common" to have its authenticity questioned, you better choose your avenue of sale carefully. Erica is basically saying, "it's a nice violin, even if it isn't what the label says". The buyer obviously didn't care about anything but the label.

[Sacajaweau]

The buyer, however, disputed the label — which isn’t uncommon, Erica claims, but shouldn’t detract from the craftsmanship of the instrument.