eBay Idiot of the Week: The Hot Pack Con Man
I've been tracking this particular eBay Idiot for two weeks now. I found him when I was researching some sale-prices for Sam Bradford's 2010 Exquisite rookie-patch-auto. I came across a ridiculous "Hot Pack" seller who claimed to be selling the thousand-dollar card in one of his TEN packs. However, his comments mentioned that he was only selling ONE of the purported TEN packs on eBay...the rest he claimed to be saving for a "Card Show" that is coming up.
I'm no Stephen Hawking, but it didn't take me long to connect the dots and realize this seller was a fraud. To top it off, his writing, grammar, spelling, and timing were all horrendous. In the comments below you'll see he mentions he bought this Sam Bradford card at a card show last year. But the product just came out last month.
Here are the seller's actual comments for this item:
He was operating under a different alias every couple of days and I was saving the links to all of his auctions. He used the same comments in every auction and only changed up the name of the player and supposed value of each card. His original screen-name was "theamazingsportscards" and he had 7 "Hot Pack" auctions online for various players: Bradford, Tebow, Carmelo, LeBron, Wade, etc. Unfortunately his other three screen-names were written down on a sticky-note that my wife accidentally disgarded. I went to check on his auctions two days ago and was shocked to see all of his screen-names were deleted.
My assumption is that every time he "sold" a couple of auctions he would take the money and close his account.
I thought I had lost him.
Fortunately, stupidity knows no limits. This morning I searched for "Sam Bradford Hot Pack" and found the exact same auction in the exact same style...just under a different alias. While the seller's original three screen-names had feedback scores lower than ten, this one has a score over 500.
While I was writing this article, "drumheaded" had Sam Bradford and Derrick Rose auctions up. By the time I was done making the graphics above, he had removed his Derrick Rose auction and replaced it with a Blake Griffin auction. He changed up his wording on this auction and even went so far as to include a hideously-written warning.
Please stay away from this eBay Idiot! Actually, just stay away from "Hot Packs" altogether unless you are buying from a reputable seller who legitimately sells good cards. I messaged the seller of these auctions asking if I could buy all ten of his amazing "Hot Packs." I also messaged him from a different eBay account asking which card show he was going to be at that was "arriving soon." Obviously he didn't answer.
A legitimate seller will usually sell "Hot Packs" at a fixed price and will allow you to purchase every pack in the lot, if you ask. Thus guaranteeing you will get the cards advertised. Ninety-Nine percent of these con-artists won't allow you to do that, so just stay away. And if you happen to see the aforementioned crook selling "Hot Packs" under any different aliases, please let me know!
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Stephane | Apr 28, 2011 | Reply
What an idiot, serously…
Sergio | Apr 29, 2011 | Reply
Yup.