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We should have a report ebay "scammer" seller thread

Started by Gotham Kid,

73 posts in this topic

Tomega

Tomega

Posted
Posted

 

Right, but that's not where the photo came from. Note that there are differences (most notably, the color in the hologram.) The photo came from here:

 

https://www.lewiswaynegallery.com/green-lantern-1-1941-cgc-vf-nm-9-0-cow-pgs-dbl-cover-p-7551.html

 

Same/same, you do know who owns the lewiswaynegallery.com?

 

 

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Buzzetta

Buzzetta

Posted
Posted
That would be true if Stan signed only but a handful. How many has he signed ? A couple billion.

 

How many books has Lee desecrated thus far in his career??? :tonofbricks:

 

To each their own...

 

I have a friend (and now a lurking boardie) who has every Silver Age Marvel Key from AF15 - FF1 all signed by Stan.

 

He has a showcase 4 signed by Infantino... he wants a set of all keys signed by creators. That is his collection.

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BatFace-migration

BatFace-migration

Posted
Posted

 

Right, but that's not where the photo came from. Note that there are differences (most notably, the color in the hologram.) The photo came from here:

 

https://www.lewiswaynegallery.com/green-lantern-1-1941-cgc-vf-nm-9-0-cow-pgs-dbl-cover-p-7551.html

 

Same/same, you do know who owns the lewiswaynegallery.com?

 

 

Halperin

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BatFace-migration

BatFace-migration

Posted
Posted
Just a FYI a comic is what a person is willing to pay for it. When I first bought this comic it was offered to me at 25K without Stan Signing it. Yes I negotiate the price down but I immediately had Stan Lee sign it. Gothem Kid I would suggest that you get your facts correct because what you are doing is considered slander because you have no proof in your claims where I can back mine up. Are you jealous that you can't afford this comic and you will never be able to get one for yourself?

 

mad negotiating skillz i guess - not that you could not find a 7.5 got under 16 K right now- oh wait - you can.....

 

 

slander is untrue statements - GK can back up his pricing information - so can many of people on this board...............

 

 

Slander is also spoken. This would be libel.

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mattn792

mattn792

Posted
Posted

PM Received:

 

My add is for real

johnf Offline

Just got here

 

 

Registered: 08/14/16

Posts: 2

This is the guy that is selling the X-Men #1 1963. Because of your post I have been getting bids that are total jokes. I can prove that it is real because if you look at the date of when CGC verified the grade it was the same time as the 2014 Chicago comic con. I also have the receipt from CGC. I have a CGC account. I am only selling it because I lost my job and I need money.

 

 

My response:

Re: My add is for real

mattn792 Online content

If I just sell the car, I can up my bid...

 

 

Registered: 02/17/15

Posts: 170

Loc: Chicago

You have a one sentence fragment description for a very key book that is marked up to an absurd extreme, have no eBay feedback whatsoever, and want someone to pick it up in person (with payment in hand I'm guessing). You're ad may very well be legit, but unfortunately it screams scam to anyone who is a veteran of the hobby.

 

No one is doubting the book's authenticity (I know Stan was at WW Chicago 2014 because I had my ASM #1 signed there as well), but the shoddy listing has led us to doubt your authenticity. We may come off as individual_without_enough_empathy, but take this as an opportunity to massively improve the content of your eBay listing. I would be happy to give you some listing tips if you would like some help.

 

 

 

And now we... :popcorn:

 

 

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mattn792

mattn792

Posted
Posted

And not to turn this into the stupidly priced X-Men #1 thread, but --

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/X-Men-1-signed-by-Stan-Lee-CGC-1st-X-Men/281533388329?_trksid=p2047675.c100623.m-1&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D37470%26meid%3D614d0ef2aa20460b848c8ca31eb08242%26pid%3D100623%26rk%3D4%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D182223441627

 

-- yeah. And I quote, "Rarest of signed comics for collectors!" It's eBay comedy hour!

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Gotham Kid

Gotham Kid

Posted
  • Author
Posted
1- What makes you good folks think it's a scam? Give your reasoning. Other big ticket items have sold on ebay before.

"Other big ticket items have sold on ebay before" is irrelevant. Nobody is saying it's a scam just because it's a big-ticket item.

 

Here is one very big reason to believe this is a scam: The image is stolen and manipulated.

 

Look at the image carefully. That is a high-resolution photo of the slab that has been carefully cropped and manipulated to appear as though it is physically next to a piece of paper with the seller's information on it.

 

-- The image has been identified as having been stolen from this listing on the Lewis Wayne Gallery website. Same serial number. Same reflections of light (such as across the bottom border). Same hologram color reflection.

 

-- In terms of Photoshop skill, the seller does know how to crop in a straight line, but otherwise he sucks at it. The edge is clipped and separated from its background, like a bad green-screen artifact in a science-fiction movie. The corners do not have natural curvature of a CGC slab, because the scamming loser didn't have the patience to do careful cropping over a curve.

 

-- The slab does not demonstrate the image bleed-through you'd expect when clear plastic is placed over a textured background. The translucent portions of the slab are what you'd see over a plain white background, not a concrete-textured surface.

 

-- The shadowing to the right of the slab is a Photoshop manipulation. A slab edge has a rolling curve that would create a shadow on at least 2 visible sides from that angle, but this fool has applied a Gaussian blur at a direct right angle to the image. The slab's fake shadow is a couple shades darker than the shadow from the slip of paper.

 

-- The image of the CGC slab has been transformed so that it's unnaturally wide and squat. The scammer probably thought it would make the slab's angle match the angle of the slip of paper. But instead it looks like the slab was put into a shrinky-dink oven and contorted due to a wrinkle in the fabric of space and time.

 

-- The comparative sizing doesn't make sense unless the seller is in the habit of writing simple notations on large scraps of paper (or the CGC case and comic are pocket-sized).

 

-- The CGC slab image is significantly sharper and higher-contrast than the background/note image. More amateur Photoshopping.

 

-- Lastly but importantly, you have to ask yourself, "What kind of person takes a photo of a slab next to a little piece of paper that identifies himself?" Most legitimate sellers have no need of such a thing, or if they're going to really identify themselves, they can do so by taking a half-dozen photos from different angles that include the backgrounds of their personal environments. Instead, this guy gives us one fishy photo, then two other images of a disembodied CGC label and a close-up of the slab's back cover (because he was too lazy to work his half-assed Photoshop magic twice in a row).

 

There's also the matter of the eBay account and the auction details:

 

-- The bidding history is set to "private bidders." This is a red flag that the seller is hiding shill bids placed by his imaginary friends.

 

-- The eBay account's feedback shows only 54 transactions, which somebody could rack up in a few weeks selling tube socks.

 

-- The account's past sales do not include any comics or collectibles. They're all.....well, it's in German so it's difficult to tell, but it looks like some cell phone accessories and the like.

 

-- It's rare to see anybody from Germany collecting or selling high-value English-language comics. However, there is a longtime notorious German scammer named Wilhelm Uthe who has fleeced many people with out-and-out fraud schemes, and made many spins through the revolving door of Germany's criminal-justice system. This could be him or one of his fellow dumbkopfs.

 

2- Let's say it's a scam...which happens ....doesn't ebay or PayPal freeze the cash until the buyer receives the package with the content? Wouldn't they reimburse the cost of purchase?

What is your point? That people should roll the dice on an obvious scam? Why so nonchalant? It's a pain in the butt to get scammed.

 

Are you aware of the schemes and manipulations scammers use to bypass eBay's buyer protections? The seller might insist on a wire transfer after the fact (which some people still fall for), or might have set up a false-identity bank account he can cash out on before the sheisse hits the fan.

 

Even if you got your money back, you'd still be implicitly aiding and abetting a criminal -- and who wants to risk doing that? Instead, everybody here should report this P.O.S.'s listing as fraudulent.

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999ghosts

999ghosts

Posted
Posted

was once told that fraud reports are only followed up by eBay when you are bidding/winner of the item. Multiple fraud reporting on an item by multiple people would not help. Can't remember where I got info. I did try to help out in the past with fraud report on a couple of items, all of them run to the end without any action from eBay.

 

So does it make sence to report if no action is taken?

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jcjames

jcjames

Posted
Posted
1- What makes you good folks think it's a scam? Give your reasoning. Other big ticket items have sold on ebay before.

"Other big ticket items have sold on ebay before" is irrelevant. Nobody is saying it's a scam just because it's a big-ticket item.

 

Here is one very big reason to believe this is a scam: The image is stolen and manipulated.

 

Look at the image carefully. That is a high-resolution photo of the slab that has been carefully cropped and manipulated to appear as though it is physically next to a piece of paper with the seller's information on it.

 

-- The image has been identified as having been stolen from this listing on the Lewis Wayne Gallery website. Same serial number. Same reflections of light (such as across the bottom border). Same hologram color reflection.

 

-- In terms of Photoshop skill, the seller does know how to crop in a straight line, but otherwise he sucks at it. The edge is clipped and separated from its background, like a bad green-screen artifact in a science-fiction movie. The corners do not have natural curvature of a CGC slab, because the scamming loser didn't have the patience to do careful cropping over a curve.

 

-- The slab does not demonstrate the image bleed-through you'd expect when clear plastic is placed over a textured background. The translucent portions of the slab are what you'd see over a plain white background, not a concrete-textured surface.

 

-- The shadowing to the right of the slab is a Photoshop manipulation. A slab edge has a rolling curve that would create a shadow on at least 2 visible sides from that angle, but this fool has applied a Gaussian blur at a direct right angle to the image. The slab's fake shadow is a couple shades darker than the shadow from the slip of paper.

 

-- The image of the CGC slab has been transformed so that it's unnaturally wide and squat. The scammer probably thought it would make the slab's angle match the angle of the slip of paper. But instead it looks like the slab was put into a shrinky-dink oven and contorted due to a wrinkle in the fabric of space and time.

 

-- The comparative sizing doesn't make sense unless the seller is in the habit of writing simple notations on large scraps of paper (or the CGC case and comic are pocket-sized).

 

-- The CGC slab image is significantly sharper and higher-contrast than the background/note image. More amateur Photoshopping.

 

-- Lastly but importantly, you have to ask yourself, "What kind of person takes a photo of a slab next to a little piece of paper that identifies himself?" Most legitimate sellers have no need of such a thing, or if they're going to really identify themselves, they can do so by taking a half-dozen photos from different angles that include the backgrounds of their personal environments. Instead, this guy gives us one fishy photo, then two other images of a disembodied CGC label and a close-up of the slab's back cover (because he was too lazy to work his half-assed Photoshop magic twice in a row).

 

There's also the matter of the eBay account and the auction details:

 

-- The bidding history is set to "private bidders." This is a red flag that the seller is hiding shill bids placed by his imaginary friends.

 

-- The eBay account's feedback shows only 54 transactions, which somebody could rack up in a few weeks selling tube socks.

 

-- The account's past sales do not include any comics or collectibles. They're all.....well, it's in German so it's difficult to tell, but it looks like some cell phone accessories and the like.

 

-- It's rare to see anybody from Germany collecting or selling high-value English-language comics. However, there is a longtime notorious German scammer named Wilhelm Uthe who has fleeced many people with out-and-out fraud schemes, and made many spins through the revolving door of Germany's criminal-justice system. This could be him or one of his fellow dumbkopfs.

 

2- Let's say it's a scam...which happens ....doesn't ebay or PayPal freeze the cash until the buyer receives the package with the content? Wouldn't they reimburse the cost of purchase?

What is your point? That people should roll the dice on an obvious scam? Why so nonchalant? It's a pain in the butt to get scammed.

 

Are you aware of the schemes and manipulations scammers use to bypass eBay's buyer protections? The seller might insist on a wire transfer after the fact (which some people still fall for), or might have set up a false-identity bank account he can cash out on before the sheisse hits the fan.

 

Even if you got your money back, you'd still be implicitly aiding and abetting a criminal -- and who wants to risk doing that? Instead, everybody here should report this P.O.S.'s listing as fraudulent.

 

giphy.gif

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Doohickamabob

Doohickamabob

Posted
Posted
1- What makes you good folks think it's a scam? Give your reasoning. Other big ticket items have sold on ebay before.

"Other big ticket items have sold on ebay before" is irrelevant. Nobody is saying it's a scam just because it's a big-ticket item.

 

Here is one very big reason to believe this is a scam: The image is stolen and manipulated.

 

Look at the image carefully. That is a high-resolution photo of the slab that has been carefully cropped and manipulated to appear as though it is physically next to a piece of paper with the seller's information on it.

 

-- The image has been identified as having been stolen from this listing on the Lewis Wayne Gallery website. Same serial number. Same reflections of light (such as across the bottom border). Same hologram color reflection.

 

-- In terms of Photoshop skill, the seller does know how to crop in a straight line, but otherwise he sucks at it. The edge is clipped and separated from its background, like a bad green-screen artifact in a science-fiction movie. The corners do not have natural curvature of a CGC slab, because the scamming loser didn't have the patience to do careful cropping over a curve.

 

-- The slab does not demonstrate the image bleed-through you'd expect when clear plastic is placed over a textured background. The translucent portions of the slab are what you'd see over a plain white background, not a concrete-textured surface.

 

-- The shadowing to the right of the slab is a Photoshop manipulation. A slab edge has a rolling curve that would create a shadow on at least 2 visible sides from that angle, but this fool has applied a Gaussian blur at a direct right angle to the image. The slab's fake shadow is a couple shades darker than the shadow from the slip of paper.

 

-- The image of the CGC slab has been transformed so that it's unnaturally wide and squat. The scammer probably thought it would make the slab's angle match the angle of the slip of paper. But instead it looks like the slab was put into a shrinky-dink oven and contorted due to a wrinkle in the fabric of space and time.

 

-- The comparative sizing doesn't make sense unless the seller is in the habit of writing simple notations on large scraps of paper (or the CGC case and comic are pocket-sized).

 

-- The CGC slab image is significantly sharper and higher-contrast than the background/note image. More amateur Photoshopping.

 

-- Lastly but importantly, you have to ask yourself, "What kind of person takes a photo of a slab next to a little piece of paper that identifies himself?" Most legitimate sellers have no need of such a thing, or if they're going to really identify themselves, they can do so by taking a half-dozen photos from different angles that include the backgrounds of their personal environments. Instead, this guy gives us one fishy photo, then two other images of a disembodied CGC label and a close-up of the slab's back cover (because he was too lazy to work his half-assed Photoshop magic twice in a row).

 

There's also the matter of the eBay account and the auction details:

 

-- The bidding history is set to "private bidders." This is a red flag that the seller is hiding shill bids placed by his imaginary friends.

 

-- The eBay account's feedback shows only 54 transactions, which somebody could rack up in a few weeks selling tube socks.

 

-- The account's past sales do not include any comics or collectibles. They're all.....well, it's in German so it's difficult to tell, but it looks like some cell phone accessories and the like.

 

-- It's rare to see anybody from Germany collecting or selling high-value English-language comics. However, there is a longtime notorious German scammer named Wilhelm Uthe who has fleeced many people with out-and-out fraud schemes, and made many spins through the revolving door of Germany's criminal-justice system. This could be him or one of his fellow dumbkopfs.

 

2- Let's say it's a scam...which happens ....doesn't ebay or PayPal freeze the cash until the buyer receives the package with the content? Wouldn't they reimburse the cost of purchase?

What is your point? That people should roll the dice on an obvious scam? Why so nonchalant? It's a pain in the butt to get scammed.

 

Are you aware of the schemes and manipulations scammers use to bypass eBay's buyer protections? The seller might insist on a wire transfer after the fact (which some people still fall for), or might have set up a false-identity bank account he can cash out on before the sheisse hits the fan.

 

Even if you got your money back, you'd still be implicitly aiding and abetting a criminal -- and who wants to risk doing that? Instead, everybody here should report this P.O.S.'s listing as fraudulent.

 

giphy.gif

 

Credit to cousin itt for finding the original image in the Lewis Wayne Gallery.

 

People, please keep reporting this as a fraud. Maybe if eBay gets enough different people reporting it, they'll wake up and do something.

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