#mercari scammer

[misfitfurby]

Heeeey baaaabe wake up

Mercari scammers are back up to their old tricks

Completely copied pictures from this year old post

Please report and spread the word

Hopefully whomever "bought" this Crystal Pink is around the community so they can know to cancel and report the seller before the block them

[snowashl-blog]

I’m going to give everyone really good advice. If you’re something from mercari or eBay and there’s a sob story, don’t fall for it because it could be a scam. If they don’t want you to buy off of mercari or eBay platform and want you to send the money by Zelle or Apple Pay,it’s because on mercari they don’t get paid until you get the package and they want the money now and not on those platforms because it will show up. If they want you to text you by number then don’t respond for hours after you text, it’s more than likely a scam. I fell for yesterday, the item was at such a good price and something I needed for my summer courses because my laptop is about die on me, and they guy was shifty and strange and wouldn’t answer my questions, then after I paid him and like an idiot I ignored the signs. He deleted his profile even though he had four things he was trying to sell, and what makes it more suspicious, he used the excuse of mercari not letting him receive his payment and I know he didn’t read the part where you only get it if the customer received the package. DONT FALL FOR THIS LIKE I DID, I already filed a claim and there’s a good chance I might not get all of the money back, around the 19 is when I’ll get an answer, but because of the situation it’s going to be hard.

[ugh-yoongi]

man, as your kinda-seasoned bts merch mom lemme not gatekeep and tell u something

do not EVER buy wildly overpriced shit from US mercari i can almost guarantee you can find it for a normal price on japanese mercari

and another tip: buy your dvds on there. look for people selling the kor/eng/chi subtitled ones for dirt cheap since they can’t watch them in japan

[octahyde]

Seller Warning

I know there’s been some discussion on Twitter about scammers stealing merch photos, and I just wanted to add another one to avoid and report.

Eight Tokyo on eBay is also stealing photos and charging at a significantly higher cost.

There’s a possibility they’re acting as a makeshift proxy for Mercari listings, but even then they are charging at a significant upcharge over actual proxy services and should be heavily avoided in favor of just using an actual proxy like buyee.

(Also if someone could post/link this on twit because I don’t have an unlocked fandom account that’d be great lol…)

[heckyeahponyscans]

I decided to list a few Care Bears on Poshmark, you know to test it as a potential selling venue, and holy shit the amount of scammers is crazy! Like fifteen people sketchily asking me to email them.

The shipping system is also one of the worst I've ever seen, charging the buyer a flat rate of $8, which Poshmark (not the seller) pockets, so pure profit for Poshmark. Like, it could be an item weighing 2 ounces and Poshmark will still charge you $8.

The selling fee is a bonkers TWENTY PERCENT. So my takeaway is if you see an item you like on Poshmark, search on eBay or Mercari before committing to buy; a lot of sellers list everywhere and adjust their prices to fit the fees they have to pay.

[brxkxnhxxrtsclxb]

i wanted to make a list with tips for those who have recently discovered monster high and love the dolls and wanna partake in the hobby in starting a collection 🖤

for starters: i wanna say you do not need to watch the show / media attached to it if you don’t want to or don’t have the time. you can still enjoy the dolls cuz at the end of the day, they’re dolls and you can do whatever you want with them :3 they’re for play so create your own lore and enjoy it however you please 🖤 also, if the show wasn’t for you, that doesn’t make you less of a fan. you can still enjoy the dolls and hobby 🖤

also: MONSTER HIGH IS FOR EVERYONE !! it doesn’t matter if you’re male, female, nonbinary, straight or queer, you can partake in this hobby !!

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to start, find the dolls / characters that interest you most

whether you want to collect only dolls of one character or multiple of any and every character, it’s up to you to decide :3 it’s okay. there’s no right or wrong way of collecting. narrowing down the dolls you like best helps to get started. you wanna be sure your first doll(s) is special and really speaks to you 🖤

if you like several dolls and are undecided on certain ones, feel free to wait it out and see how you feel about them in a few days, a week, a month or however long you need

sometimes it’s best to wait and contemplate so you don’t end up regretting a purchase. of course if you do, or loved the doll at first but then changed your mind, it’s okay. you can always sell the doll later. you might be holding onto someone’s grail there !!

if you find you like a doll that has been available for a while but can’t decide between that one and a newer doll, go for the older one (this is specifically for G3 since that’s what we currently have widely available)

dolls have a shelf life of about a year. eventually lines start being phased out (currently SS3 is slowly being phased out) and we have no idea how much they’ll go for in the resell market (see SS1 and SS2 draculaura)

if you wanna collect G1 dolls, check out ebay, mercari, facebook marketplace and your local thrift stores. you never know what you may find and sometimes there’s good deals !!

when it comes to G1 dolls, you have to play the long game and have LOTS of patience. many of these dolls go for hundreds and that’s not okay imo. you don’t have to dump these amounts of money on them, especially since bills and other necessities gotta get covered first !! again, patience is key !! eventually you’ll score your grails

speaking of secondhand market, be careful and make sure you read the descriptions and ask questions. don’t be afraid to do so

unfortunately there have been a surge of scammers flooding the MH community. these are easy to spot. they will either use someone else’s photos for the listing, have zero reviews or refuse to answer questions and provide more pictures. sometimes it’s a combination of all. also know they’re not entirely honest about the condition of the dolls. some will not say they’re a smoke friendly home. please ask questions !! also, request them to add a photo with their username written on a paper to add to the listing to further verify they do in fact have the doll

do not purchase from scalpers

i know, kind of contradictory to say check the secondhand market and then say do not buy from scalpers. of course, it’s your money and you can do what you please with it, but if you can, try not to buy from them. it’s the reason they keep bulk buying the entire stock leaving fans without a chance at grabbing a doll they love and why they keep pricing what they price. if people stop buying from them, they’ll have no choice, but to lower their prices cuz no one is buying them and they don’t wanna sit with a stock of dolls they obviously do not want. so if you can help it, try not to buy from them. as stated before, it’s about patience and good deals do show up. also, wait from buying collector dolls on the aftermarket. the hype needs to first die down before they are lowered in price (happened with bride of chucky, creature from the black lagoon and addams family skullectors)

watch out when shopping online from walmart or / and amazon. sometimes other sellers will list a doll (G3) for an inflated price while they’re currently available in major retailers

you do not need every single doll

only buy the dolls you love. i know it can be devastating to love a doll and see everyone hating it, but don’t let that deter you !! with everyone sharing their personal collections and mattel pumping out dolls so frequently, it can be overwhelming and think you must have every doll. that’s simply not true. don’t feel bad for missing out on collector drops you weren’t fully in love with. and if you don’t really love a doll, it’s okay to opt out if you feel it’s the best choice. it’s also okay to purchase and sell later if you truly didn’t like the doll after receiving it

check for sales

i’m not sure about other countries but in the US, retailers will have sales and many dolls end up on sale. amazon does this too. check frequently. you never know when a doll you want may be on sale !!

check the community (get involved if you feel comfy enough to do so)

i encourage to check reddit, instagram, twitter and other forms of social media to keep up with doll news and leaks. it’s also a great place to make friends, ask questions and help each other out when drops happen. if you make good friends with someone, we can also use each other as proxy services if we live in different countries and grab each other certain exclusive dolls we have no access to :3 some dolls / lines don’t make it to certain countries

it’s okay to take breaks

mattel pumps out dolls frequently and the market can be so saturated, it’s overwhelming. it’s completely fine to feel that way and to take breaks when needed🖤

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these are all the tips i can think of at the top of my head

collections are personal and there’s no right or wrong way of doing it. whether you’re an in-box or out-of-box collector, the most important thing is to HAVE FUN !!

i hope this was helpful !! enjoy your collection and welcome to the community!!

anyone can feel free to add any other tips they have to help a new collector out 🖤

[girloftheisland]

Scammed on Mercari: How I Fell Victim to Fraud Thanks to Social Engineering

If it's too good to be true, then it probably is.

I had never been scammed before on the web. I thought it was something that happened to boomers with low internet literacy, to those who open suspicious emails with urgent subject lines that impersonate someone they know, asking for help in the form of $100 gift cards. You know, scams like that.

I confess before this incident I hadn't shopped much on Mercari to buy American Girl stuff on the second market. Mercari seemed like a place where everyone tries to squeeze maximum dollars out of a sale. Dolls go for high prices, and rare outfits go for egregious prices.

One day recently I was skimming through listings on Mercari because I had decided that I wanted to find an early Pleasant Company Molly. I found a lot that was labeled as "Molly American Girl Doll by Pleasant Company HUGE LOT" — and you can bet that it was a huge lot. This person was selling a PC Molly, along with most of the things from her collection: furniture, outfits, accessories, and trunk. If that wasn't enough, the person was also selling a grill and picnic set and several modern outfits, including one that I consider the holy grail of Pleasant Company outfits: a complete Earth Day Outfit that speaks to me on a deep level with its hippie style and 90s beatnik vibes.

It may sound silly now, but it was the Earth Day Outfit that sent me over the edge. Here was something that I had been trying to grab at a decent price for ages. The entire lot was listed for over $650 but marked down to around $550. With Mercari's fees and taxes, it would be around $700. That's a lot of money. But there was a lot of bang for the buck here. I thought that maybe someone was clearing out their storage unit and just wanted to get rid of these 90s toys. On top of that, the listing had a notification at the top that read: "Someone has this in their cart."

Sites like Mercari and eBay (well, maybe every consumer site) will use forms of social engineering to entice users to buy. Lower those inhibitors. It happened to me. As soon as I saw that "someone else has this in their cart" message, whether real or generated, my brain froze and my fingers took over. I grabbed the lot in seconds and then triumphantly sat back in my chair when the payment successfully went through, and whoever had the item in their cart (real or generated) was out of luck.

And once that shopper's high was over, reality started to settle in. There were several odd factors about this listing that I should have paid attention to, and usually do when I'm not a goblin chasing after a perfect set. Most collectors will know the tell-tale signs of a fraudulent or questionable listing.

First, and this will be obvious, you probably shouldn't buy from someone who has zero ratings on their seller profile. How can you know that they're reputable? Scammers create new profiles all the time just to sell an item, or a large lot, and then delete the profile once the scam is complete and the money is in their pockets. They can't reuse the same profile every time; otherwise, it'd have a pile of negative reviews, right?

In my case, the listing also had an unanswered question on its page. That's another red flag. Shouldn't the seller communicate with potential buyers? One user had asked if Molly had a white or tan body, and the seller never answered. So if you're not sure if a listing is real or fake, chat up the seller to see what they know about the item. If you get nothing but radio silence, abort the mission.

After completing the purchase, I had immediate doubts, but I couldn't give up the idea that I had just scored an impressive lot and a number of things that I could check off on my collecting list. That's how these scams work: they pull you in and keep you there. The lot was marked "shipped" the next day and dropped off at the USPS the following day, and when viewing the shipment tracker, I had to face yet another red flag. The original listing said the lot was located in Ohio. But the package was dropped off in Tampa, Florida.

Due to Hurricane Helene, it was stuck in Tampa for several days. It was supposed to arrive on a Monday, but that day came and went, and I was getting worried that it got stuck. Understandably, too, since the hurricane devastated the Carolinas and hit Florida hard. I messaged the seller for the first time and asked what they knew about the postal situation down there, and all they replied was: "Hello, it has been delivered."

Ha, delivered!? USPS trackers are decent enough, and this one said it was still in transit and so unequivocally NOT delivered to my doorstep. In retrospect, I imagine that the scammer was probably laughing and enjoying the ride, while I continued to live in a dreamworld where a huge PC Molly lot was heading my way. I didn't reply to the seller, because ironically, the package was delivered that same evening.

I had asked my partner, who was working from home that day, to check our driveway periodically and be on the lookout for a large package. He checked every half hour but found nothing. You see, we live in a rural area. Our mailbox is not at our house but located half a mile down the road in a cluster mailbox where all the houses on our street collect their mail. Small packages are stored in parcel lockers there. Big packages come straight to the house. When my "lot" was delivered, the tracker said it was left at the mailbox. And I can tell you that there could be no way that such a large lot would fit in a tiny parcel locker. It was another red flag.

I got in my car and drove down the road, inserted my key into our mailbox, and found a small bubble envelope addressed to me. I ripped it open right there and stared dumbfounded at not a PC Molly lot, but a $1 Morgan silver dollar coin. I was angry and felt my blood pressure rise, and you'd think that I would wake up there and then, but I was still clinging to the hope that I would get that Molly lot. I just assumed that the seller had sent me the wrong thing. It's okay to laugh.

I drove back home and messaged the seller. I demanded that they send me the correct items or issue a refund ASAP. I showed the coin to my partner, who immediately understood that I had been the victim of a scam. He talked some sense into me, and I slowly realized that he was right. I had fallen hard for the scam and wanted to cling to it even with all the evidence before me.

Plus, I had just lost $700 dollars.

My partner was calm about the situation, but I was pissed. We decided that we would follow protocol and try to get the money back. We read postings on reddit threads about other people who had fallen for Mercari scams and how they resolved them. I followed Mercari's rules and opened a ticket. I asked to return the item and chose one of their predetermined reasons, that the item I received didn't match the listing. It sure as hell didn't.

Mercari approved the request and sent me a label to ship back this stupid $1 coin. However, on the return label I saw the final red flag. If you remember, the lot was supposed to ship from Ohio but was actually dropped off at a USPS in Tampa, Florida. The return address on the new label was listed for Hawaii. I googled the address and quickly realized that it wasn't valid. The street address was for a block of condos, but the condo or apartment number on the address didn't exist. How was I supposed to return this item, have it delivered, and then receive the refund?

This is how scammers get away with it. According to Mercari's policy, you have three days after receiving an item to try to return it. Otherwise, the sale will be marked as final, and the money goes to the seller. The sale will also be marked as final if you rate the seller. I became worried that the package would get stuck in USPS limbo because it didn't have a valid address, and then the scammer would reap the reward.

I wouldn't go down easily, though. I was going to kick and scream until the situation was rectified. I would make no future contact with the seller. I refused to mail off the item and renewed my ticket with Mercari. I presented all the evidence. Listed off the hallmarks of the scam. Waited for them to do something.

Luckily, the next day I received a refund notification and a note on the ticket from a real person at Mercari that said the sale was cancelled due to the safety of the transaction and other jargon, which all meant that they realized it was a fraudulent post and would delete the listing and the scammer's account.

It was a relief. It was a hard lesson to learn.

The moral of this story is that scammers are attracting unassuming buyers from all sorts of collecting worlds. Even American Girl/Pleasant Company. Try to be safe and savvy when browsing the web. Don't be like me and jump on something that's too good to be true. Because it probably is.

But to end on a positive note, the $1 silver dollar Morgan coin that was shipped in place of the PC Molly lot could be worth $300+ due to its rarity. So that's something.

[dk79484]

i hate these fucking losers on depop who list jirai pieces for like 10x more than it should

i saw someone selling a FUCKING MA*RS SAFETY PIN BOW FOR 60$ + SHIPPING

“oh but shipping from japan costs-“

no it fucking doesnt,

if you buy a parcel of 10 jirai pieces on mercari jp the shipping would be around 40-50$ if you ship to america

divide by 10 and you get around 4-5$ a piece

jp shipping isn’t expensive you just arent looking at the bigger picture ;-;

if you wanna be a scammer its whatever, but if i call you out on it and you use that excuse instead of just being honest you’re pathetic

just sell for what you bought it for and if youre that picky, fine add the extra 5, but when you overprice jfashion all you do is scare off people who are new to jfashion and have them turn to shein (which i could make a rant of its own about but i wont for now)

i get gatekeeping jfashion from people i dont like but overpricing isnt the way to go about it

[rubdown]

I think it's evil that this waving Santa is sold out at every Target in America when I want it so bad I could frow up and scammers n frauds are reselling it on Poshmark and Mercari for between $57-100.......... I think there's no justice in this bitch of a world

[kylejsugarman]

any tips for shopping on sites with individual sellers (don’t really know what this specific Type of site is called but like depop etsy ebay etc)? i really love vintage and thrift and i appreciate online resellers for the accessibility, but i’m totally new to this in regards to weeding out scammers, curating my recommendations, etc

hey!! thrifting online is one of my fave things so im very happy to give u some tips :') the Big Five for me is depop, poshmark, mercari (although they've recently raised their fees so be aware of that), etsy, and ebay. i shop the most on depop because i find it to be the most active app and just a really intuitive interface in terms of messaging sellers, curating ur likes, etc. poshmark has a less broad selection of vintage clothing but sellers on there are more likely to make u really good offers on items. etsy is a more curated vintage shopping experience but prices can be artificially inflated on there. ebay can be sort of a wild card, but it should never be counted out, especially as sellers flood the other more "hip" platforms with high prices.

for curating ur recommendations, start out broad and then narrow in from there. literally just typing in "vintage (color) (article of clothing)" can be a great place to start and give u a sense of both what u like and how sellers on the platforms describe and tag their items. the whole "niche aesthetic" movement is annoying, but it can help u find items that really appeal to ur tastes because sellers will label those aesthetics in an attempt to get more eyes on their items. for example, i hate the whole "coquette" thing, but sometimes ill search the term to find pink, princessy type articles of clothing. u can also search by a particular decade or by a fashion icon u want to emulate, especially on depop and etsy. as u start searching and adding items to ur likes, the algorithm gets better at giving u targeted recommendations and u can get more particular and specific with ur search queries or find sellers that u find offer a good vintage selection (for a FAIR price. do not let a seller convince u that a pretty vintage dress with obvious flaws is worth 200 dollars.)

other things: take ur measurements with a tape measure before shopping (bust, waist, hips, height). vintage sizing is weird and so most (educated) vintage sellers will give the measurements of an item of clothing, which can help u decide if it will fit (ex. i, as a rule, dont buy dresses shorter than 33 inches because i have learned that they will be too short on me and thus will be wasting my money). if the listing only has a few pictures of the item, message the seller and ask for more. never feel bad about asking for more photos or details about the item. if the listing includes a flaw (split stitches, stains), ask the seller if they have tried anything to repair the flaw yet (u may not want to take a risk on an article if the seller has already tried and failed to remove the stains) and do not buy if u are not willing to invest in repairing the item: its just not worth it. as for scamming, do not buy anything from a depop seller who has no reviews/ratings yet. theres less of a scamming problem for vintage on the other platforms (poshmark scammers usually target people buying designer or expensive items), but if u are going to buy a more expensive item secondhand, do not buy a listing that only has pictures from the official site or advertisements: get pictures of the person holding it and make them specific. make offers on items, especially if they are overpriced. get details from the seller. always think critically about the price being presented to u and ask urself if u would buy the same item new with defects: vintage does not inherently mean more valuable.

[brigidandair]

Aughhhhh, scammers suuuuuck

So, back when these cat Makestar cards came out, I immediately spent $40 to secure a set of both Yunho ones. This turned out to be one of the few times I've been straight-out scammed, as the seller disappeared into the ether, deleting their account. So when I saw them on Mercari JP, as a set and with photos that looked very legit, I dropped another $25 on them. Well, they arrived today, and oh my gosh, these are *BAD* fakes. They're horribly oversaturated, and the backs are printed so badly that they cut off the text and have one black mark printed in the middle of the A on the black card. They're *so blue* in-person, with Yunho's lips standing out like neon signs.

The worst part is that I've always been very careful about buying cards. These are *not* the cards depicted in the listing, which looked normal and were printed correctly. These Yunho Makestar cards mark two of the only times in years I've been scammed, and I'm so sad and frustrated. I, a disabled person who can't hold a job, have dropped $65 now (about two months worth of recreational money for me) on *these specific* Makestar cards that I *still do not own*. I bought them through a proxy service, so I can't report the seller or get my money back, and the listing has been deleted already, so I can't even check the seller to warn others.

Just...ugh. It stings a lot to be very aware of scammers and the possibility of being scammed and still end up unable to avoid it. So I'm posting this to both vent and remind people to keep an eye out, and don't bu if *anything* feels off! Always check reviews of sellers, and be careful out there, fellow collectors!

[misfitfurby]

I popped over to the Furby Reddit to just look around and see cute posts but little did I expect to find TWO MORE MERCARI SCAMMERS

Like fr, don't y'all have anything better to do??

Worst part is someone DID fall for it so we now have a victim :(

If ANYONE knows who bought the 8 Ball, please please please do reach them and let them know!

Keep reporting these two accounts as well as the Labrador guy

Mercari has to wake up and do something eventually... Right?

So far, their help and reporting sucks ass but hopefully now with a confirmed scam they'll listen to all of us who have been posting and reporting

[meownotgood]

Mags, around what price are aki stuffed animals what do you buy? Because I've been looking and there are some 600 dollars 😭😭

SIX HUNDRED?!!!? IS THAT IN USD??! don't be fooled by the aki scammers...

I buy all my aki plushes straight from japan, so the price is only $5-25 usd. but then you have to pay shipping which can get expensive depending on the size. I wouldn't buy anything off ebay or mercari unless it's under $30... most of the prices there are outrageous

[blood-and-pizza]

So... guess who is now the proud owner of a XSmart Withered Foxy plush? How did this happen? Well... I tried to purchase a Funtime Freddy Bitty Funko POP figure on Mercari, and the seller sent me this guy instead. I was going to send him back; I even asked the seller to send me a return label so that I wouldn't have to pay shipping.

Instead, the seller told me to list the plushie for a dollar so they could pay for it that way. That struck both me and my mom as horribly suspicious. I told the seller I didn't know how to make a listing (seriously never made one before), and they tried to respond... only for Mercari's admins to delete whatever response they had for me. Now thoroughly creeped out by how suspicious it all was, I blocked the seller.

I had a discussion with my older sister about it and she told me the seller was likely trying to scam me by trying to make me look like I was a scammer and get me in trouble with Mercari. So... the plushie they sent is now mine forever. I swear though, if something like this happens again, I'm not shopping on Mercari anymore.

To Foxy's right is that Monty fragrance I purchased from Etsy! To his left is my Toy Chica plush.

[horrorlesbians]

hi sorry if this is kind of random but i want to start collecting monster high dolls for nostalgia reasons and idk where to start, do you maybe have some advice or smth? your room is super cool btw

well in terms of buying dolls second hand I look at eBay, mercari, and depop. second hand first generation dolls can get quite expensive though, so I’d definitely recommend putting money aside to save for the dolls. beyond the old dolls you can find a some of the generation three dolls that they are making now at target and walmart, also online on amazon. once you get a fair amount of dolls you’ll need something to store them on, wall shelves and bookshelves can work as long as the space is big enough for them to stand. also if you can’t find monster high doll stands I use the ones from amazon that come in a 10 or 12 pack. overall follow monster high on instagram to look out for new dolls and be wary of scammers and people scalping dolls.

[the-bjd-community-confess]

I've been wrongly accused of being a scammer on Facebook for buying some dolls off Mercari. They're shipping didn't move for 7 days so I was advised to cancel from Mercari. I did and got harassed by the seller who claimed they shipped even though I caught them relisting them meaning they never shipped or they are drop shipping.

~Anonymous