i'll apologze in advance for the rant you're about to see but i figure letting others know about scammers may be worth the effort....
normally i HATE seeing people running to message boards screaming bloody murder ....ok , maybe that's being a bit overly dramatic.....more like screaming fake patches , fake autos , trimmed cards , or in this case shill bidding...
BUT , in this case i caught a seller red-handed....
last weekend i lost a 2-card lot ....both were serial numbered cards with the cards pictured and specific numbers posted in the listing....i didn't really think much about it at the time , but today when i was checking my daily search mails from ebay i saw the exact same lot listed again by the same seller...ok , no big deal - he may have had a non-paying bidder ....
i checked the bid history and the winner was a powerseller with 1566 feedback....a bit unusal that such an established seller would renege on a $3.00 deal but not unheard of.....then i noted that of his 137 bids in the past 30 days , 59% were on items from this same seller...again , not impossible , but a bit improbable.....
for the next step , i took a look at the feedback posted by the seller....quickly found a matching feedback score so i had an ID to check out....when i checked that one , another glaring fact stood out : both are from the same small town in north carolina....again , not a guarantee , but yet another strong piece of evidence....
looking further , the original seller posted positive feedback for this lot a little after 8pm et on december 3rd....this was approximately 4 hours after he had relisted the lot....
so far this all looks like it COULD be a string of coincidences....well , to be sure , i called ebay....the customer service rep took down all the info i had and i heard her comment (talking to herself instead of me at the time) that the two accounts in question had the same name.....just to be sure , when i overheard that i asked her and she confirmed to me that the two accounts had the same name and contact info....BAM....confirmed....one user buying and selling using two accounts....granted , she did tell me that (unless this is a second offense or worse) he will MOST LIKELY only receive a written warning , but at least that is better than nothing....
also , i now have two more user id's (patsfan9391 and greenrobin6954) that i have added to my blocked list and that i will never even consider buying from again....
normally i HATE seeing people running to message boards screaming bloody murder ....ok , maybe that's being a bit overly dramatic.....more like screaming fake patches , fake autos , trimmed cards , or in this case shill bidding...
BUT , in this case i caught a seller red-handed....
last weekend i lost a 2-card lot ....both were serial numbered cards with the cards pictured and specific numbers posted in the listing....i didn't really think much about it at the time , but today when i was checking my daily search mails from ebay i saw the exact same lot listed again by the same seller...ok , no big deal - he may have had a non-paying bidder ....
i checked the bid history and the winner was a powerseller with 1566 feedback....a bit unusal that such an established seller would renege on a $3.00 deal but not unheard of.....then i noted that of his 137 bids in the past 30 days , 59% were on items from this same seller...again , not impossible , but a bit improbable.....
for the next step , i took a look at the feedback posted by the seller....quickly found a matching feedback score so i had an ID to check out....when i checked that one , another glaring fact stood out : both are from the same small town in north carolina....again , not a guarantee , but yet another strong piece of evidence....
looking further , the original seller posted positive feedback for this lot a little after 8pm et on december 3rd....this was approximately 4 hours after he had relisted the lot....
so far this all looks like it COULD be a string of coincidences....well , to be sure , i called ebay....the customer service rep took down all the info i had and i heard her comment (talking to herself instead of me at the time) that the two accounts in question had the same name.....just to be sure , when i overheard that i asked her and she confirmed to me that the two accounts had the same name and contact info....BAM....confirmed....one user buying and selling using two accounts....granted , she did tell me that (unless this is a second offense or worse) he will MOST LIKELY only receive a written warning , but at least that is better than nothing....
also , i now have two more user id's (patsfan9391 and greenrobin6954) that i have added to my blocked list and that i will never even consider buying from again....
