The Unfortunate Side of the Hobby!

[johnse27]

Well I am usually mentioning the good things that people have done but unfortunately I have been taken on a deal! I have collected the Upper Deck Premier set and have always been looking for some of the more rare cards when they have come available. Recently a 03-04 Premier Marian Gaborik Shield 1/1 came available on ebay with a BIN price and a make an offer price. I made an offer and the seller said that the only way he could do it was to take the sale off line! Lesson learned as I had paid for the card but have never received it. The seller had around 400 positive feedback but now has no cards available under his name and has not returned my e-mails. Expensive lesson learned. The positive experiences far out way the negative experiences I have had in this hobby and obviously I have a responsibility for trusting someone like that. Here are the six cards that I have of the shield cards right now.

[87sluggo]

Ouuuuuch, Paul, that surely does suck. How did you pay him "off-line"?? Do you have ANY recourse. Do you know any.....guys who....."fix" things??

[theboxbreaker96]

What card was it? I do hope there is some way that you could possibly get your money back.

[reoddai]

Sorry to hear that. If you paid with Paypal (not a gift, but an actual payment), you can open a dispute for item not received. Its not the same as eBay, but it may get you your money back.

Another thing you can do, is go with credit card if you have to. It may get Paypal mad at you though.

I tried finding an online presence about that guy, but nothing so far :(. I did find that his eBay name without the 2 at the end is blocked by several people.

Great shield cards BTW. Hope you get something back for that off-eBay deal.

Cheers,
reoddai

[johnse27]

It was sent as a gift unfortunately as that is what he asked for. The seller was thecooler2 and he had 100% feedback. I will be contacting my credit card company to see if they can cancel it but who knows. No Ed no "fixers" in my rolodex.

[ish3417]

Shame people like that are in the hobby :(

There is of course possibility he died in car accident or something before sending you the card...

I do lots of deals "off-line" either buying or selling, i sometimes offer to the sellers to go offline as the means they could go down with price without having to pay fees, but i will only do paypal "pay as goods" if i am buying and send with delivery confirmation when selling.
PayPal Buyer Protection is good enough but if you send as gift, then you based on pure trust :(
Also if people ask for gift that is because they want you to paypal fees not them, or because they want to scam you. So instead of paying fees by sending as gift. Just send as pay for goods with the extra to cover his fees so he still gets what he wants but your covered by Buyer Protection

I don't know Canadian law. I'm from across the pond but could you not simply report to Police ? It shouldn't be hard to get guys details if you know his ebay and paypal, and surely you have all the communications where it clearly states what you buying and for how much.

[johnse27]

He is based out of the US so of course there is nothing that can be done from Canada. He was on e-bay as another ID so I sent a message and now there are no auctions happening through that ID. He is a member on the HI board as some people have seen him posting about the card previously. I have defininately learned a heck of a lot more about the gifting process on paypal and will not be using it again.

[centrehice]

What is his eBay username?, so that we can all block him and never deal with this person either buying or selling

Also if he has an HI presence, tell the owner of the site what has happened. This kind of person does not need to be doing business in the hobby with honest people.

If you paid by Paypal and not Gift, you can still get refunded.