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FRAUD ALERT: Ebay's biggest seller of 50's-60's era wax (anderson84352) is a pack counterfeiter. See
summerof68
Posts: 748 ✭
About a month ago a new ebayer (anderson84352) from Santa Barbara, Ca. suddenly appeared and began listing large amounts of rare '50'-60's era raw sports wax packs. He was listing packs like '61 fleer basketball, '52 bowman large football & '55 topps baseball. With a quick look at his packs I immediately saw red flags.
First, most of his packs had loose as opposed to factory tight corner folds. Second, all of his packs had unusually clean wrappers--free of any obvious wear marks. Third, ALL of his packs from '72 and older had shattered pieces of gum--most containing roughly eight to twelve smaller pieces. The consistent use of broken gum is a practice used by some counterfeiters to take away a buyer's ability to visually determine if the correct sized gum from a particular era is in the pack. Also early '50's topps & bowman gum was (very) large and is difficult to come by so sophisticated counterfeiters will take (2) late 70's pieces of gum and brake the sticks into many pieces to give the appearance that the correct original large stick of gum is contained in the pack.
I also noticed that this seller removes all his listings pictures a few days after each auction ends. Also when this seller first joined three months ago he was selling mainly autographs and his listings stated his location was (Santa Barbara, Ca.) Then three weeks later he started selling wax packs and just days prior to his selling wax packs he changed his item location on his listings to (U.S.A.).
And this seller demonstrated the same traits as most pack counterfeiters in that he first "tested the waters" with late '70's wax and as his confidence and greed grew he began both listing older packs and increased the frequency of listings. Another common trait was this seller never sold any vintage cellos or racks--only wax & full wax boxes!
With all these red flags I knew this seller was dirty so now I needed to determine his second ID that he was using to buy his wrappers. Coincidentally a month ago my attention was drawn to a new ebayer (kenny92008) who was bidding on every (very clean) '50's-60's era wrapper from all sports. And he was winning more wrappers than anyone. Also this was the first wrapper buyer I came across who used the (private feedback) option whereby ebay will (not) disclose any of his feedback responses nor show any items he has won in the past. This hinted that this wrapper buyer had something to hide. Also both user Id's (anderson84352) & (kenny92008) are very similar in that they began with names and end in five digits--probably zip codes.
However ebay shows (anderson84352) is located in Ca. and (kenny92008) was in MI. But I followed my instincts and didn't give up. I looked up the zip code 92008 in (kenny92008) and it turned out to be Carlsbad, Ca.--a beach city 90 miles (south) of Los Angeles. Coincidentally (anderson84352) is located in Santa Barbara, Ca.--also a beach city exactly 90 miles (north) of Los Angeles! So even though ebay lists (kenny92008) as in Michigan the zip code in the user ID brings us right back to a rich beach city 90 miles from Los Angeles. I knew then I found my second ID and both were the same person.
So I immediately began writing down the listing# of every wrapper (kenny92008) won so I could go back and view his wrappers for future reference. I also had to do this because, as previously mentioned, he was keeping his feedback history (private) so I would not be able to access his wrapper pictures ever again otherwise.
Every wrapper that (kenny92008) has won has intentionally been very clean. However he did get sloppy and purchased a '67 Topps baseball 5-cent wrapper with a unique group of five wear marks. So I kept this wrapper forefront in my mind and continued to carefully scrutinize every wax pack he listed on ebay.
And lo and behold on ebay last night that very same '67 bb wrapper with the unique group of five wear marks (purchased by kenny92008 on Dec.16) showed up reincarnated as a wax pack. And who is the seller?--just as anticipated (anderson84352)!!
The wrapper listing# is: 400091108569.
The wax pack listing# is: 260530488394.
Look at the (enlarged) pictures of the reverse of both wrappers and you will immediatley see this unique group of five white wear marks above the large red letters (FREE MAGIC). All five marks are the exact same shape, size and location on both wrappers.
Also look very carefully further down on the last line of print and you will see a dirty brown smudge spot directly below the "c" in the word "include" on both wrappers.
Also look very carefully on the opposite side of the reverse and on the 5th line of print you will also see a small brown smudge spot directly under the "k" in "New York".
And if that's not enough take a look at the front of both wrappers. The front is very clean but you will notice a white dot 1/4" to the right of the ball cap and also a white speck on the black topps circular label located at 1o'clock. Both wrapper fronts have these same two white spots at the identical locations.
Just as with fingerprint analysis I have pointed out nine (9) identical points between the two wrappers: Anderson84352 is a vintage pack counterfeiter who uses a second user ID kenny92008 to buy his wrappers.
In just the last two weeks alone this seller has sold over $4000 in counterfeit packs and last night he also listed another run of packs including the likes of a '52 topps bb 1-cent pack , a '54 topps bb 1-cent pack and a '65 fb nickel pack.
As smart, greedy and elusive as this counterfeiter was... today he ran into someone smarter!!!
First, most of his packs had loose as opposed to factory tight corner folds. Second, all of his packs had unusually clean wrappers--free of any obvious wear marks. Third, ALL of his packs from '72 and older had shattered pieces of gum--most containing roughly eight to twelve smaller pieces. The consistent use of broken gum is a practice used by some counterfeiters to take away a buyer's ability to visually determine if the correct sized gum from a particular era is in the pack. Also early '50's topps & bowman gum was (very) large and is difficult to come by so sophisticated counterfeiters will take (2) late 70's pieces of gum and brake the sticks into many pieces to give the appearance that the correct original large stick of gum is contained in the pack.
I also noticed that this seller removes all his listings pictures a few days after each auction ends. Also when this seller first joined three months ago he was selling mainly autographs and his listings stated his location was (Santa Barbara, Ca.) Then three weeks later he started selling wax packs and just days prior to his selling wax packs he changed his item location on his listings to (U.S.A.).
And this seller demonstrated the same traits as most pack counterfeiters in that he first "tested the waters" with late '70's wax and as his confidence and greed grew he began both listing older packs and increased the frequency of listings. Another common trait was this seller never sold any vintage cellos or racks--only wax & full wax boxes!
With all these red flags I knew this seller was dirty so now I needed to determine his second ID that he was using to buy his wrappers. Coincidentally a month ago my attention was drawn to a new ebayer (kenny92008) who was bidding on every (very clean) '50's-60's era wrapper from all sports. And he was winning more wrappers than anyone. Also this was the first wrapper buyer I came across who used the (private feedback) option whereby ebay will (not) disclose any of his feedback responses nor show any items he has won in the past. This hinted that this wrapper buyer had something to hide. Also both user Id's (anderson84352) & (kenny92008) are very similar in that they began with names and end in five digits--probably zip codes.
However ebay shows (anderson84352) is located in Ca. and (kenny92008) was in MI. But I followed my instincts and didn't give up. I looked up the zip code 92008 in (kenny92008) and it turned out to be Carlsbad, Ca.--a beach city 90 miles (south) of Los Angeles. Coincidentally (anderson84352) is located in Santa Barbara, Ca.--also a beach city exactly 90 miles (north) of Los Angeles! So even though ebay lists (kenny92008) as in Michigan the zip code in the user ID brings us right back to a rich beach city 90 miles from Los Angeles. I knew then I found my second ID and both were the same person.
So I immediately began writing down the listing# of every wrapper (kenny92008) won so I could go back and view his wrappers for future reference. I also had to do this because, as previously mentioned, he was keeping his feedback history (private) so I would not be able to access his wrapper pictures ever again otherwise.
Every wrapper that (kenny92008) has won has intentionally been very clean. However he did get sloppy and purchased a '67 Topps baseball 5-cent wrapper with a unique group of five wear marks. So I kept this wrapper forefront in my mind and continued to carefully scrutinize every wax pack he listed on ebay.
And lo and behold on ebay last night that very same '67 bb wrapper with the unique group of five wear marks (purchased by kenny92008 on Dec.16) showed up reincarnated as a wax pack. And who is the seller?--just as anticipated (anderson84352)!!
The wrapper listing# is: 400091108569.
The wax pack listing# is: 260530488394.
Look at the (enlarged) pictures of the reverse of both wrappers and you will immediatley see this unique group of five white wear marks above the large red letters (FREE MAGIC). All five marks are the exact same shape, size and location on both wrappers.
Also look very carefully further down on the last line of print and you will see a dirty brown smudge spot directly below the "c" in the word "include" on both wrappers.
Also look very carefully on the opposite side of the reverse and on the 5th line of print you will also see a small brown smudge spot directly under the "k" in "New York".
And if that's not enough take a look at the front of both wrappers. The front is very clean but you will notice a white dot 1/4" to the right of the ball cap and also a white speck on the black topps circular label located at 1o'clock. Both wrapper fronts have these same two white spots at the identical locations.
Just as with fingerprint analysis I have pointed out nine (9) identical points between the two wrappers: Anderson84352 is a vintage pack counterfeiter who uses a second user ID kenny92008 to buy his wrappers.
In just the last two weeks alone this seller has sold over $4000 in counterfeit packs and last night he also listed another run of packs including the likes of a '52 topps bb 1-cent pack , a '54 topps bb 1-cent pack and a '65 fb nickel pack.
As smart, greedy and elusive as this counterfeiter was... today he ran into someone smarter!!!
"You tell 'em I'm coming...and hell's coming with me"--Wyatt Earp
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Raw: Tony Gonzalez (low #'d cards, and especially 1/1's) and Steve Young.
<< <i>About a month ago a new ebayer (anderson84352) from Santa Barbara, Ca. suddenly appeared and began listing large amounts of rare '50'-60's era raw sports wax packs. He was listing packs like '61 fleer basketball, '52 bowman large football & '55 topps baseball. With a quick look at his packs I immediately saw red flags.
First, most of his packs had loose as opposed to factory tight corner folds. Second, all of his packs had unusually clean wrappers--free of any obvious wear marks. Third, ALL of his packs from '72 and older had shattered pieces of gum--most containing roughly eight to twelve smaller pieces. The consistent use of broken gum is a practice used by some counterfeiters to take away a buyer's ability to visually determine if the correct sized gum from a particular era is in the pack. Also early '50's topps & bowman gum was (very) large and is difficult to come buy so sophisticated counterfeiters will take (2) late 70's pieces of gum, brake the sticks into many pieces to fool prospective bidders.
I also noticed that this seller removes all his listings pictures a few days after each auction ends. Also when this seller first joined three months ago he was selling mainly autographs and his listings stated his location was (Santa Barbara, Ca.) Then three weeks later he started selling wax packs and just days prior to his selling wax packs he changed his item location on his listings to (U.S.A.).
And this seller demonstrated the same traits as most pack counterfeiters in that he first "tested the waters" with late '70's wax and as his confidence and greed grew he began both listing older packs and increased the frequency of listings. Another common trait was this seller never sold any vintage cellos or racks--only wax & full wax boxes!
With all these red flags I knew this seller was dirty so now I needed to determine his second ID that he was using to buy his wrappers. Coincidentally a month ago my attention was drawn to a new ebayer (kenny92008) who was bidding on every (very clean) '50's-60's era wrapper from all sports. And he was winning more wrappers than anyone. Also this was the first wrapper buyer I came across who used the (private feedback) option whereby ebay will (not) disclose any of his feedback responses nor show any items he has won in the past. This hinted that this wrapper buyer had something to hide. Also both user Id's (anderson84352) & (kenny92008) are very similar in that they began with names and end in five digits--probably zip codes.
However ebay shows (anderson84352) in located in Ca. and (kenny92008) was in MI. But I followed my instincts and didn't give up. I looked up the zip code 92008 in (kenny92008) and it turned out to be Carlsbad, Ca.--a beach city 90 miles (south) of Los Angeles. Coincidentally (anderson84352) is located in Santa Barbara, Ca.--also a beach city exactly 90 miles (north) of Los Angeles! So even though ebay lists (kenny92008) as in Michigan the zip code in the user ID brings us right back to a rich beach city 90 miles from Los Angeles. I knew then I found my second ID and both were the same person.
So I immediately began writing down the listing# of every wrapper (kenny92008) won so I could go back and view his wrappers for future reference. I also had to do this because, as previously mentioned, he was keeping his feedback history (private) so I would not be able to access his wrapper pictures ever again otherwise.
Every wrapper that (kenny92008) has won has intentionally been very clean. However he did get sloppy and purchased a '67 Topps baseball 5-cent wrapper with unique group of five wear marks. So I kept this wrapper in my mind and continued to examine every wax pack he listed on ebay.
And lo and behold on ebay last night that very same '67 bb wrapper with the unique group of five wear marks (purchased by kenny92008 on Dec.16) showed up reincarnated as a wax pack. And who is the seller?--just as anticipated (anderson84352)!!
The wrapper listing# is: 400091108569.
The wax pack listing# is: 260530488394.
Look at the (enlarged) pictures of the reverse of both wrappers and you will immediatley see this unique group of five white wear marks above the large red letters (FREE MAGIC). All five marks are the exact same shape, size and location on both wrappers.
Also look very carefully further down on the last line of print and you will see a dirty brown smudge spot directly below the "c" in the word "include" on both wrappers.
Also look very carefully on the opposite side of the reverse and on the 5th line of print you will also see a small brown smudge spot directly under the "k" in "New York".
And if that's not enough take a look at the front of both wrappers. The front is very clean but you will notice a white dot a 1/4" to the right of the ball cap and also a white speck on the black topps circular label located at 1o'clock. Both wrapper fronts have these same two white spots at the identical locations.
Just as with fingerprint analysis I have pointed out nine (9) identical points between the two wrappers: Anderson84352 is a vintage pack counterfeiter who uses a second user ID kenny92008 to buy his wrappers.
In just the last two weeks alone this seller has sold over $4000 in counterfeit packs and last night he also listed another run of packs including the likes of a '52 topps bb 1-cent pack , a '54 topps bb 1-cent pack and a '65 fb nickel pack.
As smart, greedy and elusive as this counterfeiter was today he ran into someone smarter!!! >>
Dude, you rock. I hope every person here takes down all these buyers and sellers you "out" and block them all from buying and do not buy from them.
thank you for keepin' it real.
well done
collecting RAW Topps baseball cards 1952 Highs to 1972. looking for collector grade (somewhere between psa 4-7 condition). let me know what you have, I'll take it, I want to finish sets, I must have something you can use for trade.
looking for Topps 71-72 hi's-62-53-54-55-59, I have these sets started
Good work!
............
To me, it still appears that
anderson84352 ( 125) 3 months CA, United States
is simply a rebirth of the previous AP-gang from Glendale/Eagle Rock.
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It is important to note that an EBAY "registration location" has NO
verifiable component that is used by EBAY to reject registrants.
Scammers can claim to be ANYWHERE when they register.
Gophones can be purchased anywhere and assigned an area-code
from ANY location the buyer selects.
Disposable debit-cards can also be registered at ANY location the
buyer selects.
I agree in that when I first saw that anderson84352 was out of the southern California area my initial thoughts was that it was the boys at import-export-ca out of Glendale again.
The only major difference was that import-export would never show pictures of the back of the packs whereas anderson84352 is very confident and shows high-resolution pictures of both front and backs of their packs.
But after six years viewing unopened product on ebay (nothing) surprises me anymore.
Could someone start a thread for us newbies to watch out for? It would be nice if the mod could keep it at the top of the forum. I have not bought that much off ebay to know who is a crook or who is legit!
<< <i>Good job summerof68!!!!!
Could someone start a thread for us newbies to watch out for? It would be nice if the mod could keep it at the top of the forum. I have not bought that much off ebay to know who is a crook or who is legit! >>
You can start by getting one of these:
guide
Current obsession, all things Topps 1969 - 1972
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The quality of the pics seems fairly similar; notwithstanding the
enhancement that using Auctiva provides.
Adding the back view offers some positive cover for the gang.
And, since most of the folks buying the carp have NO idea what
a real seal/fold is supposed to look like, adding the back views
has no negative impact on sales. In fact, it makes the gang appear
to be fully disclosing the items.
The timing of the "new" seller's appearance is just too much of
a coinkydink, for me to get past.
............
The crew kills the pics pretty fast, after a sale.
They were also moving TONS of worthless autos in their start-up.
(Most brought tiny money because they were obvious fakes.)
If the seller is selling cheap autos, could we just purchase one to get their name and address.
Buying Vintage, all sports.
Buying Woody Hayes, Les Horvath, Vic Janowicz, and Jesse Owens autographed items
As always awesome work and thanks for your tireless efforts.
Neil
Enjoyed your humorous reply. Actually I enjoy tracking down these pack counterfeiters though I do it only for personal entertainment as well as to help inform my fellow board members.
However if I was ever to retire and decide to take it serious then I could probably reak some serious havoc on ebay. But this eventually would lead to ebay finding a way to kick my off their site. So I'll just maintain a low profile and pop up occassionally if I think I have anything interesting to bring to these boards.
Doug
Liquidating my collection for the 3rd and final time. Time for others to enjoy what I have enjoyed over the last several decades. Money could be put to better use.
<< <i>I've opened late 70's boxes that were searched and resealed before. I got so mad one time I just threw the cards in the pizza box on my dinner table then pitched em with the leftover pie >>
Why did you do that. You could have just sealed them back up and maybe even made a profit. lol
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
https://www.psacard.com/psasetregistry/pdub1819/othersets/6204
Completed my Clemente Basic Registry (2007 - 2014)!
Positive transactions with oakesy25,jasoneggert,swartz1,MBMiller25,gregm13,kid4hof03,HoopGuru33,Reese3333,BPorter26,Davemri
You make a very good point in regards to informing winners of his shadyness. I had the very same thoughts a couple weeks ago when I exposed tarheels17032 as a pack counterfeiter. Within the next week tarheels received three negatives all accusing him of being a resealer.
So I decided to take it upon myself and contact all three members who left negatives. I emailed all three detailed wrapper/waxpack matches and gave them tarheels17032 second id codyemma17 for which he buys his wrappers and singles.
Because I had not recently had a transaction with any of these three individuals ebay's system required that I type in a supplied set of code numbers prior to ebay sending my email. Ebay says they do this for security reasons.
Well it's been well over two weeks and I've yet to receive any acknowledgement from any of the three members that they even received my emails. I have a sneaking suspicion that ebay intercepted the emails and these three disgruntled members never received the evidence they could have used to seriously threaten tarheels17032.
"...I have a sneaking suspicion that ebay intercepted the emails and these three disgruntled members never received the evidence they could have used to seriously threaten tarheels17032...."
////////////////////
Such emails are routinely intercepted; seldom delivered.
The sender is usually threatened with suspension.
EBAY has NO interest in having their cut of the criminals'
take being derailed.
.............
There are some workarounds.
1. If the burned buyer is also a current seller, you can contact
him via Ask Seller A Question in one of his listings.
(Such contacts should only be made using disposable EBAY-IDs.)
2. Since you have the buyer's EBAY-ID, you can shotgun a bunch
of emails to a variety of potential email addys.
eg:
EBAY ID: packbuyer
Send your info to:
packbuyer@yahoo.com
packbuyer@msn.com
etc.
and as many other possibles as you wish to try.
3. You can scour the FB left and received in the burned buyer's
account.
Sometimes, you will find FB from a seller/buyer that you have a relationship
with, or have done biznez with.
You can try contacting such folks and asking them to pass on your
info to your target. Often, the folks will simply give you the contact
info you need.
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<< <i>Nightcrawler,
You make a very good point in regards to informing winners of his shadyness. I had the very same thoughts a couple weeks ago when I exposed tarheels17032 as a pack counterfeiter. Within the next week tarheels received three negatives all accusing him of being a resealer.
So I decided to take it upon myself and contact all three members who left negatives. I emailed all three detailed wrapper/waxpack matches and gave them tarheels17032 second id codyemma17 for which he buys his wrappers and singles.
Because I had not recently had a transaction with any of these three individuals ebay's system required that I type in a supplied set of code numbers prior to ebay sending my email. Ebay says they do this for security reasons.
Well it's been well over two weeks and I've yet to receive any acknowledgement from any of the three members that they even received my emails. I have a sneaking suspicion that ebay intercepted the emails and these three discruntled members never received the evidence they could have used to seriously threaten tarheels17032. >>
What you should do from now on is send the person a message not divulging much info and give them your e-mail address and have them back-and-forth with you through e-mail, completely leaving eBay out of it. Something like "I have some important information about an item you purchased. You can reach me at my e-mail, it's etc..."
I just sent a message to toymaster12usa who bought several packs and left positive feedback. We'll see if it gets sent or if my account gets suspended...
Completed my Clemente Basic Registry (2007 - 2014)!
Positive transactions with oakesy25,jasoneggert,swartz1,MBMiller25,gregm13,kid4hof03,HoopGuru33,Reese3333,BPorter26,Davemri
But I had to chance it. But based on Storm's statement I now know that my suspicions were correct and that ebay did intercept my emails.
I am strickly a collector of vintage PSA packs and my main access to them is ebay so therefore I will only confine my efforts to informing fellow board members of counterfeiters out there and refrain in the future from contacting any burn't ebay members.
Heck, I do this partially for entertainment value and I don't want any repercussions as a result!
working on 1956 Topps in PSA 6-7
last action for (anderson84352)---1/28/10------- & (kenny92008)--not a Ebay ID??-- Per Ebay