The Dodgy auctions of [toysngiftsdirect] & [dd_gifts_n_collectables]

[Guest]

[Nienna]

I guess it's that time of year again, but this seller [toysngiftsdirect] has posted three auctions to date for boxes of GOF & POAu, none of which appear to be factory sealed boxes! 
Check the wording very carefully and nowhere is there any mention of any kind of factory sealing to any of these boxes - probably the single most important thing to look for when buying boxes of hobby cards on Ebay!

Here they are:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=170237236731

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=170236521840

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=170236860973

Sadly, I wasn't quick enough to post this and the one of the boxes of GOF cards was sold this morning and the other auction for another similar box was ended around the same time - probably sold off-Ebay but that's only a guess on my part rather than fact.
The auction for the box of POAu is still current on Ebay.

I just wanted to alert forum members - especially our newer members who may not have much experience in this area of card collecting - to be on their guard when buying boxes at what appear to be giveaway prices. The boxes are either retail product so they won't have the premium inserts, or they'll be opened boxes which will have already been thoroughly searched and any inserts removed prior to listing.
I can guarantee they'll be the most expensive sets of base cards you'll ever buy if you fall for this trick as that's all you be getting out of them! 

Constant Vigilance!! 

[sue]

Thanks for the information.
I`ve had this persons COS box on watching for the last two weeks and its been ended and relisted 4 times so far so i havent bought anything but now you`ve told us this i definetly wont buy anything and avoid him, thanks again 

[Nienna]

Sue - never be afraid to use the 'Ask/Email the Seller' function on any Ebay auction to find out whether the boxes you're watching are still factory-sealed or not - it's your money which you're spending after all!!
If the seller gives an evasive answer or chooses to ignore your question then I think it fair to assume they have something to hide, so I definitely wouldn't bother buying from them. 
Most reliable sellers will already state this clearly in their auctions ... but again, if you have any doubts at all then it's worth asking for confirmation and those that value their Ebay reputation are only too happy to reply. 


Good to know I've done something useful this evening!   

[diagonhp]

i dont understand,
how you can search through a box
when the packs are factory sealed ?

[LikORish-Spider]

i dont understand,
how you can search through a box
when the packs are factory sealed ?

Well as anyone who has opened any boxes can affirm, the packs that are STIFF usually have a thick card such as a PROP or a COSTUME card.
Of course autographs and chase cards won't be stiff.

Let's set a dark scenario. Case buyer,"Dishonest John", buys 3 cases. he gleefully opens the boxes and gives the individual packs the old "FLEX" test. DJ opens all of the stiff packs and if he has found the advertised  (to be expected insert/s). Then he looks for AUTOGRAPH cards. He then sets the unopened packs aside. After 30 boxes have been pillaged, DJ sets 24 unopened (unsearched>>> packs into a box and list it on  . "Sealed, box of 24 packs." Along comes "Novice Buyer" and snaps it up. NB then gets upset because it's a DUD BOX. But our friend DJ is laughing all the way to the bank.  NB suspects someting is wrong and gets no satifaction fom DJ. NB informs Ebay and good old DJ, in the famous words of Lucius Malfoy replies, "Prove it." NB is now a wiser buyer.

Bright scenario: Case buyer "Honest John" does the same thing, except he list the unopened packs as "XXX unopened packs, these packs come from boxes that have been gleaned for PROPS and COSTUMES. There may be an Autograph card and chase cards to be found. Starting Bid: $.99

[diagonhp]

you have now given out enough information to enable the whole of the world to become dishonest people by opening their boxes and checking before reselling this is unfair to those who have bought boxes and only opened certain boxes and just resold the ones they no longer wish to keep

regardless of wheather they are factory sealed or not

[MuggleMum]

I disagree diagonhp. We should all be aware of this practice that a few unscrupulous sellers use. Only dishonest people become dishonest sellers

[stoney]

Hi guys,
Just thought i would add some info to this discussion.
As Nienna says - never be afraid to use the 'Ask/Email the seller function if you have any doubts in your mind about any item you wish to bid on and always make sure that you check the wording VERY carefully. It could save you a lot of hassle and trouble down the line.
I was going to bid for one of this seller's GOF boxes but was put off when i took a closer look.
The first thing that caught my eye was the BIN price of £39.99 which did seem very low for a GOF box as i have rarely if ever seen one come up on ebay. The fact that the box was only listed as a Hobby Box and not sealed hobby box was another thing to make me think and also the fact that the description has the box down as containing 23 packs and not 24.
I still wasn't completely put off buying it yet though as i thought that the number of packets might have been due to the fact that the seller typed in the wrong number in (AND THIS IS A GOF BOX WE ARE TALKING ABOUT HERE! ) so i thought i would ask the seller for some info regarding the box and this was his reply that i got from him a couple of hours later.

"hi there thankyou for your question,
this is the original gof set not the update
and this is not sealed as it only has 23 packs
not 24".

"when i purchased the box i took one pack out and decided to not bother opening the rest i put them away for a while and have now decided to sell them".

This was enough to put me off from buying the box and i am very glad that i took the time to ask the seller some questions. At least he did answer my question straight away and he did give me an honest answer (i hope) but he really should of put all this stuff into the auction description in the first place. But then i suppose if he did it would certainly put people off buying.

[sue]

I`m glad this information has come to light as for me its been very helpful and i`ve learnt from it and not the hard way, thanks guys 

[diagonhp]

i think everyone deserves a chance
and to me this thread seems to be pin pointed at one person hear 

which is unfair 

as other members have said

there is always the ask question option.


if the seller gives you an honest answer
which they did by the message stoney got back

then thats good enough for me i am prepared to give people a chance

how about you guys

[sue]

Hi Diagonhp,
Welcome to the forum i`m sure you`ll love it hear  .
Not really sure what your last message meant as all i did was say thanks for the information which i for one am very glad of and i think its a very nice gesture for people to make newbies like myself aware of things happening in the card collecting world.
I understand what you mean by giving people a chance but it doesnt harm to be informed of a seller that looks slightly suspicious. If you read the first post i put up it was of a similar nature, my sister lost 600.00 by trusting someone who had excellent feedbak and i for one am glad if anyone can steer me clear of it happening to me, i`m sure no offence is meant from anyone here just help and advice given as were all in the same boat  .
just my opinion, hope you enjoy the forum, take care 

[diagonhp]

Hi Diagonhp,
Welcome to the forum i`m sure you`ll love it hear  .
Not really sure what your last message meant as all i did was say thanks for the information which i for one am very glad of and i think its a very nice gesture for people to make newbies like myself aware of things happening in the card collecting world.
I understand what you mean by giving people a chance but it doesnt harm to be informed of a seller that looks slightly suspicious. If you read the first post i put up it was of a similar nature, my sister lost 600.00 by trusting someone who had excellent feedbak and i for one am glad if anyone can steer me clear of it happening to me, i`m sure no offence is meant from anyone here just help and advice given as were all in the same boat  .
just my opinion, hope you enjoy the forum, take care 

hi sue

i know what your saying,

its noce to be informed

but why is nienna singling out just one seller this to me is unfair

fair enough give advise to others but dont single out one person just because of the way they write their auctions

have you ever thought that you are damaging this sellers reputation

and assuming that they may or may not be dishonest

concidering the fact that this may be the sellers only form of income

[sue]

Hi,
Yes i do see what you mean but i`m sure nienna wasnt singling this particular seller out. I think it was just noticed that this seller was putting up a picture of a full new box and not stating clearly if at all that the actual item they were selling was different than the picture shown. I will admit i thought from the picture and description it was a new factory sealed box so i`m glad nienna put up this post. Also the seller was ending the listing constantly then relisting. Whilst that is up to them surely you can see how it does look suspicious. I did notice this myself and i also noticed they wouldnt sell a card for 99pence and then relisted it and the bids are now high, maybe also suggesting someone is maybe dare i say it helping them get up their prices. I am sure if other sellers do this and are noticed by people on here then i`ve no doubt we would let each other know, i think thats the whole point in a community, we should be glad nienna told us and i would like to think if she saw someone else she was suspicious of she`d keep on telling us.
i`m not sure if you are new to card collecting but i am and i find this kind of help invaluble to me, its a bad world out there and i think its important to be aware of something we think maybe of help to others. 
I think its nice  that you think this seller only has this form of income and has just made a mistake on the listing but i do also say how can you be sure, and you must admit if they rely on this income only then surely they must make sure they dont mislead people on their listings.
As you mention singling out i`m taking it you know of plenty of other people youre suspicious of, please let us know as it would be a great help. 

[diagonhp]

Hi,
Yes i do see what you mean but i`m sure nienna wasnt singling this particular seller out. I think it was just noticed that this seller was putting up a picture of a full new box and not stating clearly if at all that the actual item they were selling was different than the picture shown. I will admit i thought from the picture and description it was a new factory sealed box so i`m glad nienna put up this post. Also the seller was ending the listing constantly then relisting. Whilst that is up to them surely you can see how it does look suspicious. I did notice this myself and i also noticed they wouldnt sell a card for 99pence and then relisted it and the bids are now high, maybe also suggesting someone is maybe dare i say it helping them get up their prices. I am sure if other sellers do this and are noticed by people on here then i`ve no doubt we would let each other know, i think thats the whole point in a community, we should be glad nienna told us and i would like to think if she saw someone else she was suspicious of she`d keep on telling us.
i`m not sure if you are new to card collecting but i am and i find this kind of help invaluble to me, its a bad world out there and i think its important to be aware of something we think maybe of help to others. 
I think its nice  that you think this seller only has this form of income and has just made a mistake on the listing but i do also say how can you be sure, and you must admit if they rely on this income only then surely they must make sure they dont mislead people on their listings.
As you mention singling out i`m taking it you know of plenty of other people youre suspicious of, please let us know as it would be a great help. 

do you realise how bad a reputation you are giving  this seller
and might be reading to much into it

i actually said im my last post this (Might) be the sellers only form of income

and nienna  (has) singled out this person because its the only person nienna has mentioned that i have seen

and to me

that affects the sellers reputation they are obviously a

(genuine seller otherwise they would not of gave a honest answer to stoney)

Now your assuming that the seller might be bidding on there own stuff

i am new to collecting also
 
but i have read on here that certain collectors like to keep there identity private especially for high value cards and private auctions are also to stop other sellers poaching there bidders
but that is also why ebay have a new facility to stop other members poaching bidder

[ferdinand_the_yak]

This forum has been around for a long time and in that time many "dodgy" or questionable auctions have been brought up. There has been no "singling out" of any particular seller, this latest auction is just one in a long line of many we have discussed. If you care to look through the rest of the forum, you can see some of them.

[sue]

I also said "its nice you THINK" so i was well aware you only said "might", just thought i`d clear that up.  
i`ll be honest i dont understand were your reasoning is coming from over this   . You seem conviniced this seller is innocent in everyway but yet you seem to ignore the facts of their listings being wrong and misleading and also the fact that Nienna is trying to HELP people like me and you who are new to this. You should listen to what is being said as this HELP is coming from an expert who knows when someone is a "dodgy" dealer, for want of a better word.
Also i really dont understand why this is singling out a person, does that mean when i put up my post and named the dealer who sold a fake card i was singling them out. Does that mean if nienna sees someone else and tells us that theyre singled out too  
i`m not assuming the seller is bidding on their own stuff i maybe dared to suggest that because of their suspicious activity that it could be a possiblity. And if theyre not prepared to sell a card for 99p then they shouldnt list it as that, why would you defend someone so much who did that?
I really dont understand why youre defending this person when its plain for everyone to see theyre listings look  suspicious even i can see that, in fact you talk about damaging a reputation well if people didnt inform us of these things then there would be alot of people out of pocket for alot of money, would you rather that happened?.
It`s nice to get different opinions and discuss things but i really cant understand why you defend a seller so strongly when an expert trys to help you by telling you to beware, then you admit that your new to card collecting?

[diagonhp]

This forum has been around for a long time and in that time many "dodgy" or questionable auctions have been brought up. There has been no "singling out" of any particular seller, this latest auction is just one in a long line of many we have discussed. If you care to look through the rest of the forum, you can see some of them.

ok thats fine

but why would you name names
is that not unfair though

although discribing a thread name as dodgy and then  posting someones ebay name that gives them a bad reputation

when they might just be genuine

i am just giving my opinion of what i think

thats all

[diagonhp]

HI sue

no you are fair to say that the auction does not look right and im not defending as such just giving an opinion thats all

im not saying i agree with what the auctions said

it should have been put down on there

but if i was to sell a box  of cards and say the packs are sealed but the box is not would i still get a good price

especially if i dont know how to check for good cards not that i would check for good cards

people would then think i have took the good ones and then sold the boxes on for more money without any valuable cards inside


thats all was thinking really


im not trying to argue with anyone just thought people might want know what i think 

[ferdinand_the_yak]

It would be hard for Nienna to say - there's an auction for a GOF box that looks dodgy BUT I'm not going to tell you who the seller is. What would be the point?

To address your earlier comment about pack searching - I would NEVER buy a box where the seller says "oh I opened one pack randomly and decided to sell the rest of the packs. 99.9% of the time they have cherry picked the prop/costume card. With the exception of one or two reputable sellers I have dealt with, I'll not even buy loose boxes anymore, given the prevalence of case clusters. People who buy these cherry picked boxes are generally new to the hobby and don't know too much about these practices which is why we give our members a heads up when we see it occuring.

What I think is unfair is the seller neglecting to mention that they are selling an unsealed box (how else can you get 23 packs in a box?). If you ask me, THAT is unfair. And of course you (or anyone) would not get as high a price if they stated outright that they were selling sealed packs. Which may be why this seller conveniently neglected to mention this in their auction.

It seems that you know this seller so if you would like to direct him/her to this forum to explain why they have listed these auctions several times they can perhaps explain their actions.

[sue]

HI sue

no you are fair to say that the auction does not look right and im not defending as such just giving an opinion thats all

im not saying i agree with what the auctions said

it should have been put down on there

but if i was to sell a box  of cards and say the packs are sealed but the box is not would i still get a good price

especially if i dont know how to check for good cards not that i would check for good cards

people would then think i have took the good ones and then sold the boxes on for more money without any valuable cards inside


thats all was thinking really


im not trying to argue with anyone just thought people might want know what i think 

Hi,
its good to have different opinions and to discuss things, thats what helps us understand things and learn. Youre entitled to think what you think thats up to you, my opinion though would be to trust the experts on here as theyre looking out for your best interests and i just dont think Nienna deserved what you said thats all,  .
Take care, Look forward to some better chats, Sue