“If it’s too good to be true” My cautionary tale

[Bittertim]

I thought I was good at spotting fakes. I have been collecting and dealing cards for a long time, long before the current card craze, so once I retired I decided to take part of my retirement and invest into the things that I know, which are sports and cards. A few months ago I decided that I needed a Patrick Mahomes autograph for my PC and as an investment piece. I searched eBay, made good offers and would seemingly always get sniped at the end. I submitted an offer on a Mahomes and it was accepted, I paid and received the card. It came in a One-touch with a seal and the back said it was guaranteed by Panini. So I was happy. I continued to talk to the original seller and that’s when I got caught up. He convinced me to go to Macari and look at his other high end cards. I ended up buying a Zion, Lamar and McCaffery autos. All send on time with no problems. Then the bottom fell out. I received multiple PMs stating that the seller was a known fraud. I contacted him and he said it was people who were upset about past transactions. The PMs kept coming but by that time the window for returns had closed. He continued to change his username until finally Macari shut him down. His last message was Macari shut him down but he was still selling trash on Etsy.

If it’s too good to be true, it is.






Here is the trash he sold me. I should have looked closer. Now, I could put them on my Instagram page and try to recoup my losses, but it would kill me to screw someone over for money.

I love this hobby and I hope someone will take away from this that all that glitters is not gold.


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[callou2131]

I keep my Autographed Angelo Marino "Mickey mantle" bat for this exact reason. I look at it a few times a year.

[mike1498]

Why can’t you file a PayPal claim? Unless he said in the description that they are fake, then he didn’t send you what you paid for.

[Siberian13]

Originally Posted by mike1498

Why can’t you file a PayPal claim? Unless he said in the description that they are fake, then he didn’t send you what you paid for.

Depends on if he paid goods vs friends and family gift

[JeremyNick]

Originally Posted by callou2131

I keep my Autographed Angelo Marino "Mickey mantle" bat for this exact reason. I look at it a few times a year.

Maybe we can hunt this guy down and put that bat to good use








I kid.

[hugh]

Originally Posted by Siberian13

Depends on if he paid goods vs friends and family gift

What kind of idiot would use F&F for cards worth that much?

[slogue2]

Dang. That is a major bummer. I think I recall several threads about this seller. I don't know the name, but the cards you are showing look exactly like the ones that people were pointing out as fake. Hopefully others see this, and other "scammer" threads, and don't get taken advantage of like you did. Hopefully there is some sort of way to get your funds back. Best of luck!

[wmeinhold]

There were a number of threads about that guy. Bummer.

[hugh]

What is macari?

[Siberian13]

Originally Posted by hugh

What kind of idiot would use F&F for cards worth that much?

Today your first day in the hobby?

[mike1498]

Originally Posted by Siberian13

Depends on if he paid goods vs friends and family gift

Can you on Mercari? I didn’t realize that’s an option.

[Siberian13]

Originally Posted by mike1498

Can you on Mercari? I didn’t realize that’s an option.

No clue. Never been on that site or app or whatever it is.

[mike1498]

Originally Posted by Siberian13

No clue. Never been on that site or app or whatever it is.

I have and I’m fairly confident the only option is goods and services. It’s basically eBay with lower fees and less users. It’s structured almost the exact same.

That’s obviously given the seller didn’t do transactions with him off the platform.....

[buffbills83]

Are they good fakes? I can't really tell without an authentic to compare against side by side. If you weren't alerted about the seller, odds are that the fakes were close enough to never get caught? Scary stuff when fraudsters hit it on the money.

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[PSA2Pac]

Originally Posted by buffbills83

Are they good fakes? I can't really tell without an authentic to compare against side by side. If you weren't alerted about the seller, odds are that the fakes were close enough to never get caught?
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BAD fakes

without needing an authentic next to it

[hugh]

Originally Posted by Siberian13

Today your first day in the hobby?

come on OPP, you know me

[hugh]

those auto's are eerily similar. he didn't even try to hide it

[49ersSF]

I wonder if this was the incident that turned him from normal Tim to BitterTim?

[JWinn]

For the uneducated, like myself.

How can you tell these are fakes?

Being just a singles buyer, I have only even touched a few 2020 cards for my team, let alone seen anything else in person. My only experience is with the cards I have purchased on Ebay, and nothing from Illusions.

I am shocked such new cards, and inserts at that, are already being faked. This is a fairly new product, right? 2020 Illusions? At least for the two NFL cards?

I don't collect NBA, and don't follow the Zion cards, so I don't know about that one either.

But if there's a Bronco from that insert set, what should I be on the lookout for?

I'd love to see side by side shots. That could really help people like me.

I can see several of you can spot this from these photos, but I am missing it.

And what else is this guy making fakes of?

Sorry for all the questions. I knew fakes existed for a lot of other cards, but not stuff this new.

[3124508 on COMC]

Originally Posted by JWinn

For the uneducated, like myself.

How can you tell these are fakes?

Being just a singles buyer, I have only even touched a few 2020 cards for my team, let alone seen anything else in person. My only experience is with the cards I have purchased on Ebay, and nothing from Illusions.

I am shocked such new cards, and inserts at that, are already being faked. This is a fairly new product, right? 2020 Illusions? At least for the two NFL cards?

I don't collect NBA, and don't follow the Zion cards, so I don't know about that one either.

But if there's a Bronco from that insert set, what should I be on the lookout for?

I'd love to see side by side shots. That could really help people like me.

I can see several of you can spot this from these photos, but I am missing it.

And what else is this guy making fakes of?

Sorry for all the questions. I knew fakes existed for a lot of other cards, but not stuff this new.

He took real cards, ironed on a Panini autograph statement, and stuck on a sticker with a forged signature.

[JWinn]

Originally Posted by 3124508 on COMC

He took real cards, ironed on a Panini autograph statement, and stuck on a sticker with a forged signature.

Thanks!

It's pretty hard to see.

A little research revealed there a several parallels of these, signed and not. Although I did not find autos for Jackson.

All these products and parallels for everything, many with and without autos. It's easy to see how a buyer who doesn't research for details can be misled.

Anyway, thanks for the heads up.

[anusinha]

Originally Posted by hugh

those auto's are eerily similar. he didn't even try to hide it

All those autos look like they were written by the same person.

[alphaomegas]

Originally Posted by Bittertim

I thought I was good at spotting fakes. I have been collecting and dealing cards for a long time, long before the current card craze, so once I retired I decided to take part of my retirement and invest into the things that I know, which are sports and cards. A few months ago I decided that I needed a Patrick Mahomes autograph for my PC and as an investment piece. I searched eBay, made good offers and would seemingly always get sniped at the end. I submitted an offer on a Mahomes and it was accepted, I paid and received the card. It came in a One-touch with a seal and the back said it was guaranteed by Panini. So I was happy. I continued to talk to the original seller and that’s when I got caught up. He convinced me to go to Macari and look at his other high end cards. I ended up buying a Zion, Lamar and McCaffery autos. All send on time with no problems. Then the bottom fell out. I received multiple PMs stating that the seller was a known fraud. I contacted him and he said it was people who were upset about past transactions. The PMs kept coming but by that time the window for returns had closed. He continued to change his username until finally Macari shut him down. His last message was Macari shut him down but he was still selling trash on Etsy.

If it’s too good to be true, it is.






Here is the trash he sold me. I should have looked closer. Now, I could put them on my Instagram page and try to recoup my losses, but it would kill me to screw someone over for money.

I love this hobby and I hope someone will take away from this that all that glitters is not gold.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

do a charge back and keep 90 days with dates and you be find and this scammer will experience the pain

[JWBlue]

So the cards are authentic but never came as autographs?

[schism]

With Panini essentially printing money and with just how much money is in cards today in general, you'd think they could develop a database of all autographed cards going forward and have an app that allows you to scan your auto to see if it's real and the actual card that it's supposed to be on. Would also help with spotting cards that have been altered.