Amtrak Gift Certificates on Ebay

[Everydaymatters]

Someone has Amtrak gift certificates on Ebay. They're Buy It Now for $400 for certificates worth $500. Are these authentic? He says he has 10 of them. So he has $5000 worth of gift certificates??? Seems a little odd.

 

[Everydaymatters]

Whoops! That should be 10 $50 certificates totalling $500. I guess that's not so odd afterall. But how would one know if they're authentic?

 

[AlanB]

Whoops! That should be 10 $50 certificates totalling $500. I guess that's not so odd afterall. But how would one know if they're authentic?

You can't. You'd have to be very trusting.

 

[had8ley]

Someone has Amtrak gift certificates on Ebay. They're Buy It Now for $400 for certificates worth $500. Are these authentic? He says he has 10 of them. So he has $5000 worth of gift certificates??? Seems a little odd.

I don't think I'd go there. They are not exactly giving them away either.

 

[AmtrakFan]

I'd be really suspiousis and would avoid buying them personally.

 

[john h]

I'd be really suspiousis and would avoid buying them personally.

Well reading the guys question/answers looks like he bought them with american express points and can no longer take the trip he planned, I know you have to be cautious with anything on ebay just seems he has a pretty good rating but as always buyer be aware

 

[AlanB]

I'd be really suspiousis and would avoid buying them personally.

Well reading the guys question/answers looks like he bought them with american express points and can no longer take the trip he planned, I know you have to be cautious with anything on ebay just seems he has a pretty good rating but as always buyer be aware

Good ratings mean nothing IMHO. As many here know, I'm also a Shania Twain fan. About a year ago there was someone selling an outfit that Shania wore during her first TV special back in 1999. He had a great rating and stated that he had a certificate of authenticity. Only problem, the original is hanging in the Shania Twain Center in Timmins Ontario Canada.

When confronted with that news by a fan, he changed his story a bit and tried to claim that the special was filmed over 3 days, and that therefore there were 3 of the same outfits. He wasn't sure if the one he had was the one used during the special or the rehersals. Only problems, Shania didn't do any rehersals, only the band did and the outfit was a Marc Bauer original. He only made one. Once EBay got a nice letter from Shania's lawyers, the auction was quickly ended before anyone lost their money.

And again, this guy had a great rating. He must have been rating himself using other accounts, but he did have a good rating.

 

[Everydaymatters]

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And again, this guy had a great rating. He must have been rating himself using other accounts, but he did have a good rating.

Is he still selling on Ebay after they found out the outfit was phoney?

 

[AmtrakWPK]

Alan - It's also possible that HE got suckered by somebody else, and that, at least when he started the auction, maybe he believed it was authentic, complete with the certificate of authenticity from whoever sold it to him. But instead of making a nice profit on the item he got stiffed. Instead of his being the primary villain in this particular drama, he may well have ended up as the primary victim, depending on what he paid for the item to start with. Just because he had good ratings and had sold lots of items doesn't mean he can't get suckered like everybody else. But when legitimate concerns about the item were brought to his attention he should have inquired and then canceled the auction himself (or drastically change the item description and zero out any bids and start over) instead of having to be forced to. I'm not saying this WAS the situation, but it could have been. I've dealt with frauds and idiots on eBay myself, and this may have been one, and I've been burned a couple of times, but I'm suggesting that we really don't have enough information on this one to judge.

 

[MrFSS]

Paying with Paypal on eBay gives you some amount of security and safety as they provide a guarantee.

 

[Guest]

Paying with Paypal on eBay gives you some amount of security and safety as they provide a guarantee.

Paypal sucks, believe me. I had very bad experience with paypal and lost money both like buyer and like seller.

 

[MrFSS]

Paying with Paypal on eBay gives you some amount of security and safety as they provide a guarantee.

Paypal sucks, believe me. I had very bad experience with paypal and lost money both like buyer and like seller.

That's interesting - I've used it for years on both sides and never had a problem.

 

[Everydaymatters]

Lately I've heard many, many stories of people getting badly burnt with both Ebay and PayPal. Both buyers and sellers. People now are tending to look at stores like GoAntiques or something instead of Ebay and PayPal.

 

[JayPea]

Paying with Paypal on eBay gives you some amount of security and safety as they provide a guarantee.

Paypal sucks, believe me. I had very bad experience with paypal and lost money both like buyer and like seller.

I've had a rather unpleasant experience with PayPal, too, which is why I don't want to have anything to do with it again.

 

[AlanB]

.

And again, this guy had a great rating. He must have been rating himself using other accounts, but he did have a good rating.

Is he still selling on Ebay after they found out the outfit was phoney?

Yes he's still selling other stuff, or at least he was a few months after that incident. And he's always selling stuff by artists/actors.

 

[AlanB]

Alan - It's also possible that HE got suckered by somebody else, and that, at least when he started the auction, maybe he believed it was authentic, complete with the certificate of authenticity from whoever sold it to him. But instead of making a nice profit on the item he got stiffed. Instead of his being the primary villain in this particular drama, he may well have ended up as the primary victim, depending on what he paid for the item to start with. Just because he had good ratings and had sold lots of items doesn't mean he can't get suckered like everybody else. But when legitimate concerns about the item were brought to his attention he should have inquired and then canceled the auction himself (or drastically change the item description and zero out any bids and start over) instead of having to be forced to. I'm not saying this WAS the situation, but it could have been. I've dealt with frauds and idiots on eBay myself, and this may have been one, and I've been burned a couple of times, but I'm suggesting that we really don't have enough information on this one to judge.

I should have mentioned that he claimed that he had gotten it directly from someone at the shooting of the TV special and claimed to be the only owner of the outfit. Which of course then begged the question of where did he get the certificate. But of course, one get easily get a certificate if one is willing to pay a few bucks for it. There are places that will certify anything, but they never verify that what they are certifying is true.

And as I mentioned in my post above to Betty, he was also selling many other articles of clothing from other artists. I don't think that this was an innocent accident, I firmly believe that he's a scam artist.

 

[AmtrakWPK]

In which case one hopes eBay will eventually ban him. Although that part of it is iffy, since eBay gets it's money from sellers. Same problem with expecting States to do anything about the obscenity called "REBATES", which permeates the retail sphere. They don't WANT to reduce the number of rebates because the States make out like bandits from those rebates. If you have a $40 item with a $20 rebate, what you ended up buying (if they actually do send you the rebate) is a $20 item at DOUBLE the prevailing sales tax percentage (you don't get a rebate on the sales tax for that rebated $20) Plus postage, cost of envelope, etc.