Timeline for A newer friend of my brother's gave him a load of baseball cards that are supposedly extremely valuable. Is this a scam?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
40 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Feb 26, 2020 at 14:30 | comment | added | el toro | @Vicky Basically nothing happened I think. My brother sold 0 cards, but at least he paid 0 money. I have no idea if he's still friends with that guy. I'm not very up-to-date on his life but he's definitely not rich! | |
| Feb 26, 2020 at 9:55 | comment | added | Vicky | @eltoro so how did it play out in the end? | |
| Dec 16, 2019 at 16:30 | comment | added | user8356 | Cards are not "printed off center." Multiple cards are printed on a sheet. Sloppy cutting is what results in differently sized margins. That does not in any way increase the value of a baseball card. Only upside- down airplanes on postage stamps are extra valuable. | |
| Apr 9, 2019 at 17:38 | comment | added | Therac | @undefined I'll elaborate: There was no honest way for the union "friend" to come up with a $250k valuation. People who collect cards can estimate their value, and common 1990 cards aren't worth much. People who don't collect cards wouldn't be able to tell a subtle error from a normal card. An ebay search for the card would lead them to $5 listings, and a google search would lead to "WTF" questions. Finally they didn't claim it was the only such card, but one out of a whole 1000 - a red flag for anyone with their critical thinking on. That was an extra gullibility check, which the mark passed. | |
| Apr 9, 2019 at 8:29 | comment | added | undefined | @marcelm if the union guy dont know it better, then it's clear that he claimed it's valuable. I stick to my opinion that it's not a scam | |
| Apr 9, 2019 at 8:10 | comment | added | marcelm | @undefined Re-read the question and the comments (in particular Therac's); it's clear the Union guy claimed or implied the Uribe card was very valuable, while in reality it's not. This particular case overwhelmingly looks like a scam. | |
| Apr 9, 2019 at 6:20 | comment | added | undefined | @marcelm I made a similar experience with an old man who wanted to sell his vinyl collection and didn't know how to do it "in this modern times". He offered a cut of the sell too. Not everything is always bad or a scam. My guess is that the union guy just dont know better about the value of the cards and didnt bother to check online about the ubris card | |
| Apr 8, 2019 at 17:55 | comment | added | marcelm | @undefined In that case I have a couple of Rembrandt paintings in my garage that you could help me sell for a 30% cut! I'm not very good with computers, you see... | |
| Apr 8, 2019 at 17:13 | answer | added | vsz | timeline score: 4 | |
| Apr 8, 2019 at 16:57 | comment | added | David Richerby | You missed the obvious reason why it's a scam: 0. running somebody around town for an evening when their car broke down isn't worth $83000 to anybody. | |
| Apr 8, 2019 at 15:50 | history | edited | el toro | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
few days later update
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| Apr 8, 2019 at 14:17 | comment | added | UnhandledExcepSean | The local police might be interested in the fraud being set up here. Probably worth a visit to the local police station. | |
| Apr 8, 2019 at 9:54 | comment | added | Therac | The Jose Uribe card is the Nigerian prince of baseball cards. Someone with common knowledge in the field can ballpark an upper bound to a card's value, so claiming a 6-figure value to one serves to filter out anyone but those completely unfamiliar with the market. | |
| Apr 8, 2019 at 9:37 | comment | added | undefined | maybe the colleague is just not so good in computer and he doesn't know where how to sell those cards. Doesn't sound like scam for me. | |
| Apr 7, 2019 at 23:06 | answer | added | le3th4x0rbot | timeline score: 3 | |
| Apr 7, 2019 at 20:56 | comment | added | marcelm | If your brother goes through with this, could you post an update about the outcome, regardless if it is positive or negative? That would be of much help of future readers of this question (helping them to find business opportunities or warning them against scams). | |
| Apr 7, 2019 at 20:16 | comment | added | Dawood ibn Kareem | What's going to happen when your brother sells the Uribe card for its true value, and the "friend" demands 70% of $250k for it? | |
| Apr 7, 2019 at 11:20 | comment | added | Ellen Spertus | When you see how this plays out, please post an update. | |
| Apr 7, 2019 at 7:09 | comment | added | msouth | OP, consider changing the accepted answer to @Eric Lippert's answer. And warn your brother off of this. At least read Eric's answer thoroughly. Ask your brother if he would hand anyone something worth 250000. | |
| Apr 7, 2019 at 4:02 | comment | added | Ryan Cavanaugh | The "friend" is going to have an accomplice buy the card with a fraudulent check, then demand his share of the "profits" before your brother's bank figures out that the money isn't real and reverses the deposit. Easy money. | |
| Apr 7, 2019 at 0:56 | comment | added | aroth | "He's a higher ranking guy [...] so my brother says he's more senior and trustworthy" - Regardless of context, rank/seniority does not correlate to trustworthiness. | |
| Apr 6, 2019 at 18:45 | answer | added | Stilez | timeline score: 14 | |
| Apr 6, 2019 at 10:15 | answer | added | Nat | timeline score: 3 | |
| Apr 6, 2019 at 0:39 | history | protected | JTP - Apologise to Monica♦ | ||
| Apr 6, 2019 at 0:34 | answer | added | The Gilbert Arenas Dagger | timeline score: -1 | |
| Apr 6, 2019 at 0:21 | answer | added | user84118 | timeline score: 82 | |
| Apr 5, 2019 at 21:00 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/StackFinance/status/1114271640177786882 | ||
| Apr 5, 2019 at 20:32 | answer | added | Eric Lippert | timeline score: 168 | |
| Apr 5, 2019 at 19:46 | comment | added | jamesdlin | How do you know that they're legitimate cards and aren't stolen or counterfeit? | |
| Apr 5, 2019 at 19:36 | history | edited | el toro | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
the title had a typo
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| Apr 5, 2019 at 19:09 | history | became hot network question | |||
| Apr 5, 2019 at 17:14 | vote | accept | el toro | ||
| Apr 5, 2019 at 17:14 | vote | accept | el toro | ||
| Apr 5, 2019 at 17:14 | |||||
| Apr 5, 2019 at 14:51 | answer | added | Freiheit | timeline score: 91 | |
| Apr 5, 2019 at 14:37 | comment | added | Rob | We need more information to offer an answer. Generally a "scam" would involve one person transferring money to another and not receiving something that was expected. I don't see that. If you include in your definition of "scam" having to spend a lot of time and not be sufficiently compensated then it's a question of whether 1/3 is a fair split for an unknown amount of work. If the cards are stolen and the owner would deny having given your brother the cards if he's caught then that's a patsy scam. | |
| Apr 5, 2019 at 13:57 | comment | added | el toro | Well again, that's what I figured for the Jose Uribe. That's why my question in the bottom of the post is, regardless of the Uribe's value, could this exchange eventually result in my brother being scammed? Even if he sells the Uribe for $1, it might not be a scam in the end. It could be the card owner also simply not knowing and being tricked by the eBay posts. | |
| Apr 5, 2019 at 13:51 | comment | added | el toro | My brother says they are "difficult to sell and take a long time to do, so he wanted help". I figured if it's legit, it's a combination of that, and my brother having helped drive him home after his car broke down late at night. | |
| Apr 5, 2019 at 13:50 | comment | added | Freiheit | A key question - Why would your brothers friend not simply sell these cards himself? Why use an intermediary and give up 30% of the profit? | |
| Apr 5, 2019 at 13:45 | review | First posts | |||
| Apr 5, 2019 at 14:36 | |||||
| Apr 5, 2019 at 13:40 | history | asked | el toro | CC BY-SA 4.0 |