Inaccurate Grading

I just received an LP size 4CD box set in the mail, described by the seller as Mint and Sealed. Upon unsealing it, though I've kept the shrink intact as I almost always do, I've found that there's a rip in the lid that carries through to the bottom half of the box. It's on the edge/spine of one of the sides. Everything else looks fine. There was a bit of "debris" on the undersides of the CDs from, I guess, the cardboard sleeves but it came right off with a soft cloth.

Anyway, I looked at the middleman website that the seller and I both use and it lists a "small tear/rip" as putting the item in the "Very Good" category. I doubt I'll want to sell the item straight away or at all - I expect I'll like the music too much for that - but I don't think that the tear happened in transit. The seller used a good mailer, plenty of "Fragile" tape on the outside. Most tellingly, the shrink covering the tear area is unbroken, which makes me think that the tear occured in the factory, before the item was put in shrink. I know some talk of sellers re-sealing items but there's a sticker unique to the record label in the corner of the shrink. It seems a little farfetched that they would have had a bunch of these "X anniversary" stickers to hand to re-seal and pass an item off as unopened. That said, the seller is a music shop so they would be more likely to have such stickers to hand than a private individual.

I consider this tear/rip indicative of innacurate grading. I've never asked for a partial refund before but I think I have a right to ask for it in this instance. What do forum members think? The site lists "Very Good" as 25% of "Near Mint", so does that likely mean that I could only get 25% of what I paid for it if I were to resell the item with a more accurate "Very Good" rating? Does that mean the seller should give me a 75% refund? If they don't do partial refunds, will I be expected to pay return postage? Shipping was almost a third of the Item price. I'm in a conundrum over what to do.

 

Was the rip externally visible before you unsealed the shrink? If not, I don't see how the seller could be said to have graded it inaccurately - as far as they could tell, it was mint and sealed.

 

I didn't see the rip, but it is visible through the shrink.