Fraud Alert: What's Going On Here??

[Edwolf1963]

Two listings, same card - both ridiculously priced, one with a load of flowery BS...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1973-NOLAN-RYAN-220-NM-MT-CONDITION-BEAUTIFUL-CARD-YOU-JUDGE-IT-/291252270870?pt=US_Baseball&hash=item43cffcf716

and same card, newly listed - different seller, low feedback..

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1973-NOLAN-RYAN-220-NM-MT-CONDITION-BEAUTIFUL-CARD-/131309171367?pt=US_Baseball&hash=item1e92a2f2a7

Neighboring towns in Mass.

I realize this example not pre-war, but heads-up just in-case they cross others before pre/post war

[DHogan]

Peabody and Leominster are about 30 to 40 miles away from each other. It is weird that it's the same card tho.

[bnorth]

I have never seen it done with auction listings. In buy it know listings scum will list other peoples cards already listed on eBay but with a much higher price and if you buy the card from them they in turn buy it from the real seller to ship to their buyer. Just one way to flip cards without ever having to worry about a loss.:D

[moeson]

How about the 62 Mays valued at $6K but listed by this seller for "only" $2.6K!

[granite75]

It looks like the Leominster is the original poster, lots of pawn shop type listings. Then Peabody went to sell the same card and did a 'Sell one like this' and copied the listing. Peabody has several items with 'borrowed' pictures, plus a couple of ' can't add photos' in their listings descriptions.

[Hot Springs Bathers]

A bit OT but there is a current listing for an original 1959 APBA Baseball set that has the photos directly lifted from a recently completed listing. On top of that the wording is exactly the same in the description.

The real kicker is the listing originates from Latvia, I have contacted eBay and no response what so ever.

[chipperhank44]

I'm not speaking to this situation specifically, but I have found myself in a similar situation where I traded for a card at a local card show, posted it on ebay and a day later found that the guy I bought the card from still had the card for sale on his ebay store. He probably lived 20 minutes from me. I emailed him and he took it down, innocent mistake. This doesn't look like that, but there are innocent ways the same card can be for sale on two separate auctions.

[4815162342]

I'm not speaking to this situation specifically, but I have found myself in a similar situation where I traded for a card at a local card show, posted it on ebay and a day later found that the guy I bought the card from still had the card for sale on his ebay store. He probably lived 20 minutes from me. I emailed him and he took it down, innocent mistake. This doesn't look like that, but there are innocent ways the same card can be for sale on two separate auctions.


I've bought cards at the National from museum curators who would've probably never taken them off their eBay store inventory without my intervention.

[Luke]

That's true of course, but these pictures were taken against the same background.

[the 'stache]

Right, and that's the first thing that makes me scratch my head here, Luke.

Wouldn't somebody who is trying to rip off a buyer, or run a scam in the way that Ben described, use another picture? I mean, I look through a lot of auctions on any given day. But if I am looking specifically for a 1973 Nolan Ryan, be it au natural or graded, if I see this picture a second time, I am going to remember seeing the first. Then, I'm going to open another browser window, and look for the first auction.

This almost makes me think there has to be a simple explanation that I'm not thinking of. The scammer couldn't be that stupid, could they? Or am I giving the average eBay user too much credit?

Sigh. I wish we could just round these idiots off, and ship them off to Mars.


That's true of course, but these pictures were taken against the same background.

[tschock]

It's probably a moot point anyway, since neither of them should sell at that astronomical price.