Help needed near Denison TX

[FrugalRefiner]

I'm seeking help for a seller I ran into on feebay. The short version is I'm looking for someone near Denison, TX who is interested in paying a FAIR price for a couple of Canadian Maple Leaf $50.00 coins.

The back story is that this lady's husband has cancer. She has some silver coins listed (what I was interested in) as well as a couple of Maple Leafs
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-1985-1986-CANADIAN-MAPLE-LEAF-50-GOLD-BULLION-COINS-1-OZ-9999-PURE-GOLD-24K-/290703071256?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item43af40d818. Through a number of emails I've learned she is about to lose her house and was offered $500.00 each for the Maple Leafs at a pawn shop. They're on ebay now with a bid of $1,075 for both! Ebay fees are going to eat her up (she had no idea about their fee structure). She needs the money by Monday. If there is anyone here that can help with a quick cash payment, I can put you in touch with each other and God will bless you. She can cancel the ebay auction and deal direct with someone local.

I have no connection with this lady other than my contact through ebay but it would be great if someone could help!

Thanks,
Dave

 

[manorman]

Do not accept cashiers checks for an auction never never never , millions of fake cashiers checks in the world, just my opinion.
Could have sold these at any reputable coin shop in the dallas area at near spot, check the phone book and call a few.
Good luck

 

[FrugalRefiner]

manorman,

Thanks for the advice.

I may not have been clear. I have no part in this transaction. The lady lives in Texas. I live in Ohio. If I could help her I would, but I'm not able to.

I simply know that she has these coins and needs to sell them fast but has no idea of how to go about it and seems to be beyond her limits in dealing with a husband with cancer and 4 kids, let alone trying to find a coin shop an hour away in in Dallas to try to sell them.

For all I know it's a big story concocted by some guy sitting in his underwear with a laptop computer making up a story. :roll: That's why I thought someone nearby in Texas who could see the coins in person and then pay in cash might be interested in helping.

Thanks,
Dave

 

[Harold_V]

Send her a message through ebay, telling her to get in touch with a coin store. There really is no better outlet if she's in a hurry. Also, tell her to get them off ebay immediately. That makes no sense at all. There's a ready market for (bullion) coins such as that----although you do settle for less than value, but not all that much. Most coin stores will buy them on the spot.

I'm having more than a little trouble with the idea that she can sell them for well less than half value because the hour is standing in the way of more than doubling the money.

Harold

 

[nickvc]

Harold do I perhaps get the slight aroma of a small brown creature with a long tail and teeth :shock:

 

[Harold_V]

Harold do I perhaps get the slight aroma of a small brown creature with a long tail and teeth :shock:

Something surely isn't making any sense. Not the way I see it. :!:

Harold

 

[NobleMetalWorks]

Finally something I happen to know a lot about!

I have studied Psychology most of my life, I hold a Masters in Psychology and used to set up fake networks to watch people attack them, so that I could then profile and make a footprint that could later be applied to other computer systems, and identify who was attacking a given network.

Read the eBay listing, if you notice there are several different writing styles. What the person did was to copy, and then past several different sections from other auctions. I am fairly certain that if you were to copy, and then past each of the updates as a whole, in Google search, you would find the original wording on another auction, or maybe website.

If you notice as well, the picture of the coin wasn't taken with a camera, but rather downloaded on a computer that didn't have even the ability to save the picture in any type of quality. Usually meaning a third world country. Also, they are auctioning off a couple items for .99 cents. What people do to scam buyers on eBay, is to sell a few items across a couple accounts for .99 cents. They post rave reviews and when the buyer has 5 buys under his/her belt, other eBayers tend to trust them.

If you look at the people this person has purchased from, you will notice one is selling coins, another technical books many to do with chemistry, you will also see some arbitrary .99 cent auctions. Red flags all over this.

Now look at the other auctions, this person is willing to insure the silver lot, but mentions nothing on the gold lot.

I could go on and on, but the bottom line is that there are far too many conspicuous, dead giveaways, that this person is not who they are pretending to be.

ANYTIME someone asks for a cashiers check I stop even considering them as being remotely real on eBay. And Harold, you are right, if they were desperate, they would have visited their local coin dealer, or even posted it on craigslist. It would have been paid for in cash, almost right away. This simply is not real.

Edit: I have to also say that I am not an expert, I could be wrong, this is only my opinion. With that being said, I am very certain this is a fraudulent eBayer

 

[FrugalRefiner]

Thank you all for your input and advice!

Harold, I've already told her to cancel the feebay auction if she can. Since ARA has been recommended on the forum I was going to point her in their direction but their website says they don't buy from the public. The coin shops were a great suggestion and I've passed that idea along to her.

To those concerned this is a scam, you may be right. I have no way of knowing. My only contact with this lady has been over the past 24 hours in connection with the silver coin auction on feebay, which led to a series of emails exchanged outside of ebay. It may be a scam. Or she may be a very frightened 35ish year old woman with 4 kids who's husband has developed cancer and lost his job. She may now be facing the loss of her home if she doesn't make some movement on a mortgage that is behind a few months. Or as I mentioned above, maybe it's some guy sitting in his recliner drinking a beer and spinning a story. I don't know, but I'd rather give her the benefit of the doubt. I know I can be naive, but I prefer to believe in people. If it's a scam, the seller will have to explain it on judgement day. I myself will be able to say that I tried to help those who needed it. I sleep at night.

Scott, your comments are interesting to me. Not trying to start an argument or create any ill will, but you say "I have studied Psychology most of my life, I hold a Masters in Psychology". You then provide a detailed analysis of the seller based on what you can see on ebay. But at the end you add the disclaimer "I have to also say that I am not an expert". If lifelong study of a subject and holding a Masters degree doesn't qualify you as an expert, what does it take? Just seemed curious.

Again, thank you all for your help and suggestions.

Dave

 

[maynman1751]

Dave, I want to commend you on your compassion for a total stranger. It shows a lot about YOUR character. It's a shame that in this day and age that there are so many charlatans, that make people with a good heart and concern for humanity like yourself, reluctant and wary to help his fellow man. Your a good man Dave and you should be applauded for your concern. 8)

 

[NobleMetalWorks]

Scott, your comments are interesting to me. Not trying to start an argument or create any ill will, but you say "I have studied Psychology most of my life, I hold a Masters in Psychology". You then provide a detailed analysis of the seller based on what you can see on ebay. But at the end you add the disclaimer "I have to also say that I am not an expert". If lifelong study of a subject and holding a Masters degree doesn't qualify you as an expert, what does it take? Just seemed curious.

Dave

Dave,

I dropped out of collage when I obtained my Masters, originally I intended to get my Dr but realized just before I had enough to graduate with a Masters, that my area of study was not something I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Although Psychology fascinates me, I only worked professionally in that capacity a relatively short period of time. I define professional as someone that is in the field, practicing their specialty on a daily bases. I define an expert as someone who has obtained their doctorate and practices psychology on a daily basis with regular clients, etc. I am a voracious reader, and have kept up to date as advances are made in the area of Psychology, however that doesn't make me an expert. There is experience that you cannot get from a book, from interacting with people, patients, clients, etc. It's like recovering and refining gold except on a different plane. I can read Hoke, Ammen, Wise, etc etc etc, but until you actually do the work, you really cannot be any kind of expert.

So although I have profiled people attacking computer networks, it was still not interacting with people, it was more analysis than it was anything else. I felt that I could analyze this auction, and did so based on my prior experience and knowledge, I analyzed only a few aspects of the post and wrote my observations. I did not however go in depth, only so far as I was able to convince myself that this person is attempting to defraud. If I were to go in depth, I would look deeper into language, writing style, geographical location and how it may affect sentence structure, etc. You see there is a difference in convincing myself, and being fair. So to be fair I wanted to make it clear that I am not an expert, and that I could be wrong. Although in my own mind, I am spot on, someone else with more expertise on the matter may have a different take.

You see, even when I express my opinion, or state my opinion as empirical fact, I still feel I should temper it. I don't feel it right to so fervently believe something, and leave no room to be wrong.

Scott

Edited and added

Dave,

I do think it commendable that you are one of those few people who desire to help people. I think you are not only a rare breed, but that we need far more people like you in the world.

Scott

 

[FrugalRefiner]

maynman and Scott,

Thanks for the kind words. I've been burned a few times in my life by scammers, but I choose to believe there are still people in the world who just need a little hand up.

My concern in this thread was that it seemed to head off in a negative direction. If you review my second post you'll see that I conceded it could indeed be a scam, and that's why I suggested:

For all I know it's a big story concocted by some guy sitting in his underwear with a laptop computer making up a story. That's why I thought someone nearby in Texas who could see the coins in person and then pay in cash might be interested in helping.

Harold reitterated manorman's suggestion of a coin shop and I passed that suggestion along to the seller, then there were a couple of posts again suggesting something might be amiss.

I felt your post was at a different level since you began it by stating your credentials, then your analysis, and finally your opinion. You now say that your analysis

did not however go in depth, only so far as I was able to convince myself that this person is attempting to defraud.

:shock:

As part of your analysis, you stated in your first post:

this person is willing to insure the silver lot, but mentions nothing on the gold lot.

If you'll review the auction for the Maple Leafs you'll find the original description says "I will ONLY ship these items PRIORITY with tracking and with insurance"

And while I'm sure you just got in a hurry in typing up your last post, your credentials are still a little murky to me:

I dropped out of collage when I obtained my Masters, originally I intended to get my Dr but realized just before I had enough to graduate with a Masters, that my area of study was not something I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

Scott, I'm really not trying to roast you. My problem was that by presenting your credentials, your analysis, then stating you were certain this was a fraudulent buyer, you may have convinced someone else, who was in a position to help, of the same, even though there was at least one false argument in your analysis.

By the way, I don't think it's ever a good idea to state your opinion as empirical fact. Just as in refining, tiny errors can have serious consequences in real life.

Dave

 

[NobleMetalWorks]

Dave,

If that specific information about insurance is included within the auction description, I either didn't see if prior, or it was added later, unfortunately I cannot tell now which is the case, regardless the rest of what I observed can be taken into account.

I intended, and declared my intent to obtain my Dr in Psychology, by the time I had enough credits to obtain my Masters, I had already decided that Psychology wasn't for me, or at least my area of study. I am empathic, and take on too much of what other people feel around me, if you can understand. It's like inviting someone into your mind, and then trying to think like them in order to help or better understand them. Sometimes a psychologist may take on aspects of the personality they are studying, absorbing them into their own. In my case, I wanted to be a criminal psychologist. You can imagine what doing that for a living may have done to a person like myself. I had the opportunity to intervene a well known sociopath who is still incarcerated to this day, and after that one interview decided definitively that I was never going to subject myself to another sociopath murderer ever again.

I petitioned, and was granted a decision on my Degree, and was presented with a Masters since I completed more than the required coursework. In short, when I was granted a Masters I decided that I no longer wanted to continue with school. I was young, had a great job with an Airline and wanted to see the world. Because I left college at mid-term, and because I did not complete my original intended degree, I consider that to be dropping out.

Dropping out = leaving school before your declared degree is obtained.

Masters = 5-7 years of college

Doctorate = 7-9 years of collage

I left at almost 6 years, I didn't finish the courses I was enrolled in but I was fortunate that my GPA and scholastic experience were such that I was allowed to drop out without penalty.

If you post an eBay auction, and your intent is to bring attention to someone's misfortune, so that other people may decide to help them, then you have to accept the fact that other people may present information on the contrary. Just as you say I may have helped someone make a decision NOT to help this person, other people may decide to help. Without information you cannot make an informed decision. If I give my experience, and my background and explanation, whoever then reads what I have written can judge for themselves if they choose to believe what I do, or not. We are not the intellectual elite charged with deciding for others what they should think, we are only people who offer our opinions based on our own personal knowledge and experience, once given, others choose to do as they please convinced or not, right or wrong.

I try to be fair in stating my opinion, I believe I am right but I also want to make sure that I leave enough room so that people can make up their own mind. If I can explain things better so that I am getting my point across in a way you can understand, please let me know. I am not positive what your point about dropping out of college, the difference between a Masters and a Doctorate, is exactly. I stated something about myself that is telling of my personality, it's not easy to readily admit that you did not complete an intended goal. I thought it only fair to do so in this context, so that people can make up their own mind even about my opinion. It may shed some light on my character, etc.

 

[NobleMetalWorks]

I would be more than happy to continue this discussion via private messages, as I am getting deeper into explaining myself, and I don't think the forum is the place to write about myself. I'm sure people can do without reading my story. But if you need further clarification I can do so via PM.

 

[FrugalRefiner]

Scott,

I don't need to continue any discussion by PM.

When I started this thread my only intention was to bring a little attention to someone who had a couple of auctions on ebay that some members of the forum might have an interest in. I know we have quite a few Texans here. I thought one of them might be able to pick up a couple of gold coins at a reasonable price while helping someone avoid losing 12.5% of their money to feebay/paypal.

This thread has continued to degrade and stray from its original purpose. I never intended this to be a discussion of any member's background, credentials, personality, etc.

I was just trying to help someone out. This will be my last post on this thread.

Dave

 

[NobleMetalWorks]

Dave,

I totally understand your intent, I think it's wonderful that there are still people out there willing to help others. It's commendable, and I mean that.

I think your original intent, to find someone who lives close, was a good idea. I realize you were not trying to encourage anyone to purchase through eBay. And in this case, you were offering a solution to the questionable auction by suggestion that someone close by, meet in person.

You are trying to help, while also suggesting a safe way of making the transaction.

Scott

 

[maynman1751]

Dave and Scott, I truly appreciate the gentlemanly and professional manner with which you discussed this subject. It shows me and the rest of the forum members that these types of discussions can be held without foul language or inflammatory or derogatory character references. You both show your own professional qualities and personal traits in an admirable way. Thank You!

This post may have gone off topic, but it is an excellent example to others of the proper way to conduct yourselves.