I’ll admit that when I first got back in the game after a 35-year hiatus, I probably spent $2,500 on cards without even knowing their raw value, let alone understanding the entire back and forth of negotiation or how auctions even worked. At least, for me, I got Ohtani and Arch Manning, both of which held most of their value, Ohtani, in fact, quadrupling in value. Dumb luck.
Now that I’m an avid buyer and seller and understand this new world much better, I am always on the lookout for sellers pricing $30 cards raw for $750 all because the card looks cool and has Arch Manning’s name on it. That very well could’ve been me—although I’m fairly certain I’d had utilized Google before spending that kind of money on two $30 cards.
That said, when scammers like that, ones who are hoping some rube with money as no object will happen upon their cards and buy them, once these customers learn of their embarrassing mistakes they’re likely not to return as they’ll lose all trust in eBay. While this seller tried to argue “the most vague points of Adam Smith and capitalism”—heavy on the quotation marks and the irony as his argument was simply based on “the people will pay what something is worth theory,” which, in other words, means that if some poor, clueless noob/rube falls prey to this scammer first before seeing other seller’s prices at -3,000% less, then we lose credibility, future business, and garner a low-budget reputation.
To top it all off, the scammer blames me for selling at a much lower, going rate price—that because I’m being fair and being a responsible capitalist I’m somehow screwing it up for people who are only here to catch scam or two or as many as they can until somehow stops them. I know eBay might not have a dog in its own fight, ironically, because sellers have the right to charge whatever they please, but when we all know that it’s not at all about supply and demand but about catching prey in a web of deceit, that hurts us all.
Avoid [Removed by moderator]…no!
