Beware of dishonest sellers...

[the-topdog]

I don't know if this is the right board for this, but I just want people to keep their eyes out for dishonest eBay sellers like the guy I just bought an Entex Raise the Devil Pinball from
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320469679012.
[Archived: 320469679012 ]

After the auction I started looking at his feedback just out of curiosity, then I found that he listed this item before
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320436071103
[Archived: 320436071103 ]
and it was won by our own "Gameinhand" or "momandboysshop" if you will, for $14.50.

The guy didn't want to sell it for such a low price so he told momandboysshop that it was stolen. Then he held onto it for a couple months then relisted with a big reserve price.

I felt bad because momandboysshop should have got it so I asked the guy if it was the same unit and he lied by saying "No sir,i just recently picked this one up from a private collector" and "the one you are getting is actualy better than the previous ones".

How do I know he is lying? Check out the pictures of the box in both auctions... Look closely at dirty tape outline near the entex logo on the lower right box flap... identical.



I have been scammed and cheated alot lateley so I know how momandboysshop feels when something like this happens. So in my opinoin, this eBay-er is just someone to stay away from. I wasn't sure if I should post his ebay ID here or not.

That being said, just how cool is retro gaming?

[Rik]

Well, you posted links to his auctions, so we can all see that his eBay ID is dragonslair70. I would have written back and asked him why the pictures were of the same game if he says it's a different, just to give him sh*t.

I see he got a negative for that previous sale too... I hope it was worth it for him...

That's just one more reason why I NEVER bid on reserve auctions. If you can't just list it for the amount of money you want, just keep it... Some people will list things with really high reserves just to see what it's worth, crap like that... So I never bother with them (well, maybe if it's something ridiculously rare I'd make an exception, but it hasn't happened yet in 12 years of using eBay...

Sorry to hear about that Rich (if you read this)... Guy sounds like a real scumbag.

Rik

[Gameinhand]

Rik,

the-topdog who alerted the forum to this dishonest seller was nice enough to contact me and offered to sell the Entex Raise the Devil to me since he saw what happened previously. I passed on the offer but the-topdog is first class all the way in my book for asking.

As soon as I paid for the auction, minutes later, the refund came with the lie explanation. He swore that his wife sold the game just a few hours ago at some kind of yard sale. My question was, if that's true, why didn't you close the auction when there were no bidders? You had plenty of time to do this. His answer, he forgot. Yeah, right. Isn't it amazing that he forgot to close it but was there at the end when the auction closed to refund my payment.

Fortunately, I would say there are 99%+ honest EBAYER's both buyers and sellers and that's why its so successful. Its unfortunate when one of us good guys come across one of the bad ones. Hopefully not to often.
By the way, EBAY is aware of this guy since he did a few other shady things with the auction I initially won. So I would avoid him at all costs.

Anyway, to the-topdog, welcome to the forum and handheld and tabletop game collecting. As you can see, Rik's forum is the BEST retro gaming forum anywhere, and so is his regular site as well. Good place to learn what's happening in the retro gaming marketplace.

Rich

[the-topdog]

Another guy to watch out for is a collector in Oregon... don't know if I should post his name but his initials are V T. He tried to sell me a fake Mattel Flash Gordon and a fake Black Knight in a real Black Knight box. But luckily Rik stepped in and saved me almost $2000.

I'm finding that it is safer to deal in the circles of well known and reputable sellers than with unknown private collectors.

[Dan]

What? A fake BK in a real box? Where did the box come from with no game?

Just curious since I have the only boxed one known... unless Rik wound up with that box!

[Rik]

Yeah, I'm not sure about the story on the box... But he took a normal Raise the Devil, spray painted it black, and printed out the 'Black Knight' label on his computer. I guess from the website image you can't tell that the label is actually metal... Although it did appear to have a real, silk-screened playfield... Maybe he really did have a trashed Black Knight, and tried to 'clean it up' by replacing the body with a painted Raise the Devil... I could almost let that slide a little if it wasn't for the scam he tried with the Flash Gordon game...

For the Flash Gordon he said he had, he took the picture from my website (scan from a Mattel catalog), slightly modified the image of the logo and artwork, and pasted that on an image of the Battlestar Galactica game (so the game body was still black). The funny thing was, he used one of the artist rendering images of Battlestar to do this with... So he basically sent a picture of a painting to prove he had the game...

I'm kind of surprised that there's people out there trying to counterfeit handheld games, but I guess if anything is perceived as being worth money, people will try it...

Rik

[the-topdog]

After inspecting the Black Knight before I sent it back to the guy the box was professionally printed and die cut and showed age and wear similar to other Entex items I own.

http://www.geekvintage.com/images/misc/entex-black-knight-front.jpg

http://www.geekvintage.com/images/misc/entex-black-knight-back.jpg

...and the unit was spray painted black. The inside of the battery compartment was white and showed signs of black overspray. The Black Knight logo on the front of the unit was a sticker, not molded into the plastic and silver like it should have been. Yet the playfield was properly silkscreend and aged.

This combination of authentic and fake along with the box, lead me to believe that Rik is right and the guy had a damaged or broken Black Knight so he cannibalized a Raise the Devil to fake a complete unit.

I did not get to see the Flash Gordon personally, I only have the pictures he forwarded to me for "proof of life".

http://www.geekvintage.com/images/misc/mattel-flash-gordon-front.jpg

http://www.geekvintage.com/images/misc/mattel-flash-gordon-back.jpg

It is people like that that make me scared to make trades or purchases sight unseen. So if you get contacted by a V.T. in Oregon I suggest you run... run far away. I'm just glad I thought to consult a collector like Rik before completing the deal. I'm positive I would have wound up with the Flash Gordon but would have probably passed on the Black Knight because of the spray paint evidence.

[Dan]

Innnnteresting.

I'm still trying to gauge the value of my BK; topdog, what were you about to pay for that one, if I may ask?

By the way, I know how lucky I was to find mine, and when I say it's the only boxed one known, all I mean is no one else has ever said they had one here on Rik's forum, and none have been on eBay since I got mine. I can imagine there are several lurking collectors who roll their eyes every time I bring it up!

[the-topdog]

His starting price was $1200, but that was too steep. He accepted my offer of $750 as long as he shipped it first so I could inspect it.