Full Disclosure and Public Apology, Regarding T206 Reproductions Sold on Ebay in Feb.
 

Net54 members and all,


Before I communicate the following words, I wanted to let you know that this is NJ Dunkin, posting regarding a mistake I made a few weeks’ past. I made some counterfeit T206 reproductions to sell on eBay, but instead of making clear that these were fakes, I made the area of authenticity very gray. I recognize this as immoral, deceptive, and misleading.

Here is a link to one of the four auctions in question:

Abbatchio Uzit

I seek forgiveness for three things:
1) My actions were wrong. I recognize this and apologize for it.
2) I was confronted about this on Facebook (Tobacco Row) and stretched the truth in order to paint myself in a better light. I seek forgiveness for deceiving Facebook and board members alike.
3) I should have posted this publicly as soon as it happened, yet I delayed in posting to try and preserve my self-image and reputation.

I realize that this whole situation and how I handled it was wrong, and that I have no excuse for my actions.

I have reserved post #2 for the full details of the story. I wrote this out about a week ago. The details of the story below are the truth, but you do not have to read them or even read further than this sentence. I know the last thing I deserve is your forgiveness, but I felt led to communicate this to you knowing that it was wrong to carry on without associating myself publicly with my actions.

Thank you to the board and Facebook members for the encouragement to take this step.

Noah "NJ" Dunkin

Posting story...
-I made a few T206 reproductions as I had in the past and posted them on eBay to make a few bucks, circa February 13th of this year.
-However, this time I made my listings very gray regarding authenticity and provenance of the cards.
-I thought at the time it would be a cool thing to do to perhaps earn a few more bids. I willingly chose to use an alternate account and I since recognize that as deceptive and wrong (changed username for clarification. current name: njdunkin_2, previous name: katie5831)
-The auction went on; I realized the final day that I was going to be out of town and couldn’t ship the cards to the winning bidder(s), so I tried to cancel the auctions in hopes of relisting the auctions later.
-The first two (Magee and Doyle) didn’t have any bids, so those could cancel with no issues.
-In contrast, the Abbatchio and Cobb each had bids, so I couldn’t cancel. Instead of facing up to the buyer and being straightforward, I tried to bid and win my own cards with my purchasing account (username: njdunkin_1). I did not and would not shill my own auctions to earn a higher bid.
-It backfired. Turns out the buyer had a higher bid than both of mine on the cards, causing him to win both.
-I was in trouble, but the buyer did not end up paying. Shamefully, I opened unpaid cases instead of just cancelling the auctions.
-Nothing really happened and I didn't dwell on this until a friend spoke with me via email with righteous rebuke, pointing out the wrong that I had done. Ashamedly, I didn’t think twice about it until his email, and I saw that he was completely right. Through his words, I could see that I had done wrong and needed make reparations with the people involved as best I could (thank you K).
-However, even more to my shame today, I thought I could postpone making things right or even bury my wrongdoing with time.
-Fast forward to joining Tobacco Row on Facebook (this would be very late March, early April); I received an inquiry about this situation. I was so embarrassed, but I was set on trying to make myself look better and cover up my actions. I made up lies and tried to make myself look better by stretching the truth.
-Deservedly, I’m removed from the FB group as members uncover the truth of the story
-Completely ashamed, I didn't sleep well and dwelled on this almost constantly during this past few weeks' time.
-Through the encouragement of a close friend, I sought forgiveness of those whom were directly affected by my actions (M and D on FB, along with the eBay buyer.)
-I made contact with the eBay buyer and called eBay to remove the unpaid item strikes and apologized to him. I committed to sending out his cards and did so last Tuesday (tracking: 9405509699938375223352)
- This opportunity has been orchestrated to humble me, and I'm thankful for that today.


Thank you for reading this, and again, I am so, so sorry for the grief that I’ve caused you. My actions were wrong and I realize what this has done to my fellowship with much, if not all of the T206, FB, + N54 community.

-Noah "NJ" Dunkin

what...no "god bless?"

JK

Didn’t you already apologize for some other shanagians you were up to when you first signed up?

Surprising and disappointing. You seem like an earnest young man and this seems very out of character, but I guess that's the problem with only seeing interactions on a message board. Thanks for telling the story and owning up to it, but this is pretty lousy behavior. EDITED TO ADD: Hope it would've been worth the $50 to destroy your reputation amongst what is generally a great group of knowledgeable and helpful collectors.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

There's way too much shadiness in all of that to really believe you're sorry for anything other than being caught. Even your effort to make T206 reproductions and sell them as reprints is illegal, regardless if you identify them as reprint or not.

Bye Felicia

I would sometimes make middle-of-the-night phone calls to ex-girlfriends...

I agree ,I use to have a friend when I was young that would screw everyone over in different ways. Then when he gets called out on it he would apologize. It seemed like he was always apologizing and getting accepted back in to the friend
Group. Eventually everyone got sick of the guy and stopped talking to him. He then started to give people money and personal items to try to win there favor. Wasn’t long until the cops got him for some stupid stuff.

I had almost exactly the same experience with a "friend". He ended up doing some jail time for selling things on eBay that he didn't actually have.

Plus you misspelled Abbaticchio. Add that to your list of transgressions.

Am I reading this right? The winning bidder didn't pay for your fake cards and you opened a case on him/her?

That's pretty ballsy.

LOl. Indeed. What balls. How dare you rip me off when I'm trying to rip you off.

Thank you for the responses so far.

I know that my post will affect my communication and connection with many of this board's members, forever. I deserve this fully. For what it's worth, this was most certainly not worth anything that I thought could be gained from my actions.

and in addition to your other transgressions, Mr Berkowitz, you insist on using dangling participles

Wow. Maybe now would be a good time to take a hiatus and try to reset your moral compass a bit.

Gotta say, truly disappointing reading this. I remember when you first joined the board and the genuine excitement you seemed to have in both learning from and being a part of this community.

Yes, you eventually came clean, but only after some pure shadiness. Learn from this and move on, but remember that while many WILL forgive, they will NOT forget.

... And it's 1... 2... 3 strikes you're out at the old, ball game!

+1. This is a hobby. It is supposed to be fun.

i believe you skipped chapter 1 in the "How to Commit Fraud for Dummies" handbook. it's titled, "When Committing Fraud, Don't Use Your Real Name." maybe you didn't...

i agree with the other posters who said the series of things you are ashamed about are over too long a time span, and happened too repeatedly, to feel truly contrite. you kinda conned some people out of a small amount of money, but the buyers of those cards might have been buying with the intent of conning someone else.

if you are sincere about your misgivings you have the choice whether to try and not repeat your actions in the future...same as all the rest of us who are human.

Man, I don't know if you can ever come back from this one. Printing off rare back T206 cards from your printer and selling them on ebay is worse than the T206 buyback scam exposed here a while back... at least the buyer that was getting scammed was getting a real card. Your printed T206 cards are ludicrous.
Jeff

Reproduction
 

By clicking the link only I see the words reproduction. I would see that as a buyer, not knowing T206, as a flag to not bid/buy. That's what I look for. Unless you added the reproduction part of the description later/after the auction began then I don't see much to complain about. Again I have not read everything because I have had great dealings with NJ and saw the disclaimer of "reproduction".

found a few t cards, this one is a nice uzit. tough to find




placed next to an authentic waddell in 3rd image. you decide.





selling as reproduction per ebay.


This suggests he found the card not made it. And it suggests he is only selling it as a repro because ebay makes him but he isn't sure, "You decide."

BS.

Very well done. Or, to use the internet acronym, AMF.

I'd suggest a permanent hiatus from this boand. Scammers like you are not needed here. It's bad enough we have to deal with them in the hobby.

Here is his admission from post #2 on this thread:

However, this time I made my listings very gray regarding authenticity and provenance of the cards.

That is pretty clear. He also said this:

-In contrast, the Abbatchio and Cobb each had bids, so I couldn’t cancel. Instead of facing up to the buyer and being straightforward, I tried to bid and win my own cards with my purchasing account (username: njdunkin_1). I did not and would not shill my own auctions to earn a higher bid.

He says he wouldn’t shill, but I believe his actions are shilling.


Mark Medlin

+1

I hear you wanting to come clean, but that was after you were caught right?

Sorry NJ but I agree with Jesse. Were all human but zero tolerance for this stuff. Like another board member said, this is about having fun. And this hurts our hobby.

Im a forgiving type but this type of bull$hit is happening way to often on ebay/othe sights and this board is a kind of shelter from that type of non sense. I trust the members on this forum to be straight up and honest the first time not when they are busted for doing the wrong things and then apologizing once they are caught.

I love that movie. Never found a big audience back then and sadly overlooked these days. Nice reference.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

all joking aside...it'll be tough to recover from such a flub...but it can be done. Some will never forgive...many others will forget. But It WILL take years of being an upstanding member of society...I mean net54.

Noah, pretty much all of the other posters have been very hard on you, but you are good in my book. Everyone makes mistakes, even bad ones. It's how we handle ourselves afterwards that measure our true character. Stay true to yourself even in rough times.

Conover, WI?
 

The OP listed his home as Conover, WI in his fraudulent listing.

I'm curious if this is a bogus location as well since it truly appears the Con is Over!

Patrick

But it’s what you do when no one is looking that proves your integrity. Without integrity what is character?

I don’t think anyone has been hard on him. I do think his shill of justice is a joke. Then to open a case about it . That’s the worst part. Not printing some lame t206 reprints. It never stopped until he got busted. No character or integrity in sight.

Man, this sucks.

I wanted to believe in you. You came on here all howdy doody-like with a cartoon avatar, calling everyone "Mr.," and loving your beater commons. I loved the purity of your collecting. It seemed genuine. But you now seem as fake as your cards. You knew what you were doing here.

My advice, for what it's worth: take a break, gather yourself, and come back when the time is right. But leave the little boy-schtick in the past. Plenty of other people have come back from worse as this sh*t seems to sadly be the status quo in this glorious hobby of ours. I truly wish you the best.

Agreed, Pete, and for me it is going to be extremely hard to forgive and/or forget this one, and that's 100% attributable to the way NJ had carried himself on this board since his first forgiven transgression a few years ago (on the BST). The unfailingly polite, aw shucks, "Thanks, Mr. (insert name here)," sweet-natured enthusiasm really duped me, even though I had a less than great personal experience with him once (way, way down on the transgression list - he simply didn't get back to me after telling me he was interested in a card and then not responding to me after I quoted a price. Not a big deal at all, just kind of annoying). It's now just really tough to square that nice kid with the person that pulled off a scam and only came clean by his own admission after being prodded. I'm glad he admitted everything - I wish more scammers would do so - but I hate the feeling I have about being had by NJ's squeaky-clean kid act.

So after opening an unpaid on ebay did you turn yourself in to the local police?

That would show an intent to change...and be believable...

Thanks to all who have posted. I've read each response thoroughly and have been in discussion with Leon.

Without revealing too much personal information, I'm still in high school and am in the learning process about a lot of things. I'm not saying this as an excuse, but (for example) each time I addressed someone by their first name, it was genuine and it was how I was raised.

These actions of mine are not a proper example of how I was raised and on what moral grounds I'm being taught to live by. I again apologize to each member affected by this; it wasn't just foolishness, I acted out stupidly and arrogantly.

I've spoken with Leon; I'm going to take a break for a little while and gather myself.

I appreciate all of the feedback as I'm going to spend some time under the leadership of wise council and trusted adults in my life.

NJ Dunkin

Not to discount what any of you guys have said, but dude, those are the worst looking fakes I have ever seen. By far. Other than that, you did wrong, but don't let it define you. The guys are being justifiably hard on you, but this is not the end of your world. Learn from this, and grow to be a better person. I always liked the saying that until you hit rock bottom you don't know how far it is to the top. Now is the time to make the change.

"The eBay User Agreement requires that members be at least 18 years."

User ID
Effective Date
End Date

njdunkin_2
Apr-16-18
Present

katie5831
Mar-20-17
Apr-16-18

njdunkin1
Jan-14-17
Mar-20-17

k*******1
Jan-01-05
Jan-14-17

Dude;

I certainly have made my share of mistakes; To err is human, to forgive is divine, but to fraud is unforgivable {as in intentional act to deceive}. You seem responsible enough to admit you made a mistake. My advice, learn from this life lesson and realize your reputation is worth a lot more than a few $. In a small niche marketplace; you will be better off overcharging for the right stuff {if you have to} than to sell a fake product. I think it's a good idea to reflect on this and maybe even return any money, even at a loss if you have to. {although I am not your father} Good luck in the future and remember when you lie once, you usually have to lie multiple times to cover the original lie. Start with the truth...................it's much easier. I do admire your sincerity, if it's real, though.

He made a mistake. He fessed up. This isn't like Candiman auctions where they are trying to sell more junk. Probably, he should be suspended or banned from BST, and he should avoid giving his opinions in ethical threads. However, I see no reason why he shouldn't collect and participate in the hobby.

Yeah, I just saw that as well. "Member since: Jan-01-05" ???? (I have a guess though)

Heaven knows the trouble I'd have gotten into when I was a young man if the internet existed as it does today. Dunkin...take this to heart...learn from it...you'll be ok...hopefully.

+ (pick a number)

and another thing
 

He said he wanted to "win" his own auctions to chop off the head of the snake, but then has perfect opportunity to just keep them when the bidder didn't pay. Instead he chose to open a case against.....something doesn't make sense about that.

Regarding accountability and apology - it takes a lot to publicly step up and be accountable - good for you (sincerely). First and foremost when you "act in a way you know to be wrong (and I believe you knew this as you were doing it) - you violate your own integrity - something much more difficult to forgive than the forgiveness you seek here.

I was not harmed by you and have nothing invested here - I hope your words and intent are true - first and foremost for you. I am sure that while some may forgive, as stated by others - many (myself included) would not choose to do business with you.

Act right and show yourself and others that you can. Honestly wishing you all the best.

Howard

Yeah, that needs some explaining. How old were you when you joined eBay? Obviously under the "must be 18" rule. Since that was 13 years ago, and you are in high school, you must of been what, 3 or 4?

I can attest to this; It's my folks' account (hence "katie")

If you'll look at the original name and first name change, you'll see it coincided not too long after I began buying cards.

NJ Dunkin

Edit: this is likely my last post to answer any residual questions in conclusion before my suspension. thank you to all who have responded.

Forgiven dude. Put it in the past. Be a stand up person here from now on and you'll eventually get credibility back. None here can claim to have been 100% honest for their entire lives. It is how you learn and grow from it. Good luck.

Well
 

I guess I don't understand. Actions have consequences. This young man made a conscientious effort to deceive, for financial profit. Not only that, but he is technically under his parent's jurisdiction, yes? He made an effort to deceive people of their hard earned money, their time, and their love of collecting. I have no idea why his continued presence here would be justifiable.

Ban.


Tony

He is going on a year, formal hiatus after today.

Disappointing. In the future when asking for advice on card matters via PM you can keep the "blessings and thanks" for someone else. No excuse for this kind of stuff but time will tell, hopefully we will see a positive change, good luck to you.



Also, I just noticed you started a thread on jan 2 2018 (which you edited in late March) looking for UZIT backs and I'm starting to think there is more to this story (I just cut and pasted it here).........

I would be thrilled to pick up my 1st Uzit, Broad Leaf, or Red Hindu this weekend!
Any condition, any front, any price.

I can add cash to a trade deal or add trade to a cash deal.

Photos, PMs, emails work, too


Blessings in reminder of the Savior who gave His life for us this Easter weekend,

NJ

I believe his Confession would have been better done in church rather than the board.

Nj
 

Sadden to hear about n j.
He sold me this Magee and it's my favorite t206 and I
am happy with it.
Best of luck
Richard

Hmmmm.

:eek::eek::eek:
Anyone else thinking what I am?

Really sad to hear of this. We have all made mistakes. You seemed like a good dude too. This is a learning experience. Hopefully you come back in a year a better person from this.

Tell me this guy is like 12....certainly acts like it

Sent from my SM-G935P using Tapatalk

This?

I don't see how you'd ever get credibility back after something like this. It's not like he accidentally bought a counterfeit card and unknowingly tried to sell it as an original. An unfortunate aspect of this for me is the fact that he's been reading our complaint threads about fraudulent Ebay sellers and the damage they do this hobby and thought hey that sounds like a good idea, I think I'll give that a try.

Sometimes you gotta say, "WTF" and admit your guilt.

+1

Some forgive, some forget and some do both. There is still a poster here that was found to be a member of a neo-nazi website years ago and he just rolls along like it never happened.

I'm sorry that I missed that drama.

I missed it also. Is there a link?

Wow
 

Would love to know this person so I can write them off my list of people to do transactions with.

Me too

Yet another reason to reinforce my decision to ONLY collect PSA/SGC slabbed cards. I know the major graders aren't perfect either and can miss one here and there but it's getting to be like the wild west with ungraded items, IMHO.

Was that Jerry Senility?

Yep

Not a fan but dunno....Don't think he is a skinhead just senile. I know he had visited a site like that. I don't think we want skinheads on this site but I don't think Jerry fits the bill. Like I say, I think he is just senile. That said if anyone has any proof I would love to see it and will act on it.

Well, it was 9 years ago, and he was signed up for the website. He claimed it was a "history" site. I don't know how old Jerry is, but even a senile person would find the "history" on that site to be off a bit.

NJ's sincerity in this apology should be heavily scrutinized. I have good reason to believe he's only sorry he got caught.

I have a friend in the hobby that noticed something fishy with NJ's eBay listings, and he showed them to me. NJ and I have had some good conversations in the past, as I'm sure many of you have experienced. I reached out to him to see what these fishy listings were about, knowing full well what the intent was. From NJ's presence on here, he always came off as a very passionate individual regarding the hobby, trying to soak up knowledge and really be a positive influence in the community. I knew he wasn't ignorant when it came to fakes, and his listings clearly contained fakes. It angered me, and when I confronted him, his responses pissed me off even more. For full disclosure, I will copy and paste our conversation from February below.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kyle May Feb 21 to NJ
Hey NJ,

Are you selling reprints as questionable?

NJ Dunkin Feb 21 to me
Hey Kyle!

Great to hear from you, brother. I actually put up the listings to try and copy the pseudo-legitimate style that so many listers use, but ended up feeling bad and took down as many as I physically could at the end, while bidding up the other two to make sure no one would win them.

Next time I re-list, I've decided to make it much more clear that these are intended to look like old reproductions (although I had listed the cards as "reprints" under that category already.)

It's a fun project to make them and make a few bucks in turn :)

How have your collecting adventures been? Picked up anything new lately?

Kyle May Feb 21 to NJ
Cut it out. You're better than that. I've always thought highly of you, and from what I know you have a good reputation in the hobby. Don't jeopardize that for a few cheap bucks. You're doing it on a separate account from your main eBay account, which is sketchy as well.

NJ Dunkin Feb 21 to me
Hmm...perhaps you are right. I wouldn't do this to damage my reputation intentionally, but selling "reprints" could be cardboard suicide. I'll give this some thought.

Kyle May Feb 21 to NJ
You're smarter than that, and I think you know why you did this, and that what you did/are doing was/is wrong. You went for the chump change. Of course you didn't purposefully damage your reputation, because you didn't think you'd get caught by selling on your second account. Your emails don't sound very remorseful either, and now I'm seeing a post on Net54 that you're looking for 3 pricey cards? Please tell me you aren't using any profits from this scheme to fund those purchases. Sorry NJ, but something stinks here and I don't like it.

NJ Dunkin Feb 21 to me
Kyle,

I have never done this for easy money or to take a sleazy road. That has never been and never will be my intention. Please hear my heart on this--don't read in to this more than it is.

I'll never sell reprints like this again. I can give you my honest word, I never did this to take advantage of anyone. It was just like crafts in school; I did it for fun in an effort to make intentionally advertised reproductions for display.

The moral ambiguity was a mistake on my part; realizing how foolish that looked only came after I logged in to check the auctions.

I would not want to lose my friendship with you at all, brother. I wouldn't lose it for the world. I really enjoy your company and love our discussions of old cards.

Additionally, if you would like to hear why I asked about those cards on N54 (the expensive ones), I would be happy to explain them to you.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From what I've seen in his similar conversations with others who have confronted him, he has worked to sculpt his "apology" to open the door as much as possible for forgiveness. Essentially, he's working the angles to avoid the death penalty in the hobby. I wanted to share our conversation because I don't believe there should be much sympathy for him. I know people live by the adage "forgive and forget" but I'm not sure I'll ever forgive, and I sure as hell won't forget.

I have no idea how old he is. I do know that money affects livelihoods. It's criminal what he did, no matter the age, and his knowledge on the situation is well beyond any potential ignorance at his age.

Surely the simplest explanation is that he endorses the views espoused on the site. Perhaps he's also sending his savings to Nigerian princes and to people selling raw T206 Wagners on eBay or something, but being senile doesn't make you racist. It might make you less careful about revealing your racism, but that's a separate issue.

He denied being one. Not every single member of our 9000+ members collect cards....But if someone saw they were a member here at a primarily card forum, they might assume they were a collector of cards. But it's not always the case.

Back to NJ. I really hope he learns from this. I wish I had learned some life-skills things when I was younger. Learning the hard way is difficult.

I can't understand why, if he bid the lots up to make sure nobody else won them due to remorse, he then opened the unpaid item cases. And as a seller, can't you always cancel your own listing even if there are bids on it?

Another good reason to avoid collecting T206...no one messes with caramels!!!!!

I didn't buy his explanation then and I certainly don't forget or forgive when it comes to something like that. NOBODY could ever read a single thread on that site and come to the conclusion that it's a good place to read up on history. I think maybe you should go back and read the thread. And sorry that I've sidetracked this thread (you can thank me in a year Mr Dunkin), but that's the first thing that pops in my head every single time I see him post here.

My only question is, were all the cards listed like the one in the link? That one clearly says it is a reprint.

Not really. It says being sold as a reprint per ebay rules, but then he invites people to conclude otherwise by posting a scan of an authentic card and saying "you decide." Also he lies about the origin of the card, saying he just acquired it as opposed to he made it himself.