Fraudulent Ebay Buyer [Advice needed please]

Hey all, need some advice and help regarding a recent ebay transaction. I recently sold some boxes of Terastal Festival. Out of almost 2000 boxes sold, one Ebay buyer has messaged me today to claim that ALL 6 of his boxes have been resealed and replaced with packets of Japanese chips inside.

This is very suspicious to me on a few counts- first, he claims that he did not video the opening, but if you open one box and realise it was resealed, why would you not video opening the rest? Secondly, how is it possible that out of all 2000 boxes I have sold, only his order and ALL of his boxes are resealed? Thirdly, on these modern jp boxes, there is the tamper proof strip in tact to prevent resealing. And finally, the packets of chips in question weigh 16 grams, as compared to 185-188 grams per box of terastal festival. I have a post office receipt of his package weighing 1.1kg.

Despite all these, I know ebay will side with the buyer should a case be raised. Does anyone have any advice on how I can go about this situation? Any help would be appreciated, thank you.

Unfortunately like you said, eBay will side with the buyer. There’s really not a whole lot you can do besides accept the return, as frustrating as that is. Sadly this is one of the huge pain points of selling sealed on eBay, or really anywhere online.

Pretty clearly a scam. I would call eBay right away and try to get someone who understands trading cards. If you don’t, hang up and call again. They’ll probably tell you to accept the return, but you might be able to get out of refunding at the end.

You might be able to stop the refund by saying that the buyer didn’t return the item in the condition you sent it to them in. Or, if you get someone from eBay who understands trading cards, they may recognize the “my box was resealed” scam and refund the buyer out of eBay’s pocket as opposed to yours.

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Assuming you have a pretty decent seller rep (which I am assuming you do if you’re dealing in the thousands of boxes) you can get on seller support and explain basically exactly what you just did. They’ll tell you to accept the return and then mark it as ‘different item returned’

the end result is that ebay will refund the buyer out of their own pocket, and you’ll be clear of any penalties

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Doesn’t eBay only refund 50% in those cases?

Another tip that you might already know, but talk to the eBay facebook messenger instead of talking on their website chat, people on messenger actually have higher permissions than the ones on the website support and tend to think through the issue instead of just following a very simple flowchart.

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Recently someone I know had almost this identical scam happen to him for a $2k graded card of some kind. The buyer pretended that he sent some random other graded card. In the end, the buyer successfully got his refund, but the seller did get completely covered by ebay. He does have a huge sales history though which probably helps

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Thurcos advice is the answer. Overemphasize to eBay how you have sold 2,000 boxes. Also what is the buyers username?

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Oh even I didn’t know this. I’ve had issues in the past with poor customer service/ebay knowledge on the website. I’ll have to use their fb messenger in future.

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So what you first want to do is contact eBay on Twitter or Facebook. They have real agents there that can bypass most things a rep from the phone or online chat can.

Explain with them the situation, and how it does not add up. 2000 boxes sold and only 1 person claiming all 6 were resealed.

The likely outcome is that you will have to accept the return but then once arrives select the dispute / not as described option and reach out to that FB / Twitter chat again to follow up with them.

Shouldn’t have issues, you have plenty of evidence.

Its important you take pictures of your product with the shipping label next to it every single time. With sealed product always take pictures of all the angles and on a scale showing the weight! I know it takes some time but its worth it and has saved me in the past. An ebay rep actually recommended I do this and its helps so much when they are reviewing the case. He said the more pics you take the better. Take pics of the tamper proof tape you put on the packaging and of the package on the scale at the post office. Then of the post office receipt. This will help when they are reviewing the case. You must point out the time the pics were taken as well (this is provided on your phone) Usually they side with the buyer but these extra steps are vital. Trust me. Your reviews help as well. In the future please follow these steps.

Can you please provide the username of the buyer?

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Thank you everyone for your help, I followed some of your advice and gave them a call. They have closed the case in my favour. Really happy about this, was expecting the worst! Although I am still bummed out that the buyer is getting his refund. He is a UK ebay user, ID is Omakuserid and he runs an online shop called ketchum collectables, which is especially disappointing given that he is a seller himself.

Thank you all again!

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Just been scammed for three of the same boxes by the same buyer! Claimed they were heat resealed and tampered with. He sent me photos of rocks inside and random cards but when he returned the items he didn’t even send me the same rocks or cards :joy:. eBay refunded him the same day as the return was made and I am still left out of pocket.

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Absolutely disgusting behaviour! Did you manage to sort it out?

If you’ve got Facebook then I’d probably think about sticking this person on the PokĂ©mon UK anti-scam page as he’s clearly going to try it with multiple UK sellers.

I’ve just gone to put this person on my Ebay block list and they’re already on there so there’s definitely some history of scamming before, thought I’d seen that username before somewhere.

I’m sorry for your loss. But I also genuinely laughed because

he didn’t even send me the same rocks

That absolute MONSTER!

As a buyer I now open all my packages on video for the same reason. The streets of ebay are dangerous these days. Can’t trust anyone anymore. Keep your wits about you. Mitigate all potential loopholes with evidence, and safeguards.

3.2k sales and scamming on boxes smh. Can you share and screenshots from your case or conversations with them?


This week I had a buyer on TCGPlayer send me these pictures and tell me these were “damaged in transit”. Clearly its one of the worst photoshop jobs/AI altered image attempts in recent memory.

My advice, is to be perisistent with calling ebay like others have suggested. I even threatened the buyer with calling his local police station and filing a report for fraud which I planned on doing if they continued forward with the scam.

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Can’t you see the damage has ripped open a black hole to another dimension?

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this might be the funniest thing in the thread. I’ll be honest, I can’t even be sure I believe you aren’t just having one over on us. Its just too funny! But I also know how absolutely koala brain these people are sometimes.

My abs are sore now