From OpinionJournal:
The plot thickens. TraderList.com, “the most complete source of good & bad collectible traders,” has a page titled “Complaints Against Drunken Sailor or Steven Kaye,” in which “glorybeeto,” who paid $860 for thedrunkensailor’s collection of Beanie Babies from his ex-wife, complains that the rare items in the set turned out to be counterfeits. (We noted the sale yesterday.)
Glorybeeto, whose real name apparently is J. O’Buck, says she was the eBay user called Taisha who wrote thedrunkensailor to warn him of the possibility of counterfeits (quotes are verbatim):He printed the message, without the “disclaimer” and “counterfeit” eBay rules I had included, and INCLUDED MY ID. He posted also that he had blocked me from bidding. I had also alerted eBay that the auction should be pulled because it was fraught with disclaimers. eBay paid no attention to its own rule and did nothing. I also alerted eBay that he had posted my ID, which is against eBay rules, and again, nothing was done.
From the tenor of the listing, I believed the seller to be an angry person, upset by his wife leaving him, but did question that if she was such an avid collector why she would leave behind the rare and valuable beanies. I checked his feedback with over 500 positives and no negatives, his “ME” posting, and later his name and address which checked out. Based on this I bid using my glorybeeto ID. I learned later that two friends asked him questions about the beanies and he did not respond. I did not question him with my bidding ID because I felt, in light of his obvious anger, he would block that ID as well. Had the beanies been genuine, the price I bid was very good. I felt I was behind the proverbial rock and a hard place because he could be telling the truth and I would miss out if I did not bid.
Pat Edgerton, a “mediator” for Tradelist, wrote Kaye on glorybeeto’s behalf, prompting the following response:
I have no idea who you are, or what your “tradelist” is. I find your comments threatening and offensive. I don’t care what J.O.Buck is demanding. I am demanding that you no longer email me. As I told him/her, feel free to call the police, FBI, Postal Inspector, and the Freaking Wildlife Organization that governs Blue Stuffed Elephants.You must be insane if you think I am going to take you seriously. If this complaint were even slightly valid, he/she should have brought it up through ebay, or paypal. But knowing full well that it has no validity he.she did not.
Last I checked, the “TradeList” was not in any position to threaten me with formal fraud charges. I will forward this email to my attorney as I find it offensive, harassing, and threatening.
If you want to play hard ball, then go get your bat and lets play.
I demand that you NO LONGER EMAIL ME for any reason, unless to apologize.
Our item yesterday prompted this e-mail from reader Bernard Levine:
Drunken Sailor’s opening gambit, claiming to know nothing about these items he got in some entertaining and mildly plausible way, is alas a common eBay seller’s ploy for presenting either fakes, or mixed lots of fakes and common items. I wouldn’t know a beanie baby if it leapt up and bit me on the ankle, but this is certainly true in the collecting arenas I do play in.All this may be true, but if the TraderList account is accurate, the buyer here can hardly claim to have been defrauded, given that she bought the items knowing full well that the seller didn’t vouch for their authenticity. Caveat emptor, we say.