How to Scam and Make $ on eBay...

[mintacular]

Jason, my original thread was not intended to torpedo Battleship per se but more so point out a raw vintage model that seems to exaggerate a card's "pristine" condition while ignoring obvious flaws. To add insult to injury for me, is that these sellers with the wonderful specimens purposefully do not provide a decent scan....In terms of shilling, others are better experts how to detect this, but I can't help to think many of these auctions have a "shill" account as the final sales prices are much higher than the graded equivalent, and to me for that to happen consistently sets off some red flags. Many of these cards probably have been cracked out of holders OR contain an original flaw that the seller realizes would prevent it from getting a good grade so they don't send it in in the first place. Worse case scenario, some of these guys alter/trim cards to make them appear ultra high-grade.

In short, these auctions are very suspect and should be avoided IMO.