I’m also curious to hear what was the card that you purchased if you want to share the info, when thinking the possibility of a scam some cards are more prone to be faked but some cards may get replaced with weaker condition ones
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its a psa 10 japanese rayquaza ex full art from dragon blade. last solds on it were 500-600usd.
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honestly, after looking through the sellers listings, i think its 90% a scam. the majority of the seller’s reviews are from middlemans and most of his cards are priced under market price. I also noticed his pictures are screenshotted as they are of different sizes from each other. what can i do to get my money back?
Alright, that does have a fake card/slab sound in it
Contact buyee and ask to cancel the order if possible.
They’ll find an excuse to cancel i.e. out of stock, sold on another site
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Unfortunately as everyone had mentioned, that can be used by malicious sellers to test if a buyer is middling for foreigners, and put out scams if yes.
In the past the request has multiple possible intentions:
- The seller is selling the same item on multiple platforms and leaving comment before purchasing allows the seller to pull the same listing from other platforms.
- The seller just wants you to talk to them first before buying - yeah, this sounds really unnecessary, but it’s kinda like one of those “unspoken rules” you often run into in Japan which everyone there just expect you to follow.
Apparently this kind of requests would lead to a lot of disputes (i.e. what if the buyer left a comment but another buyer just hit the buy button before the seller even see the comment?) so both platforms had been asking sellers not to ask for comments, and such requests had since been fading away. Nowadays more and more sellers use the request instead to test foreigners.
Malicious sellers will cancel the transaction. One issue with Mercari is that no feedback can be left (from either side) against a cancelled transaction, so there’s no way for a buyer to check if a seller had been constantly cancelling transactions. All the buyers should be aware of this when viewing listings.
Strictly speaking Buyee won’t leave a comment before buying if the buyer didn’t ask Buyee to do so. For Japanese platforms including Yahoo and Mercari, they don’t have a general message platform like eBay - communications are mostly done through two channels:
- Each listing has its own comment or Q&A section which buyers can leave message and seller can respond to them. For Mercari all messages are revealed to the public instead of just between seller and a specific buyer.
- Once a listing had been brought into transaction, there is a conversation window in the transaction screen where the seller and winning buyer can leave private message to each other. Here’s a sample screenshot of the chat window:
What Buyee does without buyer asking to leave a message is that it will purchase the item immediately and after purchasing leave a message in the transaction conversation window revealing itself as Buyee. So seller doesn’t need a message before purchase to know it’s Buyee buying, the message before buying just helps them to get rid of non-targets (domestic buyers) faster.
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I believe this is not true anymore for international users. I have tested this with @BANKS where he could see a different UI than myself for the same listing. So, I think for all users operating outside Japan, they cannot see the comments on listing anymore. This happened around the same time that Buyee did the update to their UI to make it more user friendly (adding local currency conversion, enabling English language etc). Atleast for me, I cannot see any comment on any listings, including my previous purchases which I know for sure I had left comments through my middleman service.
Yes, that is what I also meant but my phrasing was wrong as saying it was leaving a comment. But Buyee does reveal that it is a Buyee purchase after the sale is done which also means that if the seller has bad intent then they can still mess with the order.
Thanks for the clarity and info on Mercari listings. It still always helps to know what goes actually as a sale process at Mercari which is invisible to people overseas who use middleman services.
Cheers!
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quick question. if i want to file for a paypal chargeback, do i need to have the card with me or can it remain at the warehouse.
It can remain in warehouse.
Do PayPal claim first before chargeback.
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Ah yes, it is possible that Mercari automatically switches to another layout (or the Buyee page) for foreign visitors. I personally don’t like these kind of switches as most of them will have fields missing from the foreigner-facing page with some of them containing vital information.
Are you able to visit the domestic page if you’re on VPN? If yes then I suppose it might be better to spend some effort to check the comments through VPN before making purchases. (I personally just stroke a very, VERY critical deal with the commenting feature which I might share later if I can finish the transaction. 
)
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Nice! Mercari deals are the best
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Hi just received the pictures. Pictures are horrible. Cant even see the card. is there any way to request for them to remove the wrap. also i put up photos of the listing for reference. what do yall think?
Id demand better photos personally. Saying that not showing the item is shady.
But would keep the shit photos they sent you in case you need to open a paypal case to show that they were intentionally hiding the fact that what you recieved was fake. Those useless photos imo only help you if you do open a case.
I dont think anyone can authenticate the card from the images buyee provided you.
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I am not sure what the agreement with Buyee is. Does Buyee authenticate the card to check if it is the exact one, same condition as advertised. Or does Buyee say, look we received something, so it should be fine.
This is from their TOC
The reason why I bring this up is because I use a middleman service different from Buyee and the check that they do is only to see if the product is present. The authenticity and as advertised is not checked. So if it is different then you are out of luck. It also maybe the case with Buyee.
Unfortunately, quick check of seller feedback indicates that almost all of his purchase feeback is from middleman services. Which as @rabby250 mentioned indicates that the comment thing was a way to test if they are middle-manning this overseas or local.
Since I have no stakes involved in this, I find hard to provide any advice. If new photos are not possible in your case @nwahsssss and If this was me, I would take the gamble and just accept the shipment as is. If it is a different card or not as advertised, then issue chargeback. Because it does not matter if the card is with you or not yes?
Cheers!
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Honestly I think you’re fine here. We can see the seller sent the card in the scans, even if it’s a bit difficult. Sure, they may have faked the slab, but it’s unlikely with a card like this. I’d just ship it over and deal with any issues then.
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I’ve asked buyee to remove the bubble wrap and retake the photos when I’ve had an instance like this, and they’ve always complied.
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Based on the seller profile, it would be surprising if this wasn’t a scam. Also I may be wrong, but the “2” on the cert that we can see looks like the fake slab ones. Hard to tell through the bubble wrap as it could be slightly distorting, but I would be in the fake slab camp for now
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Like others have said, I’d ask Buyee to remove the bubble wrap and then send photos. Then you can share the images here to get a second opinion.
I would do this before taking the nuclear option and doing chargebacks of any sort. There’s a chance the card is legitimate and the seller is just a drop shipper (which is why their listings all look different).
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surprisingly, buyee agreed to my request of taking better photos. will update u guys
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so buyee just replied to my request for more pictures. As seen in the third photo, there is a visible dent near the bottom left of the card. the centering on the card is also thicker on the right. What puzzles me is that the psa label looks pretty real. Its also weird that they only decided to take the picture of the card and not with the label. Could they be trying to hide something?
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