Ah I’m sorry to hear that. Can’t blame yourself. We’ve all been there in some form. Glad you were able to straighten it out though.
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Not Pokemon Card related, I sold an Ultimate Rare Cyberdark Dragon NM, for at the time, $300 USD.
Guy claimed he got the Ultra Rare one valued at the time for $20. eBay sided with him.
I followed all the rules.
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You have the patience of a saint. That buyer was so obnoxious. I would’ve just stopped messaging at some point (some early point).
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Oh boy, in the ‘olden days’, our dutch version of ebay, marktplaats, was closer to craigslist. Zero accountability, zero protection, zero indication of previous interactions on the site. It was a wild west (still is to some degree, but it’s improved leagues), you basically only had gut instinct to go by. I vividly remember three incidents where I got scammed (luckily this was 2016-2017 and I was a poor student).
First, I got sent a wrong, lower value card. The seller feigned they had mixed up two orders and pretended the other buyer refused to cooperate. Since I didn’t have any proof however, there was not much I could do. It was also well known that there wasn’t really any authority who would take your case seriously so you’re just shit out of luck.
Second, I bought a Charizard Goldstar for about $75, and got sent absolutely nothing. Seller kept insisting they had posted it, but had zero proof they actually did. Then accepted to refund which never came through, and consequently they started mocking me. I noticed by how they were acting they must’ve been a teenager, and I investigated by what little information I had, their last name (from bank transfer), and place of residence (a small village), which is displayed on the website. I then found a business with the same last name, which I presumed were their parents. I genuinely considered calling and confronting them, but if I was wrong I would’ve been barking up the wrong tree, and it just didn’t feel right to take this path, so I just took my loss.
Last, a classic too good to be true tale, a couple of fake EX cards mixed with a few real ones, which I was aware of but stil the price was good. Ended up receiving a stack of only fakes. Since it was less than $10, it wasn’t even worth the effort to me.
Nowadays I practically only buy from Japan through forwarding services, which is also rife with ‘scams’ whether dishonesty about the cards condition, or being sent a clearly different card than in the pictures with lesser condition. I’ve learned to just accept that this happens every now and then, and that you need to scrutinize everything about a listing.
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Wait a photo copy?
I’m normally very good at spotting scams, but last year I fell for one. It wasn’t Pokémon but for some niche sealed games.
He provided multiple WhatsApp contacts that I messaged, forums he was active in, and other Instagram users he’d supposedly sold to.
It was all a little too good to be true, I tried reporting him through Instagram but no action taken and the account is still live.
I’ve thought of messaging all his followers to warn them but honestly I just put it behind me and moved on.
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Ah yes, check cashing scams. Back when I got all my roommates through craigslist those would pop up often. Didnt fall for any at that time but it was the first I had run across them.
I did work with a guy who lost at least $5k in a wire transfer scam. Had a scammer call his phone claiming to be police or a lawyer and that his folks were in a mexican jail (they had apparently been traveling so it was plausible) and they needed the money to release (or bribe) them. Said he was on the fence but that he heard what sounded like his dads voice in the background asking for him to send the money. Few days after he took a small loan and wired it, he meets up with his parents (which coincided with their return date so still plausible) who told him he was dumb for doing that and refused to pay him back for his good will. Filed all the police reports but by that time there was nothing to do but keep working to pay back the loan.
Live, learn, stay private and trust no one.
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Feel like ive been scammed by modern 
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yeah 
Thanks to using buyer protection, I have never been successfully scammed. I once was going to meet someone to buy their collection. I remember they had a few gold stars, and some other ultra rare cards, as well as vintage stuff, some in ‘meh’ condition.
Their messaging got sporadic, and a little … odd. probly acid-fueled. But it was a decent deal at the time, about $300. However, they never showed to the meetup. This location was at that time starting to become known for muggings and deals-gone-bad. Was it a scam? Was it an intended robbery? IDK, but I’m glad it didn’t have a bad ending.
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Haha this is funny!! Did you get your money back?
I did thankfully
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I really only collect, I dont buy to sell, except one single time, recently, bought a staff tropical tidal wave on mercari (the english one) because it seemed like a good deal so I thought sure why not?
Seller account was listed in New York,
USPS label was printed in New York
Package was dropped off in Florida (at this point I had a raised eyebrow)
Because of the weirdness, I dug even deeper than I had originally into the images used in the listing, and found the same PSA cert was sold in a ebay auction like 4 years ago, So I thought okay thats suspicious, but its supposed to arrive tomorrow, what is going to be in this package?
Package Arrives and the envelope looks a bit small, so I record opening it,
to find a fake Altaria EX from 2018
Naturally I open a ticket with mercari to get a refund, and the seller much to my shock actually sends a return label??
even weirder the return label goes to Hawaii??
not going to post the full address incase someone actually lives there but the number on the steet address was 1337 which added even more to the absolute mountain of suspiciousness
So at this point Im completely confused, from new york, to florida, to hawaii,
The seller doesnt get their payment until I rate them and say the package arrived as described, what do they gain here O-o
Reopened the ticket with mercari and was given a full refund
One of the weirdest sequences of events Ive ever experienced
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