This Great eBay Scam Will Warm Your Heart

Schadenfreude. It’s when you enjoy others’ misfortune. Read BadgerMatt’s insane eBay story of how he sold tickets for $US600 to a woman who then reneged on the deal (and then got her coughing-up eventually), and you’ll be feeling it too.

Writing on Reddit, BadgerMatt described how he used what’s known as the “glim-dropper” trick to convince a non-paying eBay buyer to cough up with the money:

“I had tickets to a sporting event and couldn’t attend. I made a 1-day listing and clearly stated that the tickets must be picked up in person within 24 hours (the game was the evening after the auction ended, so there wasn’t any time to ship the tickets). A woman won the auction for about $US600. The auction had ended at 10:00am and by 5:00pm she still hadn’t responded to my emails trying to organize the exchange. Finally, at 9:30pm, I got a one-liner email: “I overbid and my husband won’t let me buy these. Sorry and enjoy the game! :)”

I first tried explaining that I wouldn’t have the time to resell the tickets (I already got turned down by the losing bidders). She said, “… that’s not my problem. It’s eBay, not a car dealership. I can back out if I want.” I still don’t understand the car dealership reference.

I was pretty upset. I was basically going to be stuck with tickets to an event that I couldn’t attend. That’s when I got the idea to convince her to change her mind.

I created a new eBay account, “Payback” we’ll call it, and sent her a message: “Hi there, I noticed you won an auction for 4 [sporting event]tickets. I meant to bid on these but couldn’t get to a computer. I wanted to take my son and dad and would be willing to give you $US1,000 for the tickets. I imagine that you’ve already made plans to attend, but I figured it was worth a shot.”

At 11:30pm she responded to Payback: “I’ll do it for $US1,100, no less. I can meet you at the game if you agree. I need your phone number.”

At 11:35pm, Payback wrote: “Deal. Here is my number…” (Thanks Google Voice for the throwaway number). She called a few minutes later and made Payback “promise” to go through with the deal. She emphasised that she’d be out a lot of money if Payback backed out. Payback swore he would never do such a thing.

At 11:45pm, the woman emailed me: “Fine. I’ll buy them. But you have to drop them off at my house tonight. I’ll have the cash ready.” So at fucking midnight I drove to her house across town and met her on the road in front of her apartment building. She was a nasty and rude individual. Things didn’t get any better when I told her I wanted an extra $US20 for the trouble of driving there at midnight (yeah, pushing my luck, I know). It became very awkward and she literally threw 31 $US20 bills at me. I counted them before handing over the tickets. I said, “thanks for the great transaction” as she flipped me off while walking away.

At 10:00am she called Payback to make sure they were still on for the exchange. Payback said that he could no longer go to the game and wouldn’t be able to do the exchange. She blew her fucking top and I swear to god started speaking in tongues. Payback said, “Ma’am, this is eBay, not a car dealership” and hung up.

I got a rabid email 10 minutes later telling me that I was going to hell and that she’s reported me to the local police, FBI, and… the fire department. WTF?”

BadgerMatt’s move is perhaps underhand – and you can begin to see why eBay has made auction bidders’ usernames private to others – but there’s no debate that the woman got what was owed to her. Rather costly sports tickets, and a big fat lesson in how to use eBay. Read the full, hilarious, story over at Reddit, including her particularly nasty email to him: [Reddit]