Monday, January 14, 2019

Question Day- Ripped Off?


Today is question day:

Have you ever been burned on a purchase?

I have never had any major situations where I was scammed, partially because I am a skinflint and keep my purchases reasonable, but I have had two cases that cost me about $20 between them.

Many years ago I purchased a 1989 Score Troy Aikman rookie card. I couple of years later I purchased a 1989 Score Deion Sanders rookie card and when I compared the two the Aikman was an obvious counterfeit. Now you are probably wondering why someone would fake a $5-8 card, it is because at one time this was a card that would regularly sell over $50 and so I am guessing this card had been floating around since the days of those higher values. 

The second would be a 1933 Sport Kings Duke Kahanamoku. It was part of a collection of vintage cards that I picked up as one lot. The card got packed away because I was getting ready to move and by the time I got a closer look and realized it was a bad counterfeit many months had passed, and I was well past the time to get a refund. Since it was part of a larger lot I don’t feel like I got ripped off, just a lesson learned. I had talked about this one back in 2016 after I realized the card was fake. 

4 comments:

  1. Yup. Once or twice. A few times I was 'burned' in the sense that I didn't read the description as well as I should have. The only time I really felt 'ripped off' was on a Maris rookie for my '58 build. The seller had almost no feedback but was selling some key cards. That should have been my tip-off. But I was anxious to knock the card off my list at what seemed a great price. In hand it just seemed 'off' and a dealer said it appeared to be artificially aged. Just a reprint. Luckily I hadn't overpaid for it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes. In 2003 or 2004 I bought what was described- and priced as- a complete set of 1996-97 Topps Chrome NBA. The seller kept all the rookie cards, and would not refund any of the money. The forum it occurred on banned him but it didn't do me much good.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yeah, and I'm about to get OLD on everyone. Way, way back in the day, before ebay, before the internet, I ordered a binder with cards in it, I don't even remember exactly what it was, but it was in 1979, it had Don Baylor in the picture, and it was an ad in Baseball Digest. I clipped out the tiny order form and mailed it off and waited my 6-to-8 weeks. Never came and there was no recourse. People think ebay is shady, stuff like that happened all the time. And I still remember it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Been asked this question a few times... and I can't really think of an eBay situation. But I have been scammed in trades before. The main one that comes to mind involves a fake Upper Deck Heroes Hank Aaron autograph. Crappy part was I didn't realize it was fake until way too late. I can't even tell you when or where I made the trade or even what I had to give up. But I'm sure it was for a crap ton of stuff.

    ReplyDelete