RECASTER Alert: Paper Prop Thief on Ebay

[rabbit4x]

The seller in question is " johntx808" whom I've had a negative run in with a few months back (Feb/March 09).

Here is the auction:
http://cgi.ebay.com/HEROES-9TH-WOND...in_0?hash=item3ef76351cf&_trksid=p3911.c0.m14


And here is the story:

A few months back, I listed a set of Heroes covers done by a member here on the boards (I believe it was Muttley) and sold them on ebay.

The buyer not only pays instantly, but sends me an email asking to see if I had more covers and asks for files (Which I don't have as I am not the original creator.) I tell them that I don't have any files.

I ship the items out a few days after the auctions ends, all the meanwhile sending almost daily updates of when I am shipping them out.

The buyer gets them almost 2 weeks later because for whatever reason, they address they supplied kept getting delivery attempts on it, as per the DC I added on it.

A week after the received it, I get an email from the buyer asking for a refund. Before I can reply and say that I can work out a refund (Even though my auction stated no refunds, which doens't mean jack when all sellers now have to accept paypal and paypal always sides with the buyers), the buyer files a paypal claim saying that they were poor photocopies.

While trying to work this crap out and finally having the refund go through, I wait for my items back so I can hopefully resell it to another buyer. I wait and wait. I send emails every few days after the second week asking where the returned goods were and probably got 2-3 emails from this guy saying "They are coming."

After a month of waiting, I mark it as a loss and file an FBI Fraud Report, which btw, went no here.

Now fast forward to today while I check out my feedback and click into the guys feedback. Not only has he gotten a few negatives, he is selling quite a few copies of the Heroes covers.

So buyers and sellers beware, don't deal with this guy at all. The person who I dealt with was "his girlfriend" as the covers were a birthday present to "john." But the emails were all signed by "john."

 

[sycor]

yeah, you have waited for the paypal dispute. He would have had to send you the items back before paypal would issue a refund.

People like this really suck. Sorry it happened to you.

 

[Al-]

I was curious how he might answer if someone asked him where he found these covers. So I asked.

ME:I might be interested in buying all five covers but I'd like to know where did you find these great items?

johntx808:They are replicas inspired by original 9th wonders issues. It took a very very long time to define details and finish it. Please let me know if there are any more questions. Thanks.

ME:So you created them yourself?

johntx808:Yes I did. I used various programs and it took a really long time. Were you still interested in a quantity of them bc I didn't specify a shipping discount, but it won't be a problem. Thanks.

 

[rabbit4x]

yeah, you have waited for the paypal dispute. He would have had to send you the items back before paypal would issue a refund.

People like this really suck. Sorry it happened to you.

For some reason since I've never dealt with the dispute process, after I agreed to issue the refund, Paypal sent the money back and closed the case. There was no "Issue Refund" after I received the items back. It happened so fast that I was hoping the buyer was honest and would send the items back to me.

So I got a reply back from my sarcastic message to this guy and this is what he said:

I did not use your copies for this. I didn't want to do that because it is probably not allowed. I recreated these myself and have been working on them off and on since I received the other ones. The ones you sent had pixels and lines on them. They are laying around somewhere if you want them. Why would I go through the trouble of keeping them just to copy them? I could have done that a long time ago. These are my originals and are a completely different quality. I hope this resolved your concerns.

And than another message about 10 minutes later:

If it helps I can take the auction down and send back your copies. As you will see, I have also created other covers and DID NOT steal and copy yours. I do not want to be the bad guy here so I will make it right however I can. Let me know. Thanks.

I don't even want to deal with this guy because I know I'm going to just be wasting my time waiting for items I lost a long time ago.

 

[rabbit4x]

I went back to my files and have all the delivery information, tracking, addresses, and phone numbers saved when I was fuming about this.

The only thing I can post here would probably be my auction pictures I still have saved, but Photobucket is down at the moment.

This buyers main complaint was that they were photocopied/pixalated. I didn't complain about the covers as I thought they were great and at a great price.
I had a feeling that I might have trouble with selling these covers as I was worried someone would think that they were the $500+ comics that were being sold at the time, but this was a whole different scenario. I think now that the buyers main intention was to do something fraudulent with them, which is why they were never returned to me.

And now he "offers" to send them back to me after holding onto them for so many months.

 

[rabbit4x]

Here are the cover I've sold, let's wait and see what this "john" guy has for sale later.