Story Time with Rckclimber
General forum
Posted on March 31, 2012, 5:44 p.m. by rckclimber777
Alright everyone its story time.
So today ended a long ordeal that I had after purchasing cards off of ebay. Back on Feb. 10th I was bidding on playsets of Sword of War and Peace, trying of course to turn a profit noticing that they were rising in price and FAST. So I placed a bid of $100 on a playset. Unfortunately, I was outbid by $20. It was a longshot, I knew since the cards were on their way towards $40 a card at this point, so I didn't think much of it. Then I got a second chance offer from them for my bid price. They offered me the 4x Sword of War and Peace at $100. I thought all of 2 seconds about it before running to paypal to pay for my newly acquired playset. I was ecstatic. I knew that I wanted to sell a couple of them and I already had two copies, so I put them on immediately as I wasn't using them and figured that the cards I purchased would take a while to get to me as they were being shipped from China. They sold within 3 days for about 35-37 a piece. Not bad and well on my way to turn turning a profit.
The cards actually arrived about 2 weeks later. I was impressed with how fast the shipping was and was even more surprised to see a Chalice of the Void mixed in with the 4 copies of Sword of War and Peace. I immediately went to sell two more when I pulled one out of the top loader they came in, it felt different. It felt glossy. As I looked at the card further I began to feel that the card was also a little faded. I was immediately concerned that I had gotten ripped off. I looked on the wizards site to determine whether or not they had tests to tell whether or not a card is fake. I tried quite a few of them. The famous bend trick was inconclusive and I was faced with the tear test. Which requires you to tear the card in two and determine if there is a black or blue line one the halves of the card where the tear is. Looking at the cards and sadly at the Chalice of the Void, I knew what I had to do. This also was inconclusive. So I emailed the Wizards customer service to see if there was any other way I could find out. They said that if I sent them the card they could verify it, but other than that there was no sure way to tell. So I went ahead and packaged one and sent it off with a note describing the case.
Meanwhile, I had emailed the seller who said that he had obtained the cards from a wholesale distributor in southern asia and would be happy to refund me if I sent the cards back to him. I told him that I was working with Wizards to verify it, but that I was pretty sure they were fake. What can I say, I was a little concerned at being ripped off.
A couple weeks went by and I hadn't heard from Wizards. If you're familiar with Ebay, you know that you have a certain window that a purchase is covered by protection. I wasn't sure how much longer I had before that protection expired. So I sent another email to customer service trying to find out what had happened. They said that they hadn't received it yet, but that as soon as they did they would let me know. Well within the week, I got a package from wizards of the coast with a note inside saying, "we're sorry about your defective product here is a replacement, I have enclosed a gift for your patience in this matter." Inside was TWO copies of Sword of War and Peace along with a pack of Mirrodin Besieged. Ok not bad, but I needed clarification on the term "defective". So I emailed them again trying to figure out if the cards were fake or not. They said that they couldn't tell if it was or not, but that had been damaged and so they sent replacements. They again said they'd be happy to verify the remaining three.
So for those of you keeping track at home thats 2 verified Swords, 3 unverified, and a pack of mirrodin besieged (phyrexian revoker rare)
So only thing I could do was send the three out knowing that if I was going to get my money back I was going to have to verify that these were indeed fake.
Now I was definitely running out of time on the Ebay protection policy. Even got the notification saying start a case by such and such date. Well the day before that date I went ahead and filed a case with the details described above. This gave me another month before the case would close. Fortunately this time, I heard from Wizards much faster, only a week and a half to get a response. The same note was placed in the package this time as was before, however this time I was sent 3 copies of Sword of War and Peace and TWO packs of Mirrodin Besieged. I then opened the first pack of cards and slowly looked at the rare which turned out to be Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas . Not to mention the Go for the Throat uncommon. AWESOME. Second pack I open. Slowly look at the rare: Slagstorm SWEET! So after all of this I ended up with FIVE COPIES of Sword of War and Peace, 1 copy of Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas , 1 copy of Slagstorm, and 1 copy of Phyrexian Revoker and no idea whether or not the original 4 copies of the card are fake or not. I have since closed the case feeling satisfied with everything that had transpired. Morals of the story: Be careful when purchasing cards on ebay, but don't panic if you suspect that they are fake, just talk to Wizards about it and work with Ebay. Also that Wizards of the Coast Customer Service is AWESOME!
Omg man.. Lol.
TLDR for the moment.. Will lead later, but, I did fart.
March 31, 2012 7:33 p.m.
rckclimber777 says... #4
Yea sorry it did kind of go on for a while.
lol @MasterFlinter
March 31, 2012 9:05 p.m.
Ok, I read your post. I've never known Wizards was so cool.. Good to know, thanks. I've bought cards off trollandtoad.com numerous times and swear by it. Highly recommend them for buying singles or whatever.. I'm going to keep this short and sweet. You've traded with me before, on this site. From what I gather, no one really has a problem with anyone in regards to trading on this site. Stick with that.. It's safe, and consistant.
March 31, 2012 9:05 p.m.
rckclimber777 says... #6
Thanks. I still think I'm gonna stick with Ebay. The cards are typically cheaper there and I normally purchase only from those who have impressive feedback scores.
March 31, 2012 9:08 p.m.
Trust me.. I've tried to turn a profit box mapping. It doesn't work. 40+ experiences of box of mapping.. It just isn't worth it. The hobby it self is the best part. If you ever wanna have a card, I can get it for you for a resonably awesome trade in the future. I buy high demand singles in bulk.
March 31, 2012 9:26 p.m.
rckclimber777 says... #8
? I'm not sure what box mapping has to do with it. I'm talking about picking up singles from ebay and then selling when they go up. I've turned quite a few cards for profit actually. You just have to know when to pick up singles. My collection has pretty much grown from picking up singles before they shoot up in price, then sell them or trade them.
March 31, 2012 10:04 p.m.
UmbrotheUmbreon says... #9
Damn! That was sure a bad start but a sweetly done finish :)
April 1, 2012 12:26 a.m.
aeonstoremyliver says... #10
Nice!!! I like Star City Games. I'm leery of Ebay. Also leery about buying musical instruments. A friend of mine ordered a handmade drum from Australia for $200. It arrived in pieces...lol.
April 1, 2012 4:49 a.m.
rckclimber777 says... #12
ouch aeonstoremyliver thats not fun. I've actually had very little trouble with Ebay. Even times where the item wasn't as described or didn't arrive or whatever Ebay has always come through and just refunded me. In this case, they would have refunded it entirely as well. I used to be leery myself but I have yet to actually lose out on anything on Ebay. It is my preferred method as I can typically get everything cheaper. I'm willing to deal with a little frustration every so often to get decent deals on great cards.
April 1, 2012 12:34 p.m.
Wizard of the Damned says... #13
EBay frustrates me when I try to sell. Other than That, its a great place to buy cards and I has the best deals
MasterFlinter says... #2
Perhaps you should become an investment banker
March 31, 2012 7:21 p.m.