Columbus, Ohio - A new scammer?

[hammr7]

There is a new P9 seller on eBay, who is either offering one of the greatest collections of "minty" P9 cards in some time, or is a scammer.  The seller's name is compgeeky, and you can get a list of current auctions at:

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZcompgeeky

The seller started off in a reasonable manner, offering lower value "mint" rares from older sets.  This escalated to offering a few sets of dual lands with quite reasonable "buy-it-now" prices.  I purchased one of these early (thankfully with a credit card), and was not the only experienced buyer to do so.  The seller has since escalated to huge numbers of Power 9, mostly Beta, many with reasonable buy-it-now prices (requiring immediate Paypal payment).

The seller's numerous offerings would be upsetting enough.  The story is that this person is selling a collection of cards for a "tester" (won't provide details of what kind of tester) who would get in trouble if the sale was known.

Many of the smaller rare auctions were won by a new account, that gave positive feedbacks on monday night for auctions won of friday and saturday.  This would be impossible unless the seller allowed a face-to-face meeting, or set up the new account to hide a first negative feedback.

If any forum member is near Columbus, you might want to bid on a P9 card and demand a face-to-face meeting.  If the cards are real (doubtful) you can get a great deal.  If they aren't, this account will self-destruct before you ever need to make payment.

[hammr7]

The "scammer" appears to have been an unsuspecting dupe for a third party scammer.  Her paypal account has been frozen, and she has yanked all the remaining auctions.

[Celebrindor]

I assume you never got the duals?

[hammr7]

No, but I will get a  refund, since Paypal froze the account without any money being withdrawn.

The first negative feedback showed up shortly after my bid.  This was followed by a series of amazing postings (too amazing to be true).  Apparantly some of the other winners called Paypal to note their concern.  Based upon the negative feedback (for misrepresentation of a collection of older MTG cards) and the concerns of long-time Paypal users, I guess Paypal decided not to take the potential hit.

Apparantly Paypal froze the account, pending positive feedback from buyers, while not shutting down the eBay account or auctions.  This left the seller in a position of having to actually deliver the cards before getting paid (Paypal became a sort of escrow agent).  This was a very interesting development, and much more appealing since it leaves open communications with the seller (who seems very helpful), and since the seller has a way of issuing refunds through Paypal.  EBay might not care if our money is taken in a spurious auction, but Paypal seems a little more cautious when the money is theirs.

[fvzappa]

I live about 2 hours away from Columbus, and am left to assume that among the "regulars" here that I live closest by. So, if I can help, hollar.

[johnstown713]

There is also another suspicious member posting huge amounts of high end Beta cards.

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZwildwilliam56

[hammr7]

Is it my computer, or do all the borders seem a little too black?

On a more serious note, the woman I dealt with, in her auctions, described the cards as coming from someone who had "play tested" cards long ago, and who was now selling off his collection.  He also alluded to her that this was something problematic, as if he would lose certain privleges (with WOTC?) if they found he was selling these play test cards.  To me this makes no sense at all, but perhaps to the uniformed it makes the story seem more real.

I have to wonder if this idea of play testers selling their collections is the new spin put out by scammers.  How many old play testers, with huge hordes of mint beta cards can there be?  If I was a play tester back then I would have played the cards, but apparantly none of these cards were ever used in that manner.

I would really like to see a few of these to determine if they are real, or if they are part of this recent wave of high quality proxies (if there are any cards at all).

[ende73]

I have three observations on this possible (  ::) ) new scammer:

1) He has zero feedback from Buyers
2) I posted my usual question "Would you go through www.escrow.com on these auctions if I pay for all fees". I still got no answer, but will tell you if and when I do (unless he says he will go through Escrow, of course, in which case I'll keep it secret  [smiley=evil.gif])
3) If you actually click on "larger picture" the resulting card is ludicrous:



... just look at those borders...


EDIT: Added point 3

[ende73]

The answer came pretty quickly:

"Hello, are you willing to go through www.escrow.com for your auctions? I could contribute most if not all associated fees myself. Let me know, since I am interested in a great deal of items. Thanks - ende73"

Sorry, but I would rather not.

I will refrain from any comment.

[AXIOS]

there are no white spots in the corners.

FAKE, FAKE, FAKE!

[Celebrindor]

The bevel looks crappy too.

[squt]

my contribution, for what it's worth:



Question about your item




 



   Marketplace Safety Tip


 If this email is an offer to directly sell you an item without bidding on and winning the item on eBay,
 please report it to us immediately and do not respond. An offer to sell an item directly to another
 eBay member through email violates eBay rules. It is also extremely unsafe to purchase an item
 through this email system regardless of the seller's claims or feedback, as you lose the benefit of
 eBay's purchase protection programs and risk losing your money.







Dear squt,

You asked:
"Hi there, Do you actually have these cards in hand? I ask because the story of a playtester selling his
collection is a favorite of 3rd party scammers. Thanks, mp"

If it is, I have yet to hear it! Yes, I am the proud owner of every card that I have listed. But please, if you
have any doubts, then by all means don't bid. Every item auctioned on Ebay has a trust issue attached.
Thanks, Bill

[johnstown713]

It is sad because he is getting sooo many bids people are just incredible slow. [smiley=dissappointed.gif]

[Celebrindor]

there are no white spots in the corners.

FAKE, FAKE, FAKE!

On second thought, this is not necessarily conclusive.  The size of the white dots varies greatly from card to card, and may not always be noticeable.  The scans would seem to suggest that the seller had to place a sheet of paper on his scanner behind the card, thus accounting for the larger, uncentered image (I myself have to do this, my scanner doesnt always pick up cards by themselves.)  At that resolution, the dots may not be visible.  Having just looked through a collection of ~200 mint Alpha cards I picked up last weekend, I spotted several cards where the white marks may not be visible from a scan of that resolution.

[squt]

They guy's got just too many 'mint' betas for this to be real.  The guy has 0 buyer feedback, and he has only been on ebay for about 6 months (and already has 5 negatives!).

That's no time at all if you're looking to reap tens of thousands of dollars out of this scam, which he is poised to do.

Squt