How to Scam and Make $ on eBay...

[Jcfowler6]

Thanks for keeping the hobby real guys!

[fkw]

far from illegal, but also far from honest.

A real scam is selling a fake as authentic, or selling just a photo of the card, or selling a card you dont own, thats a scam!

I buy raw all the time but not so I can get it graded and flip. I expect raw cards to be mid grade at best, anything higher is a bonus.

The guys that think they can buy these raw cards and flip them for good profit will learn. They need to pay what the card is worth "raw" not what it may be worth after it gets graded.

[Leon]

This reminds me of a Judge Judy episode. BTW, I love Judge Judy. She so tells it like it is. She must call people "idiots" 5x a show. It's great. Anyway, one of the cases was where someone sold a picture of a cell phone on ebay for around $200. Of course the buyer saw the picture and thought they were getting a real phone. It wasn't even a good picture.....but just a regular ole printed out cell phone picture. The defendants had the gall to say they never said they were selling the phone, but only the picture. (the description was misleading too). What a great case that was. Total scam, and Judge Judy called it the way it was. She told them they needed to get a job, they should be ashamed of themselves and called them idiots, scammers, thiefs and everything else. A classic episode.

As for cards on ebay....no doubt there are a ton of folks trying to play on other folks greed. If the cards shown were truly NRMT or better those sellers know darned well they would sell for more in slabs and they would be graded.

[vintagetoppsguy]

Originally Posted by Leon

This reminds me of a Judge Judy episode. BTW, I love Judge Judy. She so tells it like it is. She must call people "idiots" 5x a show. It's great. Anyway, one of the cases was where someone sold a picture of a cell phone on ebay for around $200. Of course the buyer saw the picture and thought they were getting a real phone. It wasn't even a good picture.....but just a regular ole printed out cell phone picture. The defendants had the gall to say they never said they were selling the phone, but only the picture. (the description was misleading too). What a great case that was. Total scam, and Judge Judy called it the way it was. She told them they needed to get a job, they should be ashamed of themselves and called them idiots, scammers, thiefes and everything else. A classic episode.

As for cards on ebay....no doubt there are a ton of folks trying to play on other folks greed. If the cards shown were truly NRMT or better those sellers know darned well they would sell for more in slabs and they would be graded.

Funny, I said almost the same thing about a scammer on the post war side referring to that Judge Judy episode. Here is a link to that episode.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuP1pXSvNJI

[vintagetoppsguy]

Originally Posted by Leon

As for cards on ebay....no doubt there are a ton of folks trying to play on other folks greed.

This is one of the reasons I have absolutely no problem with the “found in grandpa’s attic…don’t know if it’s real…selling it as a reprint” stories. You have to ask yourself, who’s worse? The scammer trying sell some BS story, or the buyer so consumed with their own greed thinking they struck gold and are going to make a lot of money. In my opinion, it’s the buyer with the greed. After all, isn’t greed #2 in the seven deadly sins?

[npa589]

I can see both sides of this. Stupidity on the buyer side, absolutely. On the seller's side of things, it's beyond scumbaggish...

In summation: the parties involved in these auctions are a matchmade in heaven!

[egbeachley]

Originally Posted by vintagetoppsguy

This is one of the reasons I have absolutely no problem with the “found in grandpa’s attic…don’t know if it’s real…selling it as a reprint” stories. You have to ask yourself, who’s worse? The scammer trying sell some BS story, or the buyer so consumed with their own greed thinking they struck gold and are going to make a lot of money. In my opinion, it’s the buyer with the greed. After all, isn’t greed #2 in the seven deadly sins?

The buyer, who wins a $5,000 card (if real) for $200 may have bid $5,000. Hard to say they were greedy.

[wheels56]

Hey gang,

Brand new to the forums -- been using the site for a few months. Recently, my 9 yr old got into collecting and that naturally got me back into the hobby. We're both hooked. Anyway, I've been slowly starting to put together the Topps sets from the 50s, mostly buying lots of the commons, but starting to move up the food chain. I'm a bit wary given everything I've read in these forums and elsewhere about the dirty side of the hobby.

What finally convinced me to register and join the board was this thread. I've participated in many of the battlefield auctions, but have always had a sinking feeling about them. Just a gut feel that something wasn't quite right.

Anyway, in most of the auctions, I've bowed out early as the prices have run up, but I have won a few (56 aaron, 56 clemente, 55 kaline). My general rule is not to bid more than 1-1.5 grades less than my assessment of the cards given the scans and the description (which are always a bit hyperbolic). I'm very happy with the Kaline and the Aaron, but the Clemente was a bit disappointing. My fault though, because the printing imperfections on his face are clear in the scans, in spite of the "Amazing color and awesome eye appeal!!!" description.

Questions: how can one detect shill bidding? Also, does anyone know anything about this seller or have an alternative point of view? Any recommendations on honest sellers for 50s cards?

fwiw, here is the kaline:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...=STRK:MEWNX:IT

and the clemente:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...=STRK:MEWNX:IT

1,000 apologies for the novel on my first post. Promise to be more concise in the future!

Cheers,

Jason

[mintacular]

Jason, my original thread was not intended to torpedo Battleship per se but more so point out a raw vintage model that seems to exaggerate a card's "pristine" condition while ignoring obvious flaws. To add insult to injury for me, is that these sellers with the wonderful specimens purposefully do not provide a decent scan....In terms of shilling, others are better experts how to detect this, but I can't help to think many of these auctions have a "shill" account as the final sales prices are much higher than the graded equivalent, and to me for that to happen consistently sets off some red flags. Many of these cards probably have been cracked out of holders OR contain an original flaw that the seller realizes would prevent it from getting a good grade so they don't send it in in the first place. Worse case scenario, some of these guys alter/trim cards to make them appear ultra high-grade.

In short, these auctions are very suspect and should be avoided IMO.