Got burnt today

[clutch]

Clarification time.

It's amazing to me how what I thought I was writing and the message I was trying to convey got interpreted in the way it did.

Just so everyone knows this is not what happened

After buying things from an auction, I did not grow devil horns, rub money all over my body and laugh while running around a fire only to eventually buy a fake myself and seek revenge.

At no point did I claim to be a victim. I even went out of my way to express this. I couldn't care less about me losing my money. Me buying that picture and not getting my money back was in no way my motive for inquiring about law enforcement.

I used the Barry Sanders photo as an example. I didn't go to the office expecting a refund. I knew there was no way they were going to give me my money back. I knew that this wasn't a faked autograph. It wasn't my word against theirs. This was an indisputable copy. I wanted to bring this to their attention and see how they handled it. That's all.

My intention wasn't to make this thread into a character evaluation. Using my perfect 20/20 hindsight, I would have written my original post differently.

I didn't buy things there and look away because I was making money off of items I purchased. I hated what they did then as much as I do now. I buy stuff off Craigslist, flea markets, auctions, friends of friends, Ebay whatever. To me, this was just another place to buy stuff. I didn't think (as I do now) that legally buying legitimate items there could hurt anybody but myself. If I got burnt, I just lick my wounds, learn a lesson and move on. I'M NOT WHINING ABOUT MY STUPID PICTURE!!!

I didn't just get burnt there for the 1st time and decide to start a rebellion because it finally happened to me. I've bought other bad things too. I just figured you win some you lose some and with my knowledge I won more than I lost. It's just that this time I decided to write about it.

Here's my point. I bought things there because I knew the good from the bad. I could legally buy a legitimate item there. Not everybody knows the difference. I see fake cards go for hundreds of dollars and it makes me cringe.

I probably should have pointed out that that disclaimer is a new thing that they just started doing. It is also only on sports items and nothing else. A lot of my examples pre-date this disclaimer. Anyway, this isn't some dude setting up shop in a church basement. This place is huge. If any of you are want to know, I'm talking about Repocast in Michigan.

Repocast.com

There are thousands of people bidding on these things. I know some of you think I'm a bad man that kicks puppies and supports counterfeiting, but that couldn't be further from the truth. I actually care about these people and our hobby.

I know that a lot of people said to learn your lesson and walk away, but isn't walking away also part of the problem? If 1 person walks away there are 3 more to replace them.

My interest in the disclaimer is this. There is a difference between reprints and counterfeits. This isn't misrepresenting a reprint as an original. My understanding is that a counterfeit item is illegal to create, own, sell Period. Could a disclaimer really cover you if you are selling illegal items?

I'm not on a personal vendetta. I'm not mad about the photo I bought. I actually laughed to myself because I have never seen that one before and it caught me off guard. I'm not looking for the S.W.A.T. team to bust through the roof and detain everybody (even though that would be really cool). My realistic goal would be for someone to give them a kick in the pants to clean up the category.

Disclaimer or not, people are buying this stuff by the truckload and that is a problem.

And for your information, I never did anything illegal, immoral, dishonest. I only do legitimate business. And I most certainly never "ripped anybody off". I realize that even buying legit items there hurts our cause and I will stop buying there immediately.