Well guys the fraud may have been initiated. I was returned just one of the two cards: my Beta Badlands, sans the Underground Sea. I did get to know the guy and became very confident afterall that I wasn't going to get scammed. I think maybe now I was scammed. It's nice to have the real Beta Badlands back, which sold for $1400, but not having the Sea is a big problem.
Under shipping, it showed he shipped only the Sea and not the Badlands, and unless he ships something with a return label on it by the 12th eBay will let me keep the money originally due for the Badlands, and I'll only have to refund the Underground Sea for $4300. But I have to keep my fingers crossed he overlooked this.
Really stunning that after all that, he may have skipped on sending me back one of the cards.
I recently sold a Beta Badlands together with an Alpha Underground sea for a total of $6400 on eBay (yeah I know, 'don't sell on eBay.')
The Sea had an issue with the top corner and upper rim being inked by some idiot previous owner attempting to cover up signs of wear. I disclosed this in the auction and was very surprised to see it still sell for over $4,000.
i also sold a Beta Badlands which in my estimation had NO issues with it, and I put it down as condition Lightly Played which is accurate. It sold for $1,400.
One buyer bought both. But has now initiated a return request, he said the inking was a lot worse than I described. I thought about it and realized he probably has a point. If he got the Sea, wasn't comfortable with how much he spent given this issue, and he wants the return, I understand.
But, the kicker is he's also returning the Beta Badlands which doesn't have any issues with it, and he referred to "cards" plural, as if there was something wrong with the badlands which there is not. He also said the inking was widespread, which it is not, so that's another red flag.
So, first, I should mention this buyer has 550 transactions rated, 100% positive reviews, and mostly CCG related, which is a good thing. He's sounded pretty courteous and professional in correspondences, but this of course doesn't mean anything.
So I started reading about how, if selling cards on eBay or any similar platform, if a return is requested there is NOTHING a seller can do if the buyer sends back fakes or badly damaged cards. The only option is to go through a third party when you sell the cards to verify ahead of time what is being sent out. I didn't think to do that for this situation. And I realize I 100% could be in the process of getting scammed out of thousands of dollars. Maybe this guy has a bad condition, inked Beta Badlands that he's about to send in place of the real one.
Aside from a photo of the cards, I took a video of when I was about to ship the cards out. I thought this would add a little weight in case something like this did happen.
I bought these cards when I was 9 years old as a long term investment, and MTG represents some of the fondest memories as a kid. The video was just being reminiscent about the cards and hopefully getting some good shots of the condition of the cards before I send them out. But still, I don't think this would matter much.
So who here has any input on this situation? Besides just "you shouldn't have sold through eBay" or "you should have done x, y, z." Well shoulda / woulda won't help too much now. I hear other people having created police cases after such scams, but still it's like there isn't a way to verify that it was stolen or I wasn't the one trying to initiate a scam by sending the incorrect cards. The only thing that'd prove the card was stolen is if the exact card shows up being sold later on eBay and it can be verified that it was my old card. The Underground Sea does have that very specific inking issue on the upper portion which would make it easily identifiable.
My last option, in the event I am not sent back the proper cards / am scammed, is to maybe create a GoFundMe within the community. I'm not exactly a rich guy, and taking this loss from these cards would be horrific and that's about the only thing I could do in the event I'm scammed.
This guy might not be a scammer at all. But I also think there's a chance it could go south very quickly. I won't know until the cards are returned.
Under shipping, it showed he shipped only the Sea and not the Badlands, and unless he ships something with a return label on it by the 12th eBay will let me keep the money originally due for the Badlands, and I'll only have to refund the Underground Sea for $4300. But I have to keep my fingers crossed he overlooked this.
Really stunning that after all that, he may have skipped on sending me back one of the cards.
I recently sold a Beta Badlands together with an Alpha Underground sea for a total of $6400 on eBay (yeah I know, 'don't sell on eBay.')
The Sea had an issue with the top corner and upper rim being inked by some idiot previous owner attempting to cover up signs of wear. I disclosed this in the auction and was very surprised to see it still sell for over $4,000.
i also sold a Beta Badlands which in my estimation had NO issues with it, and I put it down as condition Lightly Played which is accurate. It sold for $1,400.
One buyer bought both. But has now initiated a return request, he said the inking was a lot worse than I described. I thought about it and realized he probably has a point. If he got the Sea, wasn't comfortable with how much he spent given this issue, and he wants the return, I understand.
But, the kicker is he's also returning the Beta Badlands which doesn't have any issues with it, and he referred to "cards" plural, as if there was something wrong with the badlands which there is not. He also said the inking was widespread, which it is not, so that's another red flag.
So, first, I should mention this buyer has 550 transactions rated, 100% positive reviews, and mostly CCG related, which is a good thing. He's sounded pretty courteous and professional in correspondences, but this of course doesn't mean anything.
So I started reading about how, if selling cards on eBay or any similar platform, if a return is requested there is NOTHING a seller can do if the buyer sends back fakes or badly damaged cards. The only option is to go through a third party when you sell the cards to verify ahead of time what is being sent out. I didn't think to do that for this situation. And I realize I 100% could be in the process of getting scammed out of thousands of dollars. Maybe this guy has a bad condition, inked Beta Badlands that he's about to send in place of the real one.
Aside from a photo of the cards, I took a video of when I was about to ship the cards out. I thought this would add a little weight in case something like this did happen.
I bought these cards when I was 9 years old as a long term investment, and MTG represents some of the fondest memories as a kid. The video was just being reminiscent about the cards and hopefully getting some good shots of the condition of the cards before I send them out. But still, I don't think this would matter much.
So who here has any input on this situation? Besides just "you shouldn't have sold through eBay" or "you should have done x, y, z." Well shoulda / woulda won't help too much now. I hear other people having created police cases after such scams, but still it's like there isn't a way to verify that it was stolen or I wasn't the one trying to initiate a scam by sending the incorrect cards. The only thing that'd prove the card was stolen is if the exact card shows up being sold later on eBay and it can be verified that it was my old card. The Underground Sea does have that very specific inking issue on the upper portion which would make it easily identifiable.
My last option, in the event I am not sent back the proper cards / am scammed, is to maybe create a GoFundMe within the community. I'm not exactly a rich guy, and taking this loss from these cards would be horrific and that's about the only thing I could do in the event I'm scammed.
This guy might not be a scammer at all. But I also think there's a chance it could go south very quickly. I won't know until the cards are returned.
Any thoughts so I don't die from anxiety?