The Yak Shack Forum

Yes, and they only accept money orders and cashiers checks.  That rings too good to be true.  

ztaylork

Yep, without any credit card/paypal insurance I really think there's a high risk on those auctions  :-\

All together now, singing to the tune of the Monty Python "Spam" song.............

Scam, scam, scam, scam, scam, scam, scam, scam.............

How can experienced eBayers fall for this crap ? It's not too difficult spotting the signs, is it ? MO & cashiers check only.....no feedback.....registered 5 days ago.

HELLO PEOPLE, wake up & smell the fraud.

CJD   >:(

Hello guys,

nice forum here. :)

at first my opinion to this topic. I don´t believe that anyone would get the boxes. I don´t trust the seller. It´s a very high risk in my opinion, CJD is completely right.

What can i say about me? Not much, but of course i startet to collect the Azkaban cards. You can see my most expensive card here:
http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6108094524&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT

I am from Germany and if anyone wants to know anything about German sets, just ask me. :)

Tower

Welcome to the forum Tower!

Do you have the HP base set in German? I remember the LOTR ones in continental languages were really popular, how are the HP cards doing in Germany?

Thanks CJD, now Mark's singing the spam/scam song!!!

Hi Roz,

Thanks. :) Yes i have the complete German base set. :) I would say, the cards are popular in German, but not as much as the ones from Artbox are in UK or USA. But it´s hard to compare, i´m not really sure.

The main problem in Germany is that you can´t buy a complete base set. I didn´t find any seller for that, the leading german web-shops don´t have such a set, it´s the same in german ebay. You have to collect and collect many retail booster, it was very hard for me to get the complete basic set, i needed about 60 booster.

Today it was the first time ever that i saw the possibility to buy a complete base set of the 72 basic cards and 17 foil cards from Cards.inc. Look here:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=73570&item=6108939508&rd=1
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=73570&item=6108939619&rd=1

I wish, i would have seen it before. :( That would have saved me a lot of money, i think. It´s a german seller, but he sells in ebay.com, not in the german ebay.de. Strange ...

If you don´t know, the german set from cards.inc is nearly the same as the one from Artbox. It´s just the language and the 17 personal cards are more "foil". (How could i say this better???).

But it´s nice for me to have both sets. :) And now i have 4 prop and 4 costume cards. And the R1-R9 foli set, the 5 promo cards and the 4 box topper cards. Ok., i have just the cheap props and costumes (except Daily prophet), o.k., but they are very nice. And the Daily prophet card, yes, i liked it so much, i wanted to have it. :)

Maybe nothing for this topic, but: Does anybody know the best (cheapest) way to get an Azkaban Update case? I really think about it.

Tower

Ahhh so the German set takes after the UK Cards Inc set (i.e. the foils are the character cards) rather than the Artbox set (where the foils are a different set - we have the character cards in the artbox set but they are not foil. As you probably know already the artbox foils look like this:

(http://img77.photobucket.com/albums/v235/Roz_qmw/HP%20PoA%20Cards/HPfoilset.jpg)

Is it also true that you have silver foil on the front of the German language cards? Because the UK cards inc set didn't have that! It's funny how they twist each set to be a little bit different isn't it?

The HP Artbox set was so popular in the UK and US because of the amazing prop cards, autographs and costume cards that came in (almost) every box... some boxes even had 3 relics in - but sadly it was also possible to get boxes with just base cards in too.

Hmmm as for getting HP update cases - I can only think of one place taking pre-orders at the moment and that's MPC, www.my-preciousss-collectables.com he had 40 cases of the HP PoA set. They are European duty paid (so no surprises on the import tax) but you will need to ask him about the shipping to Germany. A case is so heavy it might be cheaper to take a trip to Cheshire yourself  :P He'll have had lots of experience on shipping in Europe I think so he will have price quotes for you. The price of the boxes themselves are £37.49 each, around 56 Euros. You tended to get about 2 base sets to a box and usualy at least one interesting card per box. When people bought cases they usually did well out of them.

No one else is taking pre-orders (that I know of) but his prices were pretty reasonable and competitive for the last set so I think he will once again be a good source.

Other collectors buy from www.potomacdist.com but I found it slightly cheaper to buy in the UK than from the US (once import duty and postage was paid). Potomac have not advertised an update price yet so we shall have to wait and see!

Yes, that´s it. The 17 german character cards have this silver foil on it. That´s the difference to the other character cards, for example to the Artbox-cards, i have too. In every german booster pack you get 1 foil character card and 5 base cards. Other cards don´t exist in german language, only these 89 cards.

Thanks for all information about the Update cases, very interesting. I have to see now what i shall do. I must think about it a little more. :)

HELP!!!  I bid on two of these already and now you all have me nervous.  One is at $1.50 and the other is at $1.00. With that price, I don't care, but my high bids are currently $30 and $50 (I figured I would be outbid anyway).  So now you all have me a nervous wreck.  What should I do? I don't want to pay 30 or 50 now.  You all have me scared. And everything you said makes perfect sense.

It is likely that some naive ebayer will outbid you at those prices - I wouldn't worry. With hobby boxes reaching $200+, some less knowledgeable person will surely think they have found the bargain of the month.  I don't think experienced ebayers would fall for this, but there are plenty of unexperienced ones out there. Seeing untraceable payment options and newly registered/no FB is 99% of the time a surefire sign... This reeks of scam from 50 miles away. Free PS2 game? Yeah right. >:(

Worse comes to worse, email the ebayer asking for a scan of the boxes - if they reply with a scan, well ok, if they do not reply, retract your bid citing non-contact by the seller.

Hi Tower and welcome to the board! :)

Of course the scan may not work either because maybe he really does have one box.  Doesn't mean there are 18.

I also read on eBay that once you win an item, you do NOT have to buy it if the seller is unwilling to exchange phone numbers after a purchase.  Of course, I just went back in to eBay and can't find this now.

Unless you emailed him asking for scans of all 10 (?) maybe citing interest in the lot. But he could easily send you copied pics. I say pull your bid, this auction is as dodgy as they come. Better a bid retraction notice than being burned. But if you want to risk $80 and have a very slim chance of actually getting something...

Don't recommend this option :-\

I go with super scam. (0) feedback... and the money order/cashier check is a deadd give away. I may go ebay vigilante and save everyone from this guy.

I filled out an eBay fraud report a little while ago.  I don't know if it will do any good, since it will be difficult to prove that the seller has no intention of completing the transactions, but at least eBay will investigate.

I filled out a fraud report as well.  Problem is, I have one bid in for up to $30 that ends tonight (currently at $1.50) so I don't mind if I win it for $1.50, because if it is a scam, it is worth the gamble of $1.50.  However, I do not want it to get pushed up to $30.  And I have one that ends in 2 days up to $50, currently $1.00.  Which is okay too, but I really wish I didn't put in $50.00.  If I could only change that.

I emailed the seller asking for the shipping prices, but no response (I did  this yesterday morning) so I am really nervous now since I don't even know that cost.

evrosidds - is there really a way you can save us all?  Anyone have any suggestions on what i can do to make sure I don't end up paying $30 and $50?  I prefer to keep it extremely low if I want to gamble with this guy, but do not want to pay what I orignally put as my high bids.  Help!!!!!

Sara

Sara,

Go in and retract your bids, I wouldn't recommend it for many situations as it is not a good practice, but is better that felling obligated to sending this guy a money order for close to $50, because if thats the case you can just send it my way :)  Let us know how it turns out.  People like this make me sick and will most likely push newer people that are not aware of warning signs of fraud away from ebay.  :(

ztaylork

Its good to see that alot of people are taking this auction with the caution it warrants. nothing over $60 yet for any of the boxes - in a genuine auction, they would be at $150+ at least. Good to see that ebayers are more cautious and discerning. Still - I see a bidder there with 1000+ FB - surely they should know better?

I agree with ztaylork - I don't like bid retractions either, but they safeguard you from scams like this

As I do not have much experience with this as some of you, is there a valid reason to retract my bids?  What about the one that has 8 hours left on it?  But my husband hopes that one will go for $1.50.  Like I said, i don't mind spending that to see.  I know the reasonare:

Cannot contact the seller, entered wrong amount, item description changed.  Which would I use?  The contact of the seller?  He hasn't wrote me back yet.  This really sucks.

But what should one do if it's less than 12 hours before the auction's end?  You can't retract the bid within that time period unless your bid was placed within that 12-hour time period.

If Sara wins, should she just not pay?  On one hand, we all think the listings are fraudulent and eventually the seller's account will be suspended or terminated.  On the other, there is a very slight chance the listings are legit, and then she'll have negative feedback at the least.

And since I do not have many feedbacks (only 14) one negative will kill my rating.
 :-[

Pull your $50 bid now. As for the $30 one - I am not sure what you can do with that - except hope to hell that there will be some crazy sniping near the end of the auction. If not, you may want to consider the $30 as a hard earned lesson in ebay scams :-\

Anyone else think of other options?

Someone just jacked up my $1.50 bid on the box for tonight.  It is now at $10.50.  This really sucks.  I can always ask the seller to cancel my bids.

You can try, but if he didn't respond to your email about shipping costs, he might not respond to your request to cancel the bid.

Bidding for these cards almost always goes crazy in the last few minutes, so don't give up hope yet.  Plus, complaints have been filed, and it's possible eBay will do something before your auction ends.

Problem solved!  You've just been outbid.

I have wonderful news!!!!  I was outbid for the one that ends tonight.  Now I still have the $50 one in there.  Instead of retracting it right now, I can wait until tomorrow and see what all of these end up going for.  If they are all over $50, I would rather take my chances without having a bid retraction against me.  If they do not go that high, I may either retract it completely or retract and change my price to a lower amount.  I am a bit curious to see if it is real or not.  And if not, I don't mind spending a few dollars gamble to find out.  Just not $50. So now we wait to see until tomorrow.  I just find it kind of odd that he is selling all the games as well.  Wouldn't you guys think you could get more money listing them separately?

Sara

PS>  Look at the auctions again.  The prices are starting to get up there.  In ways, i hope it is legit because I feel bad for the people spending a lot of money.  Like I said, I don't mind losing some, but a lot is hard to get over.

May I ask, how much are you willing to pay for a box ?

CJD

That's a hard question.  I was willing to pay a lot, until I bought one for $50 off of someone (that price includes the shipping charge).  He has no more left, I already tried, but I thought for sure it was a retail box until I got them.  Now it is hard to want to spend more than that.  Of course, I would go a little higher if I knew for sure it was legit, but I would never spend $200 on one.  I just feel bad for those people who spend a lot on this auction and it ends up being a fake.  I guess I will need to watch this guys feedback and see what happens a few weeks from now.

The person who outbid me is winning a few of those auctions for $51.  If this really is a scam, I would hate to be him.

PS.  Thank you all for helping me with my worries about this.  If it wasn't for all of you, who knows how much I would have spent.  And I know there is a chance they are real, but I want to be safe, rather than sorry.  Thank you again.

Another update.  They all went for $60-$102 last time.  Round two starts tonight.  I have already been outbid....thankfully.