eBay seller tried to scam me

[ChronoTriggaFoo]

I purchased these two rare Atari games on eBay last night:

Assault by Bomb

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=8212660412&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWN%3AIT&rd=1

AND

Z-Tack also by Bomb

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=8212660652&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWN%3AIT&rd=1


Before I purchased them I asked him/her how they knew these were PAL carts, but never got a reply to that. As soon as the auction was over, I was immediately invoiced, meaning they WERE indeed online, but had ignored my question.

This morning I wake up to a message from a fellow eBayer saying that the seller had purchased in May as "dead" from a Germany auction. In that auction, the seller stated these two carts were dead and in PAL format. So this is how he knew they were PAL.

Here is the auction where the fraudulent seller bought them from:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=62053&item=8193142452

In the auctions of the fraudulent seller, it was stated that he/she did not know if the carts worked because he/she did not have a PAL system. BUT THEY HAD CLEARLY BOUGHT THEM FROM SOMEONE WHO HAD ALREADY DECLARED THEM DEAD ON THEIR PAL SYSTEM!!

They just purchased it from Germany so they could resell it here. I reported them to eBay, but I know they will not take any actions. I'm just glad someone was looking out for me on eBay. Pisses me off when they sellers try to be vague and lie about stuff. I guess I should have been tipped off by his/her screenname which includes SLY in it :/

[yok-dfa]

There was a thread about these carts at atariage.com. See http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=73674&hl=

[ChronoTriggaFoo]

I wish I had seen that prior to bidding on the carts. So far he hasn't emailed me back, which is pretty much an admittal of fault. At least he never got any money from me, otherwise this would really be an ordeal for me.

By the way, I tried to reply to that post but it would not let me. Perhaps it is because I just signed up yesterday?

[jajaja]

Bad situation. Good that you didnt pay for them. Maybe he thought the games only were dirty and that why not working. I have bought some NES game who was described as not working. After some cleaning it worked like new.

Anyways, it sux that he ignore you so there is probly something he knows and dont want to tell you.

[Griking]

His auctions are a good example of someone who used DP or Atari Ago to advertise the rarity of the items that they were selling. It was questioned in another active thread if people were doing this or not.

Nice pick up on the scam though. Glad to hear you didn't send him the money. I suggest you email eBay a link to both auctions to let them know what he's trying to pull.

[suppafly]

people like that suck....

[ChronoTriggaFoo]

Yeah, Griking, that's exactly what I did. I filed a fraud statement against him with both links, and explained to them that a kind eBayer pointed it out to me. I really have no faith in eBay that they will do anything, because they never do anything.

I once accidentally gave positive feedback to someone that was a non-paying bidder. I had been doing copy and paste down the feedback statement fields, which had been all the same buyer, and accidentally gave one to someone who deserved a negative. In my statement, however, I clearly mentioned thanks for buying my books, when he had purchased a video game from me. I pointed this out to eBay when I contacted them to see if they would retract the accidental positive. I even gave them the item numbers where the positive feedback should have been left and WERE left at.

I had read their guidelines and I qualified to have this positive retracted, down to a T. But, of course, they didn't sort through the OBVIOUS evidence. They just sent me a "one-size-fits-all" statement saying to please read their feedback withdrawal guidelines. :/ and that they would not retract the statement.

[yok-dfa]

By the way, I tried to reply to that post but it would not let me. Perhaps it is because I just signed up yesterday?

The boardsoftware at AA works a little different from here. The 'quote' button there ony toggles quoting the original post on or off in your reply. Press the reply button to actually post a reply.

Slightly more on-topic: I think the seller knew that the carts were dead. First of all, they were being sold as dead carts to him. Secondly, even PAL games can be tested on a NTSC system. The screen might roll, but you can still make out if it's random garbage or the game. Also, the very short auction time (this relist was 3 days, the previous auctions were only 1 day) don't really leave much time for asking questions...