Scammed out of $706 - eBay and Paypal do nothing...

Couldn't be angrier here...

I'll try condess the story, but there are lots of parts:

Bought a Kobe Credentials rc for $706.

As soon as it arrived, sent it to PSA, it was sent back and I was told it was trimmed.

Seller insisted thats not the case

Sent it to BGS, sent it back saying its trimmed.

By this time, the 45 day paypal "protection" has lapsed.

I contact seller again, he agrees to refund my money and tells me to send it back.

Sent it back via $60 Aus Post express with tracking.

Tracking seems to stop online one step before delivery.

Surprise, surprise the seller says "I never got the card"

USPS and Aus Post both tell me it was delivered, but that the online was not updated correctly, and cant be updated from their end. Cant claim insurance.

Back to seller: "I didn't get the card, man"

At this point, I'm powerless. He says he didn't get it, online backs it up, but USPS says otherwise. Again, 45 days has lapsed so I cant lodge a paypal/ebay complaint anymore.

Called paypal, they told me I had no case etc etc.

Knowing he was lying, I set a saved search notification on ebay for the card.

Got numerous ones come up, but never my number 388/499

FAST FORWARD 1 YEAR TO THIS WEEK!!!!!!

Boom!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/370990614485?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

It hits eBay. "ah, the coast is clear!" he thinks... (not him selling, but a seller in his town, so he's off loaded it to someone who is now unknowingly selling it, or he's in on it)

Seller tells me he bought it online a year ago, cant remember details.

Call eBay and Paypal. Pass on paypal reciept, emails between us, photos I took of the front and back of the card when I had it including the serial number, sent emails from USPS, and Aus Post.

Response from Paypal: "I really feel for your situation here, you've clearly been scammed, but we have no legal way to debit his account, cos its after the 45 days..."

oh and thanks for this one too:

"Geez, these types of people really peeve me off, I know how you feel"

No you f^%$$#ken don't dude.

Elevated the call to the Paypal boss on duty, get the same result. He tells me to go to the police, as it's clearly theft and "if you get a subpena, we can give his details to the police"

Yeah sure mate, the cops are gonna bother with a subpena over this (backed up by a convo I had with my policeman uncle too)

Anyway, this is the fourth issue I've had with Paypal/eBay over the last few years, and every single time, I get something along the lines of

"I feel for your situation, but there's nothing I can do"
What the hell CAN these people do?

What protection do we have? cos I have lost out EVERY SINGLE time.

I think the real issue is my faith the the human kind. I would NEVER scam anyone, so in my naivety, I think every one is as honest as I.

This card game can BURN....

feel free to pass on your sympathies. lol.

Just be careful out there guys.

That is horrendous. I hate that people scam like this as I agree with you that I could never do this to some else. Sorry to hear that there is nothing to do about it, but that sounds like terrible form by Paypal.

That is harsh. I know you can't do much more as you have exhausted all routes but MAN that card is on ebay!! I would try my best to ruin this dude and out the seller and the seller who sold you the card.

It'd crap, you can't even report it as stolen to ebay unless you are a law enforcement officer, I would get your uncle to report it as stolen to ebay so they can at least take the auction down and prevent that creep from benefiting straight away.

Also when you look at the top of the card you can tell it has been trimmed. All around just so much BS, feel for you man.

Coopz, there is much I don't understand about this hobby - including the lengths to which people will go to scam someone. Mate, I really sympathise with you here and can see how it could potentially turn you off collecting for good.

I am writing what you might call my "memoirs" and am reminiscing about the old days when collecting was so much simpler and what you saw was what you got...although these were the days of sticks of bubble gum in packets too Ultimately greed will ruin or diminish most things in life.

Hang in there though mate - for every one scammer there are 50 or more people trying to do the right thing, such as yourself.

What's the worst that could happen if you (or others) keep bidding it up to like $50,000 every time it's listed? A non-paying bidder strike?

Just a question because I'd be tempted to do it just to be annoying lol

I have to wonder though if you could get out of the non paying bidder strike by arguing to ebay you discovered it is a stolen card, and you do not want to break the law by buying stolen property lol

wolvesjr34 said:

I have to wonder though if you could get out of the non paying bidder strike by arguing to ebay you discovered it is a stolen card, and you do not want to break the law by buying stolen property lol

Click to expand...

every time just tell customer service that it's your card and you want it back, you've already paid for it!

Man that sucks I hope karma bits the prick on the ass
Do what you can to stuff the sale of the card up

stevic said:

Man that sucks I hope karma bits the prick on the ass
Do what you can to stuff the sale of the card up

Click to expand...

Agree!

Well the link is there. Feel free to anyone who wants to help me out by bidding it up, it will definitely make me feel a bit better

Pm me if u do! It'll put a smile on my face.

I cant do it, cos Ive already reported it to eBay and they "cant do anything for you"

Thanks eBay

Man im really feeling for ya, I had the exact same thing happen to me with a $600 Scottie Pippen card a couple of years ago. The buyer claimed he never received it yet last year i found it in his online PC.
Soooooo tempting to get on a plane

Ebay is full of self. No protection for u scams shill bidding postage bs glad I by from ozcardteader so sorry for u this guy is low life dog

The Paypal protection means JackSh*t as paypal will only give you a refund if they can retrieve the funds from the seller, all the seller needs to do is withdraw the money as soon as you pay, this sorta crap would test anyone's faith in the hobby but as others have said most people in in hobby are genuine and honest. The way i deal with things is to no longer buy highend boxes/cases so if i get screwed at least there is less money involved.

Just a terrible thing to happen to you Coopz. It boggles me that people are even like that and even worse that paypal won't even support you with all the facts given.

I wish you all the best with future transactions.

Did some googling.. how come this exact card 388/499 shows up in a UK listing from 2012, and states it's graded 10?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1996-Kobe...DENTIALS-ATOMIC-REFRACTORS-MORE-/230835781310

Australian Post investigators could be the way to go as the mail would have be used for defrauding purposes.
a while ago a buyer of mine claimed not to have received a item, but on receiving a visit from the
investigators they decide that they had received the item after it was pointed out to buyer that was a federal offence
to use the mail to defraud people.

Thanks @old-timers. I have tried a lot of things with Aus Post, but they enjoy handballing things to USPS when it's international mail.

@Fleer57 Yeh, I noticed that after I recieved the card last year.

It was a BCCG10, not BGS or PSA, which pretty much means nothing to collectors, and in some case deems the card worth less, as a BCCG 10, even though it is done through beckett, means as much as if it was graded by "Fleer57's most awesome-est grading services" because it does not cover most aspects that people care about (edges, surface, centering, trimming etc)

That being said, there's a very small chance that if you purchase a bccg 10, it may well be a high BGS grade card inside. Credentials are a VERY tough grade. so even a BGS 8, is worth a lot more than book value.

More often than not though, I hear of BCCG 10's being cracked and then get graded a BGS 5 or 6 by BGS.

My best guess is, that whoever bought that lot, cracked it and tried to get it BGS graded. Then had it returned, like I did as trimmed, and offloaded it. Whether it was the seller I bought it from, we'll never know.

What makes this hard to swallow today, is that the auction has ended and the card has increased in value by nearly $200 in the time since I got scammed

So many "missing" cards out there atm, gave me this idea Coopz http://www.ozcardtrader.com.au/community/threads/missing-stolen-cards-thread.159653/

Love that idea!!!

I have been burnt nearly a dozen times over the last 12 months. Normally on cards $50 or less, because they are not worth the cost of tracking etc, which makes it VERY easy to scam us.