BeatleBlueCat DEFRAUDING BUYERS with Massive SHILL BIDDING and Same old "Buy CGC graded 7.5, crack and sell as raw "NM" scam 10 10

[evilskip]

Oh $#!t! I thought this seller's name was familiar. I just bought something from him last week. It is under $20, so I'm not going to worry too much about it.

[LOC Collectibles]

26 minutes ago, D2 said:

Accidentally/scammed with bought restored or knew you were buying a restored?

 

by your second half of your message, it sounds like a total scam. I am sorry if that’s the case. I’d be out for blood if that happened to me 

He never mentioned the color touch in the listing. I ended up getting the book graded and came back a purple label. I had to jump through hoops for him to get me a refund on it.

[WPPJames]

2 hours ago, www.alexgross.com said:

everyone just repeat after me: don't buy raw books on feebay, don't buy raw books on feebay, don't buy raw books on feebay.

Where would you suggest people buy raw books? You can go to major retailers like MCS, but often they won't have what you want in stock and/or in the grade you are after. And almost always more expensive. Nothing wrong with buying raw on Ebay. You just have to do your own diligence, be willing to accept some risk and expect to occasionally not be happy with what you get. I haven't purchased (or sold) nearly the amount of books on Ebay as most of you, but of the say 200 or so I bought there I've only had an issue with two having defects not shown and/or detailed in the listing. That's because I pay zero attention to what the sellers grade their own books at. I look at the photos and make my own determination and bid accordingly. As long as I receive what's shown in the scans and described in the listing I'm perfectly happy. Even if the book were to grade lesser than the stated grade at a later time.

Not to mention, some people just don't like slabbed comics. And many, if not most, of the comics sold on Ebay aren't valuable enough to pay to get slabbed.

[James J Johnson]

5 hours ago, sledgehammer said:

Hard to believe no auction winners have busted him on this.

 

I didn't even get a chance to address the shilling. You guys have this part of the tangled web of flimflam covered I see. 

[BlowUpTheMoon]

Has anyone invited him to this thread? 

[James J Johnson]

6 hours ago, sledgehammer said:

I didn't. Thanks for posting that.

I wouldn't have wasted my time trying to defend him, if someone had done that much sooner

I wouldn't buy a raw comic called "NM" on ebay in a million years.

Look at the history on ebay.

An Avengers 18 CGC 9.0 sells for $167, and shill bidders drive up his garbage "NM" to $350?

Pitiful.

This Avengers 18 was bought as a CGC 7.5. 

[Ride the Tiger]

Nope. He told me a few times to f off so my opportunity is probably gone.

[James J Johnson]

5 hours ago, sledgehammer said:

I'll be amazed to hear that he can get away with this much shill bidding.

Of course, since Ebay is a joke now....

All different info. Paypal, email, member name and address, etc. Ebay doesn't have a clue because nothing matches. No spikes to their screening thus no impediment to their shilling since as far as they can see it's a completely different entity bidding in his auctions. Although if they were policing their platform, anyone with half a brain and their member files should see it immediately just based on the bidding profile alone. 

[James J Johnson]

6 hours ago, october said:

Good catch. Add blatant shilling to the list. 

What a gem. A real credit to the hobby. 

It is a great catch and great team effort. Picking up the ball when I set it down to look elsewhere. Teamwork!  

[James J Johnson]

4 hours ago, Bighaley21 said:

I bought a restored Hulk 181 from this seller years ago from ebay. No mention of the color touch and the photo conveniently didnt show the one small area on the interior.

Yes, I haven't even gotten to the purple label slab cracking yet. But that is also an integral element of his dealings. 

[James J Johnson]

4 hours ago, Conali said:

and it came back universal 7.5.  So at a minimum, in my case at least, he over graded by 1.5 points.  

Count your blessings. 1.5 over is a miracle from this seller based on all looked at so far, and again, I'm about 10 pebbles cleared into moving a mountain. 

[James J Johnson]

2 hours ago, Tedsaid said:

There are scammers out there, but it actually helps a surprising amount, to find one and drill down and push back on the scams.  It seems hopeless, but with persistent effort, even just a small amount, it makes a real difference.

Let me give an example in another domain.  I collect Lego sets, as well as comics, and sometimes I sell them on eBay, too.  I had a couple sets that I wanted to sell, three or four copies of each, all hard to find in the US.  But with Lego, there are a LOT of posts with fake Lego sets.  A lot of websites, too.  Some companies, especially in Asia, manufacture fake Lego bricks and copy expensive sets exactly, offering them for sale for about 1/3 the price (hundreds of dollars cheaper).

Some of these sellers on eBay are more honest - stating up front that their wares are "Lego-compatible" instead of true Lego.  Others are much less honest, even using pictures of Lego in their scams.  FYI, the patent on Lego bricks has expired, so making "fake" Lego is actually legal.  What is NOT legal is advertising them on eBay to make them look like Lego; or using Lego pictures; or even copying Lego designs and sets, which are new copyrights/patents.  Also, many sets - like Harry Potter or Star Wars - are not licensed to the fake-brick companies, so it is illegal twice over.

Anyway, these fake sets were making it hard for me to sell the real ones.  So, I spent a couple days reporting every instance I saw, for the fly-by-night sellers and their ads.  I didn't think it would help, in the sea of fake Lego on eBay, but I tried it anyway.

And it worked!  Within a week I noticed most, if not all, of the fake sets advertised for the two sets I concentrated on were gone.  And they stayed gone!  Weeks later I looked again, thinking they would re-appear, and they had not.  In fact, I just looked again now, months later, and the fake sellers are still gone.  (They still come up on Google searches, and they advertise on Facebook, but that's another problem.  On eBay, they are gone.)

So it does help, even if it sometimes seems hopeless, and that these scam artists have endless resources.  They don't.  It REALLY cuts into their bottom line to get called out, found out, reported to eBay, etc.  The bad sellers just slowly lose buyers, and slowly see their auctions with fewer and fewer bidders.  And returns increase, and patterns emerge.  eBay notes these patterns, too, and they will act when enough evidence accumulates. 

One doesn't know what will tip the scales, but the scales will tip eventually.  And doesn't it feel good, knowing that people like Beatlebluecat have to work harder and harder to pull the same old scams?

Every hobby has fimflam. Fortunately CGC does not aid and abet it, as some grading services in other hobbies that are in league with the scammers. BBC and his ilk, are little children as far as the level of fraud that exists in the sportscard and sports memorabilia hobbies. BBC and his ilk are the little league compared to a major league all-star team. Not coins, not comics, not autographs, etc., etc.; Sportscards and sports Memorabilia is where you have to look if you want to see not baby sharks, but Megalodons circling in the water. 

[James J Johnson]

2 hours ago, manetteska said:

The OP found a seller (actually a few at this point) knowingly scamming comic buyers on eBay. Sellers like this not only take away sales from reputable sellers but also bring the hobby down as (some) buyers will figure it out and feel fleeced (and may limit their comic spending and/or interest). 

No one can catch them all but does that mean they shouldn’t be called out and potential buyers made aware? I don’t get your “not understanding” position on this. Not only are grades inflated but images are being altered. 

This is why ComicLink's auctions have grown to 250 pages worth of material, as ebay fades to black. 

[James J Johnson]

3 hours ago, comicginger1789 said:

I think @shadrochis forgetting the most damning evidence is photo shopping images.

 

I like Shad. He's entitled to his opinion, different from mine or not. And I respect it. But faced with this so far, and more to come, perhaps he'll change his mind. And if not, he's still a fellow former member, thus brother. 

[WPPJames]

17 minutes ago, James J Johnson said:

Yes, I haven't even gotten to the purple label slab cracking yet. But that is also an integral element of his dealings. 

You are good at this and relentless. If I ever accidentally p*ss you off James, please give me the opportunity to make it right ASAP 😀

We have neighbors who's trash keeps finding its way into our yard and shrubbery 😡 Can I hire to you to somehow go after them? Or do you only work your magic within the comic industry.

Edited December 19, 2020 by WPPJames

[James J Johnson]

35 minutes ago, BlowUpTheMoon said:

Has anyone invited him to this thread? 

The entire reason for this thread is only because he regretfully, I'll wager, decided to involve himself on the forum (JustinL). I think we have a better chance of seeing the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse descend upon us than to see him pony up another try. 

[Ride the Tiger]

So was Justin the beatlebluecat? 

[James J Johnson]

 

8 minutes ago, Ride the Tiger said:

So was Justin the beatlebluecat? 

He has one post in the Polished_Gem thread. He took an interest in that because they share a common flimflam. So his stating that he know nothing about this crack and overgrade scam was pure BS. Then, the three posts he made in a thread defending BBC, "I bought 30 books without an issue", "His 9.2s graded 9.6s for me", he deleted! 

So you tell me. Is JustinL BeatleBlueCat?  And what are the chances that it's not? 

if BBC doesn't have the PeptoBismol right near him yet, he sure will once his buyers and potential buyers run across this thread. 

 

Edited December 19, 2020 by James J Johnson

[alexgross.com]

1 hour ago, WPPJames said:

Where would you suggest people buy raw books? You can go to major retailers like MCS, but often they won't have what you want in stock and/or in the grade you are after. And almost always more expensive. Nothing wrong with buying raw on Ebay. You just have to do your own diligence, be willing to accept some risk and expect to occasionally not be happy with what you get. I haven't purchased (or sold) nearly the amount of books on Ebay as most of you, but of the say 200 or so I bought there I've only had an issue with two having defects not shown and/or detailed in the listing. That's because I pay zero attention to what the sellers grade their own books at. I look at the photos and make my own determination and bid accordingly. As long as I receive what's shown in the scans and described in the listing I'm perfectly happy. Even if the book were to grade lesser than the stated grade at a later time.

Not to mention, some people just don't like slabbed comics. And many, if not most, of the comics sold on Ebay aren't valuable enough to pay to get slabbed.

crack em out if you dont like slabs. i have done that several times this year via feebay. cracked out a surfer 1, surfer 4, asm300. but i know exactly what i paid for. 

i only buy raw books from sellers i trust, like some on the boards with lengthy kudos, and others that i have bought from before. as you have all seen from this thread, and many others, just way too much BS online to trust what you think you're buying. unless it's like a six dollar book or something. 

[kav]

5 minutes ago, www.alexgross.com said:

crack em out if you dont like slabs. i have done that several times this year via feebay. cracked out a surfer 1, surfer 4, asm300. but i know exactly what i paid for. 

i only buy raw books from sellers i trust, like some on the boards with lengthy kudos, and others that i have bought from before. as you have all seen from this thread, and many others, just way too much BS online to trust what you think you're buying. unless it's like a six dollar book or something. 

For high dollar books raw is risky-why would someone have a raw Hulk 181 for example?  It rasies red flags.  For $10-$30 books like kirby thor or strange adv raw is perfectly fine.