What to Do if an Item is Damaged

ARGH.

I damaged an item.  When buyers open their items from me, I like it to be obvious that I went out of my way to send them a clean item - still smelling of detergent, if possible.  This weekend, I sold a baby doorway jumper, and in preparation for shipping I put the harness in the washer... except I couldn't figure out how to detach it from the plastic rod it goes with, so I put that in the washer too.  I changed the setting to cold water for delicates and hit start.  Unfortunately I didn't count on part of the platic rod rubbing again the rim of the washer, and the friction made a pretty obvious groove on one of the sides. :(

Of course, I'm fully prepared to give the buyer a complete refund, but in my opinion that's not enough.  This person spent a lot of time bidding on this item, probably let other items go in favor of this one, and will in all likelihood be mad.  The doorway jumper still works and the damage is purely cosmetic, but even though I didn't say anything about defects in my listing I DO NOT send my buyers items I know to have blemishes without letting them know.

So what to do?  Well, I'm going to offer the refund, offer to send him the item anyway, and offer to pay for return shipping if he doesn't find it's in acceptable condition.  I'm also going to offer a discount on the next thing he buys from me.  Hopefully that will make up for my stupidity.

So what's the lesson here?  Well, there's one new one as far as I can tell:

eBay Lesson number 5:  Prepare your item for shipping BEFORE you sell it!!!  That way if you accidentally damage it you will have a choice as to listing it and describe the extent of the damage or not sell it at all.

Wish me luck with my buyer.