First post here but I figured if anyone would know what’s going on it would be you guys.
On January 13th I bought and paid for 31 cards totaling over $3,000 from probstein123 auctions on eBay.
They were shipped using tracking number LG026277697US. If you check the tracking you will see they were shipped from and delivered to the same Zip Code in New Jersey, presumably Probstein123’s office. I contacted them about this last week and received no reply on eBay. I figured it was a tracking error or the auction winnings would be reshipped to me eventuially.
Today I check Probstein123 auctions for anything new as I do most weeks. I see the exact same cards I won with the exact same PSA cert numbers back up for auction ending tomorrow. The cards I won at auction and paid for are being re-sold by Probstein123. If mods require proof I can post screenshots of my cards listed as bought and delivered on eBay and the cards being sold now. The PSA certification numbers are the exact same on every card re-listed. My whole order of over $3k USD is being re-sold.
I have obviously reached out to Probstein on eBay but given that my first message last week as ignored I am not sure they even check messages. I don’t know what to do. I do not want a refund, I want the cards I fairly won on auction. I don’t know what is happening. I don’t know how someone can ship an auction to themselves and re-sell it on eBay. This is crazy. I understand Probstein123 must be very busy as the deal with tens of thousands of consignments, but this kind of mistake is unacceptable. My cards have been stolen from me and are being re-sold. I am lost on what to do. Probstein123 has not replied to me at all.
Sorry for the word vomit rant, this has never happened to me in almost a year using eBay weekly to buy, and the fact it is a 3k purchase just makes it 100 times worse. If this was one item I would understand but I won 31 cards on auction which I paid for and now see these cards back up for auction tomorrow. WTF is going on.
Thank you so much for anyone who can help me. I am shaking. I don’t want to lose my cards and money.
“There are several avenues you could take. Since time has elapsed, I would ask eBay to step in and summarize what you just told us.”
Ok, I mean I figure I can get eBay to issue the refund eventually since the items never arrived, but I guess I lose out on my cards since they are being re-seold. And I have to wait while my 3k gets processed. As an international buyer, I lose out on the conversion of USD as well which ends up being like 5% of $3,000. Can I somehow pursue compensation for losing out on this money? Seems incredibly BS for me to lose out on a seller error, they should be responsible for this stuff.
Hey, Probstein is well known for dubious practise. Welcome to Efour, I certainly don’t want to say ‘we told you so’ but all I can do is say that you are certainly not alone - but if you check out the efour ebay garbage, there is certainly a blacklist to hopefully avoid dealing business with bad sellers again.
Hey, thanks for the heads up, unfortunately they have 99.5% positive feedback so I never bothered checking recent negative feedback or searching their name online, figured it was just a consignment seller…
It’s crazy to do this on a 3k usd purchase though no? The worst part is I have another 1k in auction wins I thought was on the way from probstein (I only bought it a couple days before this happened on Jan 10th). Obviously I would have never bought more had I known what was happening but it often takes stuff weeks to get to me here in Canada, just figured it was delayed.
How can eBay allow this? This seller is literally shipping to themselves and reselling paid for auctions. Is this not like fraud or against the law or something? I feel defrauded of my thousands of dollars seeing as how none of my auction wins have been honored, this feels incredibly illegal and not something eBay should allow on their platform.
I have contacted eBay support but I just expect to get some standard response and my money back minus like $200 for conversion after several weeks. This seller should be removed from eBay, how can this be allowed?
Yeah, any of us could have done the same. Though for reference, 99.5% positive with his 3.4m items sold is 17,000 bad transactions! Which is crazy. I’m amazed with how anti-seller Ebay is, that they’ve not taken some note of that, but then Ebay do what they will.
No-one on this forum will be able to give actual legal advise.
If he tells Ebay support, oh yeah I meant to cancel the order and give him a full refund, then he has a lot easier time explaining it as an accident, albeit an unethical and dishonest one. But you’ll have to wait for Ebay to contact him before you have any idea what his explanation is, which is really key.
While this situation is obviously messy, assuming negatives is counterproductive. This is a pretty common tracking error. I’ve had it happen multiple times in a year. Correctly print the label, and usps incorrectly scans “delivered”.
I am in no way defending any potential negative action the seller may have done. But assuming they maliciously shipped it to themselves is wrong without evidence. I’d just call ebay and explain the situation. That is the only option that will provide any type of resolution.
Hey, huge fan of the channel and it’s the reason I came here for advice.
I have had no bad experiences buying and selling Pokémon all year until now. I really wanted to assume the best and give Probstein the benefit of the doubt. I really wanted these cards and thought I scored some great deals during the auction.
The problem is the exact same cards are being re-auctioned. Whether they intentionally sent the cards to themselves or it got returned by the Post Office by mistake, the cards should not be re-auctioned. I contacted the seller on the 18th about the weird delivery problem and gave them the benefit of the doubt that it was a tracking error seeing as how they didn’t respond. But today I saw the cards being auctioned, same cert numbers and everything. I can’t ignore that as a shipping error.
I don’t know how to post images directly to the forum, but here is an imgur link of the porygon 2 I purchased, and the one currently up for auction. imgur.com/a/Psv9g4B . It’s the same card. I don’t know what think, I wish I could stop the auction and get my cards but at this point I think they will simply be sold off to new buyers and I just have to pursue a refund.
You acknowledge that probstein is a very large consignment service. I don’t think they are intentionally scamming you out of $3000 - probably a fraction of their weekly income. Using terms like “steal” or “lawyer up” is just not the appropriate response to this situation.
I understand it’s an emotional situation and you probably feel slighted. But the response should be logical and measured. Here’s what I would do.
Contact probstein through ebay message, get a phone number or a more personal direct way of contacting them. Attempt to work it out with the seller first.
Should the seller be completely unhelpful, start going through ebay. Might be worth it to call/online chat with them to explain the situation and get them to admit you are entitled to a refund. Start the “item not received” route. Probably give some negatives to the seller at that point
THEN, if ebay doesn’t side with you it’s time to look at more drastic measures. Escalate to paypal or your bank. If you are really desperate, file a police report. Keep going until it’s no longer worth it to fight for your money back
The great thing about shopping on ebay is there is a set of steps that slowly escalate which you can take to resolve a problem. Start there before jumping to “theft” as an explanation for what happened.
Not saying that Probstein is clear of any wrongdoing, but the post accusing a gigantic seller/consignment service like Probstein of trying to “manipulate the market” over a PSA 9 Aquapolis Nidoking is ludicrous. Lol.
Saying “they are apparently known to shill bid their own auctions” is also borderline libel. People need to stop throwing stuff out there without any concrete evidence just because they feel wronged. It’s a pretty big thing in this hobby and is a sign of immaturity.
Hey, I will definitely admit I am very emotional currently and that biases my take on what’s happened.
I contacted Probstein on the 18th after the weird tracking showed the package as delivered, but delivered in New Jersey. I sent a message asking why this happened and if it was just a PO error. I have not received a reply at all.
I have already reported the items as “did not receive” and will wait for Probstein or eBay to respond in the coming days. I am confident eBay will return my money once they check the tracking and see the situation. I am upset I will lose Canadian dollars as the USD is converted for the refund. Since it was a 3k purchase I am out like $150+ from conversion.
I understand “stealing” is a strong accusation, but I see the cards I paid for currently up for auction. How can a seller mistakenly send out a package and instead of rectifying the situation they re-list the 31 cards I purchased for auction. I understand Probstein has a huge operation, but how can a mix up like that occur, especially given I messaged on the 18th when the tracking showed the package as delivered.
Shouldn’t they have some sort of record that the cards were paid for by me? If the package came back to them and they mistakenly assumed it was a consignment, wouldn’t somebody check that before re-listing all 31 cards.
I want to be wrong.
I want my cards.
But I see all of them listed up for auction again and Probstein has not responded for a week, in my mind they are gone and I am now waiting for a refund of 3k on this purchase alone.
Strangely, the relisting has 1ED in the title but the one you won was Unl, as are both pictures. Either way, $82 for either print of that Porygon2 would be a great deal if you eventually get the card.
I suppose the most neutral thing is to say that a lot of people have had bad experiences with them. I think it’s helpful to search a seller through the ebay garbage page before making a big order, as if others have had bad experiences, you might too.
I agree with you that it was likely not intentional but of course that does not make it ok. Negligence is no excuse for what’s happened. Taking something that’s not yours and selling it, even mistakenly, should carry some repercussions. Probstein should not have thousands of consignments if they cannot handle the volume without large mistakes like this happening.
It’s just frustrating that I will be paying for the currency conversion and have thousands of dollars inaccessible while the money is returned.
I wish there was some way of contacting Probstein but they do not reply to messages at all seemingly. I wish I could escalate the issue and stop the auctions but without being able to notify the seller of what’s happened, I feel I can’t do anything
The cards being relisted for sale is concerning.
I’d be mad if I was out 150 dollars in conversion fees as well.
Do everything you can to resolve it with him first, then escalate, as others have said.
Don’t feel bad for having an emotional reaction. 3000 is a lot of money.
The fact that Probstein is a big consignment dealer should have no bearing on the scrutinisation he receives for this issue. If anything he should be more heavily scrunitised because of how long he has been doing this and how big his business is.
The lack of communication from him is bad. It doesn’t matter if he receives thousands of messages a day.
