Tale of a Scammer Interaction

[Rhotchkiss]

On Sunday, I bumped my "WTB M131 Baltimore Newsboys" thread in the BST section. My initial post contained my email address. Later that day I received an email from someone stating they had an Evers. I actually already had an Evers (only like 4-5 known) so I said thanks, but no thanks. But the email struck me as odd and so I quickly edited my post to remove my email address.

This morning (Tuesday) I received an email from "Alex Nash". Here is the email:

"Hello,
I have a John McGraw available for sale. Let me know if you’re still interested.

Alex."

I was skeptical, because McGraw is extremely rare, I had never heard of this guy, and he emailed me rather PMing me through Net54. But you never know, so I emailed back that I appreciate the email and I am interested, can he please send me a picture and also provide his Net54 username. He emailed me a front and back scan of an SGC 1.5 M131 McGraw, with the following message:

"Check out the image below. Let me know what you think. My username is harperj497 on Net54."

I emailed Leon to verify (have not heard back but Leon will get back to me).

I then asked "Alex" for his asking price, and here is his reply:

"I’m asking 2100$ for it. I’m also open to hear your offer if you’re not okay with the price."

Now alarm bells really went off. This exact card sold for $4,000 in Heritage in 2015. I would expect to pay at least $7,000, and here the guy says "2100$" (note misplaced $) and he is open to an offer??!! There is no way this guy would quote $2,100 and be open to a counter-offer.

I looked up harperj497 on Net54, who recently started a thread called "Member's most precious card" and I PMed him asking if he had emailed me. Jack Harper PMed me back from username harperj497, confirming that he is not Alex and he did not email me.

I immediately emailed "Alex" with a counter-offer- he send me the card. If I like it, I will pay him $2100. If I dont like it, I will send the card back. Of course, no reply from Alex, who is now clearly a scammer.

A few lessons I learned here:

1. Do not include an email address in WTB threads on BST. Have people PM you first and once they make contact that way, you can provide your email privately in the PM thread
2. Ask for a Net54 user ID and look that person up. Ideally. contact them.
3. If it doesn't feel right, it likely is NOT right
4. If you get a scan, look it up and see when the exact card last sold. See of that sale makes sense in the context of their "asking price"
5. If the asking price is too low, then its a scam
6. Be skeptical of a willingness to accept a counter-offer, if they provide a price. Why would someone immediately negotiate against themselves, especially when they are responding to someone trying to buy something?

Anyway, I hope this story helps someone avoid a scam. Luckily, I am not out $2,100.

Ryan