Too good to be true, maybe....

by Tony Guo

Another article.  Yes.  I need to write more.  And no, you can't pressure me to do so. 

The idea for this article came from a discussion last night.  Apparently this happens more than I thought.  

You go on ebay, you find 14 foil Jace the mindsculptor for 1400 dollars buy now.  What do you do?   

Do you go ahead and instant click hoping that the cards are real or do you do some research?  If you were to do some research what type of information would you look at?  

I've split this article into three segments:  MOTL, Ebay, and Craigslist. 

MOTL

The crazy thing about MOTL is that you can sort of see who is sharking who when trade messages become public.  Almost every time the ripper (person who did not send cards) gave the person being ripped a really good deal.  

Two things to look for in MOTL.  First the ban/suspended list.  The list has addresses, fb accounts, etc.  I sometimes use this list to double check a name on youtube or elsewhere.  Better safe than sorry.  Secondly, references control MOTL.  If someone has a lot of references but no recent trades be wary, it could be an impersonator.  Especially if they are using a different address from their previous one.  Ask someone who has traded with him what the trader's address is, if it is different from the one he is asking you to send from, be extremely wary.

Ebay

Use Paypal.... simple.  Paypal almost always sides with the buyer.  

However, in the above case the scammer did something smart he sent the Jaces (or whatever was in the package) by signatory confirmation.  Meaning... a signature was required to receive the package.  Paypal is weird, and I've had friends who signed for delivery and had Paypal rule against them just because of the signature.   For some odd reason, the people over at Paypal believe that a signed signature means you received the correct package.  I do not know if this is still true, but it was a while ago.  

Craigslist

There are very very very very few good deals on craigslist.  If a post has been up for more than 5 days, that means someone has seen the cards and not brought them.  Which of course means that the cards are simply not worth buying.  

Out of probably 20 craigslist meetings I went to, I've only found two reasonable deals.  The chance that you are the first person to look through the collection is low.  If someone else didn't want them, why would you?  

Conclusion

Be safe when trading.  In person, online, whatever.  Safety is the most important thing.