Not to derail the thread, but what about when the reverse happens, when a buyer tries to do it to a seller (or in my case, a trader)?
Recently, I was contacted out of nowhere by someone who wanted one of my more valuable cards for basically nothing in a trade, because (his story went) it was for his sick father-in-law who always wanted the card in his collection, and he wanted to give it to him as a glorious (final?) Christmas present. (The clear indication was that he wasn't long for this world.) The arrogance of it all was what struck me the most. I had never communicated with this person before, had no idea in heck who he even was, and he just assumed I was going to hand over a prized card, because he concluded his message with something to the effect of, "Send me your address so I can get these cards (which were a basically commons from my need list) out to you right away and I'll give you my address so you can send your card quickly, because Christmas is almost here." In his mind it was a foregone conclusion that I had (with apologies to REM) bought the myth and was going to readily make the 'trade.' And it was all in a single e-mail, too. There was no back and forth of, "Hey, you don't know me, but I'm hoping you can you do me a favor?" No discussion. Nothing. So, I was like, "Huh???? No communication whatsoever and his first contact with me is to request that I hand over a very expensive card???? Geez, yeah I'm that stupid. I'll send your card out tomorrow, buddy." I didn't bother responding to him and I haven't heard a word from him since. And, yes, it was obvious he was a BS'er. This wasn't me being mean to an unknown dying man.
And, I'm sad to say, this isn't the first time this type of ploy was attempted on me and other people. Pathetic.
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