Take this auction for example:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/15000-Magic-the-Gathering-Deckmaster-Collection-storage-unit-huge-lot-/150981084456?pt=Trading_Card_Games_US&hash=item23272c8528

Seems reasonable enough, the piles and boxes look like something that someone who played would have had, and the sleeved cards are appropriate. We can see that there are duals, so one must suspect that there are other great / valuable Legacy cards in here. The binder page showing also has some hot cards from when they were in T2, so there must be more. Finally, the random stacks of cards have an Ivory Tower, an Animate Dead, and a (rare!) Verduran Enchantress, making me want to see more!

Now obviously, we all trade on MOTL, so most of us keep up with the game and know the tricks of the trade. You know where this is going... the obvious way to sniff out that this auction is not legit is to check the seller's feedback for other sales / purchases of Magic cards.
He claims to know nothing about the game, but clearly made a couple of purchases from Magic dealers on ebay in the past, so his claiming ignorance of the game is a lie. Now, this doesn't mean that the collection isn't worth a ton of money, or even more than it's currently at, but I don't think ANYONE actually believes that this is a true 'unpicked' storage unit lot. For that matter, I don't think that any storage unit lots are legit, its just a buzzword to waive knowledge of your scam.

All that said, while the seller's ethics might come in question, I don't think he's doing anything against ebay rules.

The purpose of this post is two-fold:
1. For the (probably not many) MOTLers that don't understand what this seller is doing, just be aware to check feedback when considering buying an ebay "storage unit find' or 'ex-husband's' collection that the seller 'knows nothing' about.
2. Is there ANY way for a visitor of a sales page like this to make an inquiry toward the seller that is viewable to others on the legitimacy of their claim?

It is more like misleading. You know, like those bankers who will "guarantee your investment capital and return" and next moment, you realised that your money is actually in some risky CDO that is 10% of its original value!

Have noticed the same thing since I returned to buying and selling cards.

I always check their feedback and other items for sale to try and get a clear view of what they really know.

Next you'll have people making a secondary account through their spouse or something to make it look more legit.

It seems hard now to find good buy to flip real collections unless you have a lot of money to drop.

Ten years ago it seemed a lot easier.

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Originally posted by Volcanon:
It's all fraud. Don't buy that junk. Only Speed Demons buy that stuff and then act shocked when they get ten thousand homelands commons.

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Yeah but think of the resale value of ebony rhino's!!

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Originally posted by dputz:
Yeah but think of the resale value of ebony rhino's!!

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quote:

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Originally posted by dputz:

It seems hard now to find good buy to flip real collections unless you have a lot of money to drop.

Ten years ago it seemed a lot easier.

Maybe it's just me.

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No, that's definitely the case. The thing about the internet (and ebay in particular) is that it makes it very, very easy to find rough and ready values for your junk. You don't even have to spend much time checking. It's a common feature of everyday lives now, and our children are growing up with it. The result is a much better educated "selling population," or whatever you want to call it. Your best bet for naïve sales now is probably garage sales. It's a lot harder to trap someone IRL than it is online: your greed's the same, but your ability to check up on things is vastly improved.

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RIP Ari

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These shady auctions reminds me of an old saying - "You can't cheat an honest man."

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Originally posted by JayC:
It's all bull****. Why would Life from the Loam be mixed in with those cards? Get real.

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Originally posted by revenger:
Went to friends house, another friend of his came over with a shoebox of cards. Naturally I scammed it over for tradeables. He had a couple 5th edition rares that I noticed while looking, then low and behold, a nm Volcanic Island. I said i,d trade for this. Thrumming thru it again, pow! nm Underground SEA. THESE finds are so rare and unique, yet they appear all the time now on ebay. In the end, ur wasting time, skip em and move on.

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Did you end up trading for them? Either way, did you tell them what they were worth?

~MM

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My vote this round will be for Player X.

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Originally posted by walkerdog:
Yes. Plus the fact that he managed to somehow get several pics of chase cards, and only 2 views of tons of chaff...

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Originally posted by JayC:
Exactly. The day when all I see are pure lace and plague rats and a small snippet of an underground sea or the corner of a word of command ill velieve it.

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Originally posted by Mr.C:
I'll keep that in mind.

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quote:

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Originally posted by MeddlingMage:
Did you end up trading for them? Either way, did you tell them what they were worth?

~MM

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Of course. He didn't care about cost or value. Just wanted r/b cards to build a decent deck with. So I obliged.

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#1 Ref's for Arizona!

quote:

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Originally posted by joachimS:
If you look on his feedback he has bought cards from magic dealers for years. So I guess he's more familiar with the game than he claims.

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brapsmagic from 2002 is all you need to see here as he is one the most respected ebay sellers of MTG

he has some current cards here so the the "my son used to play" is a complete joke

When I get scrambled garbage common collections, I really have found that they are not worth my time, as I have to hire 2-3 people with a paid salary to sort out the poop, garbage, waste, and refuse with the slightest change there may be a junk rare or $2.00 uncommon inside that landfill. As a result, I pay a significant bonus if the cards are accurately sorted by both block and color, as otherwise, collections of this size take about 8-12 man hours to sort and may take over a year to sell, even when you price all regular commons // uncommons between $0.05-$0.40 each.

even if i had the money and was missing all common sense as a new player, i still would not buy it, as even new players know that most people don't want to have anything to do with your junk commons // uncommons and think it is rather annoying to see entire binder pages full of them!

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