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Mystery Boxes/Raffle/Waffle wins and losses
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33 posts in this topic

I wanted to start a thread where the people who do buy mystery boxes and participate in raffles and such could talk about their experiences with it. I would like to keep this from becoming a debate on the merits of this practice, we all know how those opposed to them feel and there are multiple threads where we can see their opinions expressed. Please keep posts in this thread to participation only, thanks!

I did a decent amount of research on ebay and instagram and have watched a ton of unboxing videos and it seems that instagram has far superior boxes right now. bay seems to be largely big lots of dud boxes, usually hundreds, with very few scattered hits. Instagram is largely lots of much smaller boxes where each box tries to at least achieve close to the purchase price with several boxes exceeding it. These range from 25 bucks to $1,000+. There are a few dedicated box sellers on IG and then there are a lot of people who put boxes together sporadically, sometimes only offering a single box or two with great value.

So I bought my first IG box, from t_ravis_comics_spineticks for 50 bucks shipped, top prize was a Logans Run #6 *** graded 9.0, so nothing huge but a decent comic, he only had 11 boxes up so I bought one. Got it and nothing big in it but a decent mix, 17 books total, mostly copper.

I'm waiting to try a box from eye_candy_comics and chuchucomics, they seem to be the top 2 in the game for the higher end boxes and usually only offer single digit boxes, I've seen some amazing unboxes from them. The worst seems to be torpedo, but I still ordered a $25 box from them to see, but they do a lot of boxes and offer larger lots closer to the ebay model. 

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LOSS - I purchased a high end mystery box from an Instagram comic enthusiast for $500 and never ever received the box.

long story short! These raffles or lotto online are crappy! If the online dealer isn’t fully vetted or If you’re not dealing with someone at an actual con or store, then I DO NOT RECOMMEND!! Just my personal opinion.

 

*** UPDATE *** - :news: - as of 4/11/2021 the transaction has been made right 

 

 

WIN - a little while ago I purchased a “Hit Parade” mystery box and pulled a signed George Perez Teen Titans #2 9.8 :banana:

Edited by Haupia
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1 hour ago, Haupia said:

LOSS - I purchased a high end mystery box from an Instagram comic enthusiast for $500 and never ever received the box. Every time I tried to ask when or where it could be, I’d get the run around. Seemed like a legit account with tons of followers (14.5 k +) and great reviews in the comment section of the posts. I guess my mystery box didn’t matter cause this account flaunts high end golden age keys along with high end graded video games and the girl that runs the account is quite attractive. Seems like her collection / inventory is easily in the 6-7 figure $$$ range. Being that the package had to be sent from her to me all the way over in Hawaii wasn’t a top priority. $500 wasn’t squat to her, it’s a drop in the bucket compared to her high end collection.

long story short! These raffles or lotto online are crappy! If the online dealer isn’t fully vetted or If you’re not dealing with someone at an actual con or store, then I DO NOT RECOMMEND!! Just my personal opinion.

 

 

WIN - a little while ago I purchased a “Hit Parade” mystery box and pulled a signed George Perez Teen Titans #2 9.8 :banana:

Did you get your money back? 

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I was doing mystery boxes for awhile and had one unhappy buyer. I had a lot of repeat buyers and I did a couple of $500 ones if I recall correctly.

Actually I had two, but one was because a box had opened in the mail and only about a third of the stuff got there. Once he contacted me, we were able to come to a resolution.

I'm trying to come up with a lottery  variant that would be acceptable here. 

A sort of draft. 100 books. Ten participants. $500 a person.

Each round has ten books and whomever has first pick in round one has last pick in round two. 

I still have some details to work out. Trying to determine what values I want to have for the minimum.

Here is a twist that I like a lot. One of the books in the draft will be much better than the rest. Everyone will know it is in the draft but no one will know what round it is in until the ten books for that round are exposed. At that point, anyone in the draft can try to trade up, including offering cash. The person who is first can pick the book or sell the rights to it. 

It's a work in progress.

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On 4/8/2021 at 12:43 PM, Ryan. said:

Who is this attractive Instagram seller stealing people's money? 

I’ll send you a DM as I don’t want to publicly put “anyone on blast”. There are 2 sides to every story and I shared my view of the situation. They have theirs. 
 

:news: UPDATE - as of 4/11/2021 - the situation has been resolved 

Edited by Haupia
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1 hour ago, shadroch said:

I was doing mystery boxes for awhile and had one unhappy buyer. I had a lot of repeat buyers and I did a couple of $500 ones if I recall correctly.

Actually I had two, but one was because a box had opened in the mail and only about a third of the stuff got there. Once he contacted me, we were able to come to a resolution.

I'm trying to come up with a lottery  variant that would be acceptable here. 

A sort of draft. 100 books. Ten participants. $500 a person.

Each round has ten books and whomever has first pick in round one has last pick in round two. 

I still have some details to work out. Trying to determine what values I want to have for the minimum.

Here is a twist that I like a lot. One of the books in the draft will be much better than the rest. Everyone will know it is in the draft but no one will know what round it is in until the ten books for that round are exposed. At that point, anyone in the draft can try to trade up, including offering cash. The person who is first can pick the book or sell the rights to it. 

It's a work in progress.

over the years, you mentioned this before and it always paints the picture, that the buyer's claim were illegitimate. You should revise the story to at least admit that the buyers claim was somewhat valid. and while the buyer complained, he didn't ask for his money back did he. He chalked it up to a learning experience and moved on. Yet the story gets told over and over, that your boxes were great but only one person complained.

 

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3 hours ago, Haupia said:

LOSS - I purchased a high end mystery box from an Instagram comic enthusiast for $500 and never ever received the box. Every time I tried to ask when or where it could be, I’d get the run around. Seemed like a legit account with tons of followers (14.5 k +) and great reviews in the comment section of the posts. I guess my mystery box didn’t matter cause this account flaunts high end golden age keys along with high end graded video games and the girl that runs the account is quite attractive. Seems like her collection / inventory is easily in the 6-7 figure $$$ range. Being that the package had to be sent from her to me all the way over in Hawaii wasn’t a top priority. $500 wasn’t squat to her, it’s a drop in the bucket compared to her high end collection.

long story short! These raffles or lotto online are crappy! If the online dealer isn’t fully vetted or If you’re not dealing with someone at an actual con or store, then I DO NOT RECOMMEND!! Just my personal opinion.

 

 

WIN - a little while ago I purchased a “Hit Parade” mystery box and pulled a signed George Perez Teen Titans #2 9.8 :banana:

cool beans

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1 hour ago, jsilverjanet said:

over the years, you mentioned this before and it always paints the picture, that the buyer's claim were illegitimate. You should revise the story to at least admit that the buyers claim was somewhat valid. and while the buyer complained, he didn't ask for his money back did he. He chalked it up to a learning experience and moved on. Yet the story gets told over and over, that your boxes were great but only one person complained.

 

My story is that of all the boxes I sold, only one person expressed they weren't happy.  I had a great time making them up and the fact that many buyers went on to buy more expensive boxes would indicate their happiness.  You weren't happy, but didn't want a refund when I offered it, nor a partial refund or credit towards a future box. 

My mystery boxes were the best thing since sliced beer and it is tragic that this new generation will never experience the joy of opening one.:headbang:

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15 hours ago, Ryan. said:

Who is this attractive Instagram seller stealing people's money? 

I’m pretty confident I know who it is based on the description.  Obviously I cannot comment on the details of the situation, but if I paid $500 for something and got the run around, they would be outed here for sure.

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3 minutes ago, DocHoppus182 said:

I’m pretty confident I know who it is based on the description.  Obviously I cannot comment on the details of the situation, but if I paid $500 for something and got the run around, they would be outed here for sure.

Yeah, based on the description there's really only one person I can think of, and that would surprise me, because I always thought they were on the up and up. 

As for me, I can't imagine spending money on a raffle/mystery box. They seem like scams, even if maybe they aren't. Would rather spend the money on something I KNOW is a good deal.

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1 minute ago, F For Fake said:

Yeah, based on the description there's really only one person I can think of, and that would surprise me, because I always thought they were on the up and up. 

As for me, I can't imagine spending money on a raffle/mystery box. They seem like scams, even if maybe they aren't. Would rather spend the money on something I KNOW is a good deal.

Yeah, there aren’t too many people out there that fit the description.

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4 hours ago, F For Fake said:

As for me, I can't imagine spending money on a raffle/mystery box. They seem like scams, even if maybe they aren't. Would rather spend the money on something I KNOW is a good deal.

It really feels akin to going to a random guy selling stuff on the side of the street, handing him a bunch of money and asking him to mail me what they are selling.  Sure, they may very well be honest enough to follow through, but it seems like a bet with mostly downside.

If I want to gamble, I'd much prefer to do it at a poker table.  Or even a slot machine, for that matter.

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