Don't buy from yankees-collector!!

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Posted By: Kenny Cole

I bid on a 33 Goudey #53 Ruth card (ebay #2735606209) despite my misgivings about his low feedback. However, it was 100% positive. I was one of the many dunces to do so, but I was unfortuately the winner.

Sent him a cashier's check for the card, then received an e-mail from an unhappy other bidder who says he has just lost $4k plus to him on a fake 52 Topps Mantle, so beware. I go back and look at the Ruth scan, still think it looks legit, and then am informed that he is stealing scans of real cards and then substituting fake cards. I got my card today, and that appears to be the case. It is by no means the same card as in the scan. If I can ever get my scanner to work properly, I'll post a scan of what I got.

Somewhat interestingly, when I sent him an email and said that the card I'd received wasn't the same one I'd bought and that I'd be returning it for a refund, he didn't even deny that it was a fake. His reply (which the postal inspectors should find interesting) was that he never said the card was authentic (although he opined in his description that it would probably grade about a PSA 4), and that he didn't offer refunds on non-graded cards. After a spate of further e-mails, where Ireminded him that one of his other auctions (for another fake 52 Topps Mantle) stated that "As in all my auctions I offer a full no questions money back guarantee if for some reason you are not satisfied with your purchase. . . . ", I was told that he didn't make that statement in the auction for the (fake) Ruth I'd gotten, so it didn't matter. So much for the fullno questions asked money back guarantee.

He (actually they, since it is a two person tag team) has now gone to a private auction format, presumably to avoid embarassing problems such as the email I got from his previous dissatisfied customer. I wish he'd done that earlier, since I never bid in private auctions.

Such is life. I am going to be filing a mail fraud complaint with the USPS tomorrow, writing to the New York AG's office and the office of the local DA, and bitching to every other internet fraud outfit I can come up with. I'm also going to waste my time filing a fraud complaint with ebay. If anyone has other suggestions for ways to make their life miserable, feel free to offer them.

This is the first time in probably 600+ ebay transactions that I've been screwed. It's most irritating to feel like a dupe. Don't buy from them.