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 Forum index » Archive » Archive: Perplex City » PXC: Questions/Meta
[LOCKED] Possible Ebay PXC Scam?
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doublecross
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Joined: 25 Jul 2005
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Location: London, UK

 		Most of xxsammisamxx's sets of booster packs are described as:

Quote:
BOXES OF PERPLEX CITY BOOSTERS!

(PACKS R CHEAP AS CONTAIN A LOWER AMOUNT OF BLACK & SILVER CARDS!)


How does s/he know? They are also described as NEW and SEALED.
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xx

PostPosted: Fri Jul 21, 2006 6:19 pm
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domroberts
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Joined: 28 Apr 2006
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Quote:
Joe makes a good point. You DID get what you paid for (X amount of packs) so it feels a bit iffy to me to leave negative feedback.


I'm not in the least bit surprised at 20 packs with the obligatory single black card. However the seller must know that you aren't really in a position to complain and is probably feeling smug while perhaps (I reiterate perhaps) listing all the silvers you would have got, as individual auctions.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, in a more concise way.
1) Caveat Emptor - let the buyer beware
2) Firebox gives you sweets! Q.E.D.

Individual cards on eBay are a good choice for completing a collection, but it does take away the fun of opening packs. I think we should all venture out to retailers for our Wave4 cards if at all possible, and enjoy the feeling of 'being there'. Although I must agree that decent eBay sellers such as ManleyM, Jada (excellent service from them lately) and others are being unfairly tarnished by the Linguistic Neanderthal that is Xxsammisamxx Evil or Very Mad

Dom

PostPosted: Fri Jul 21, 2006 7:39 pm
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domroberts
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Quote:
Most of xxsammisamxx's sets of booster packs are described as:

Quote:
BOXES OF PERPLEX CITY BOOSTERS!

(PACKS R CHEAP AS CONTAIN A LOWER AMOUNT OF BLACK & SILVER CARDS!)

How does s/he know? They are also described as NEW and SEALED.


Could and should we report this to Mind Candy? I imagine (hope) they would take a very dim view of this sort of thing...

Evil or Very Mad

PostPosted: Fri Jul 21, 2006 7:42 pm
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Joe
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doublecross wrote:

How does s/he know? They are also described as NEW and SEALED.


and they very well could be. you don't need to open a pack of cards to know what is in them.. there is NOTHING random about the distribution.. computers do not understand random, therefore it is impossible for them to be as such unless there is a human involved in the process somewhere.. and that would cost too much..
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 21, 2006 9:10 pm
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European Chris
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Joe wrote:
therefore it is impossible for them to be as such unless there is a human involved in the process somewhere


That's a very bold statement.
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PostPosted: Sat Jul 22, 2006 5:03 am
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domroberts
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 		Computers do understand random anyway. The first that springs to mind is ERNIE who selects the Premium Bond Numbers (Electronic Random Number Indicating Equipment)

If the packs containing rare cards are that easy to spot then MC should be on the case pronto to stop this.

PostPosted: Sat Jul 22, 2006 8:44 am
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poozle
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Joined: 15 Aug 2005
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 		All random things done by computers are completely random they are pseudo-random, if you looked at a large enough sample (probably in the millions) there would be a pattern but not of an ease to notice by a small ebayer.

PostPosted: Sat Jul 22, 2006 10:14 am
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jonc
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Joe wrote:
computers do not understand random, therefore it is impossible for them to be as such unless there is a human involved in the process somewhere.. and that would cost too much..


JUst because computers "don't understand random" doesn't mean that they can make use of random inputs etc. or put into action random processes.

If you put a huge stack of evenly distributed cards in a pile, got a mechanical arm to stir, and then pushed them into a shute where they were picked and packed, then while the computer wasn't doing anything random, I'm guessing you'd get a pretty random result (presuming you had a good mixing arm etc)

PostPosted: Sat Jul 22, 2006 10:20 am
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duckiemonster
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 		I think it's time that this witch hunt of a thread gives in to the hypnotic charm of the dancing locky...

Locky!

If you've got a problem with a specific seller, I suggest you take it up with ebay or Mind Candy. If you don't want problems, buy from Firebox.
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PostPosted: Sat Jul 22, 2006 12:26 pm
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domroberts
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 		There is a convincing argument that if someone is ripping off PXC fans then this is the place to air those warnings. Else it will just continue to happen and more of us could get ripped off.

This thread is not a witch hunt, as all of us who have aired our bad experiences of this seller have justifiable stories and have decided to warn others.

With respect, just because these topics make might one feel uncomfortable, that is no reason to lock it to future contributions. The UnFiction policy should be to allow reasonably free speech on topics related to PXC, and we should be able to do just that on this topic.

Dom

PostPosted: Sat Jul 22, 2006 5:53 pm
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Juxta
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Joined: 28 Aug 2005
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Quote:
There is a convincing argument that if someone is ripping off PXC fans then this is the place to air those warnings.


The argument is yours. That does not necessarily make it convincing. That said, I do disagree entirely with "shady" and "dubious" practices amongst retailers, whether they be online, offline or both. Your own very valid words on the topic, which you have used repeatedly in this thread already, are "Caveat Emptor - let the buyer beware". Your point has been made, and re-iterated, there really is no need for the thread to continue any further, now that you have made your "concise" point clear. Indeed, the thread now appears to be spiralling into a discussion on the nature of the word "random", which threatens to bury your concerns and suggestions entirely.

Quote:
This thread is not a witch hunt, as all of us who have aired our bad experiences of this seller have justifiable stories and have decided to warn others.


You are citing one seller, with absolutely no incontrovertible proof of wrongdoing. Unless you are able to "prove" it, then you are essentially just pitting your word against theirs, one opinion without substantiating facts against another.

In fact, you're about a month too late I'm afraid. This whole discussion already took place, on Mind Candy's own forums. Predictably, it descended into a pitchfork-and-flaming-torch wielding mob, and I believe the thread had to be removed. Mind Candy's response can be found here. I would recommend paying close attention to the parts regarding posts which contain "anything that may be libelous or defamatory". These are valid concerns from Mind Candy, and whilst UnFiction is entirely separate to them, I would guess that it's similar territory that we don't need to be treading on.

Quote:
With respect, just because these topics make might one feel uncomfortable, that is no reason to lock it to future contributions. The UnFiction policy should be to allow reasonably free speech on topics related to PXC, and we should be able to do just that on this topic.


With an equal amount of respect in return, the topic does not make me "feel uncomfortable". I disagree entirely with people attempting to gouge money out of unsupecting community members, however the point has been made, and it is now becoming laboured. This thread can go nowhere from here, except down.

J
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PostPosted: Sat Jul 22, 2006 7:58 pm
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domroberts
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Joined: 28 Apr 2006
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 		Fair point, I've already made my own views clear on this topic and don't have anything to add myself. If nothing else, I'm pleased I had the chance to let others know of my own experience.

Ta

PostPosted: Sat Jul 22, 2006 8:17 pm
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batgirl
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Joined: 03 May 2006
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 		As it is xxsammisamxx who won the charity auction, I must just add that I will be deeply disappointed if I then see the shiny things up for auction on ebay, as apparently they were contacted and confirmed the purchase was for themselves and not for profit.

At the same time though, look at all the cash raised for the kids Smile
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 23, 2006 7:34 pm
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European Chris
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Joined: 19 Jul 2005
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Juxta wrote:
Indeed, the thread now appears to be spiralling into a discussion on the nature of the word "random", which threatens to bury your concerns and suggestions entirely.


That's quite an interesting chat though.
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 6:52 am
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thereverendeg
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 		not fraud??
Joe wrote:

it's not technically fraud.. I am in no way trying to support this person (as personally I'd like to hit them with a fish because they're giving a bad name for the other ebay sellers like myself..) but the auction says you're bidding on X number of packs and that's exactly what you received in the mail.. unless it's stated that they're "totally random" packs (or something to that effect) you can't technically do anything (as they are clearly NOT random, that would be false advertising) The law sucks sometimes.. because even though it's immoral, it's not illegal...


Well before the auction ended there was a message about how "unlike other unscrupulous sellers these packs are garunteed unsorted" or something like that. It also claimed to be taken from wave 1-3 boosters but over half of what I received were 0.5. Now, I don't have too much problem with 0.5, but there aren't any blacks or silvers I could get from that and that's why I wasn't ordering 0.5 boosters. I got something I didn't order. And he took that little message about being unsorted off. This IS THE DEFINITION of fraud. I paid for 20 boosters of UNSORTED, wave 1-3 cards. Not for 120 sorted common cards, which end up being 82% reds and oranges and over half wave 0.5, with only a single (common - little piggly farm) black card and no singles.


EDIT: afterthought, could we setup some sort of PXC-specific eBay topic just for listing our good/bad experiences with different eBay sellers? This would be nice as before a purchase one could check here to see if there are any sellers already known to be honest or check that the seller they are considering buying from hasn't already been tagged for fraud. I think this'd be a pretty useful resource for us 'bayers.

PostPosted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 12:32 pm
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