yeah, I saw the same too. He had more than just the one listed. I'm sure he'll pop up somewhere else soon

just in case Etsy ever takes down the page, these are the photos of the fakes he was selling

Warduke wrote in Interesting eBay alert! TSR belt buckles:It came from a reputable seller who says he's had it for 10 years but I still have my doubts.

Sellers can get burned when they buy, too. Don't blame them for passing it on in ignorance; buyer beware.

No crimp in the loop = fake, done.

misterspock wrote in Interesting eBay alert! TSR belt buckles:was it this sale?


** expired/removed eBay auction **


If so, isn't the seller on this site? I don't remember everyone's ebay names offhand.
Regardless if he's not, this buckle may have been bought from the seller in Texas/California that we discussed earlier in the thread, and now re-sold.

Pretty sure you can send it back to the seller for a refund through the ebay system btw

During the auction, I asked the seller the provenance of the buckle and for a picture of the back.  I received no reply and the seller did not post any additional pictures to the auction.  Unsure if the dndgeek who is a member here and the seller are one in the same.

I know someone that inquired and the seller told them it had been in his possession for the last 15 years. When they asked for pictures of the back, there was no response.

I'd say the seller certainly knew it was fake and I wouldn't hesitate of open a case with Ebay and Paypal.

I hate it if they bought one of the fakes and got burned but that is no excuse to do it to someone else.

misterspock wrote in Interesting eBay alert! TSR belt buckles:was it this sale?


** expired/removed eBay auction **


If so, isn't the seller on this site? I don't remember everyone's ebay names offhand.
Regardless if he's not, this buckle may have been bought from the seller in Texas/California that we discussed earlier in the thread, and now re-sold.

Pretty sure you can send it back to the seller for a refund through the ebay system btw

Seller in Texas with shipper in California. A number of fakes were sold to a number of folks. The one shown in this auction is part of the same run of fakes.

Jason Cook here, the seller of that buckle. Here's the story: I bought it off of eBay about 15 years ago and it has sat proudly on my shelf since then. As Allan mentioned, I was at GaryCon this past weekend, which is sort of a working vacation for me, so it's an important trip for my wife and I. We've had some financial difficulties over the past year, though, so I've had to sell off about 2/3 of my RPG collection. I tried to hold onto my few somewhat-rare items, though, including the buckle, because I thought it was genuine, knowing nothing of the presence of any counterfeits. After confirming the upfront costs of the hotel last week, we realized we needed a little more cash up front (we were getting paid a few days later), so I listed a few more items, including the buckle, and brought them with us, so my wife could send them out if anything sold.

I did a Google search about the buckle before listing it for sale, so that I could include some info about it in the auction. That was the first time I learned anything about any counterfeits, but I couldn't find any info about how to discern the difference between the two and, in fact, Frank Mentzer said somewhere that they were essentially identical (maybe in this thread; not sure, but I didn't look, because I wanted to hurry up and post in this thread because I spent the last hour on this post and accidentally deleted it and have now had to retype it; so frustrating!). So, not knowing what I had, I made sure not to identify it as an original, and left it to the eBayers to figure out. If it was indeed an original, though, I certainly wasn't going to list it for chump change, so I listed it at a reasonable price if unique, which is my modus operandi if you know anything about my (meager) eBay sales.

I see Warduke, the eventual buyer, and cdenham are both quick to call me a disreputable seller, pointing out that I "ignored" their requests for a picture. Firstly, I have a feedback score over 1,000 and have had exactly zero negative feedback in over 20 years on eBay. (It's not a big number for a seller, but I'm mostly a buyer, and considering it took 20 years to get there, it's a big number to me.) Secondly, your requests came in while I was on a 17-hour trek from CT to Wisconsin, in a van crammed full of the items for 7 different miniatures events, as well as myself, my wife, two kids and all our other stuff, so the buckle wasn't exactly at my fingertips. So, I hadn't answered your question yet, cdenham, because I hadn't gotten to the hotel. Once we got to the hotel, I found the buckle and took a picture, but when I went to send it, I realized that the buckle had already been sold to someone else, so the request was moot and I had my wife ship it out. Warduke's request for a picture came AFTER he purchased it. When I saw the message, I honestly didn't think to look at the time it was sent, and just assumed that the message came in before he bought it, because who asks for details AFTER purchasing? I assumed that he had found some indication that it was an original and went ahead with the purchase.

So, where does that leave us? I purchased this item on eBay just like Warduke did, I didn't misrepresent the item when I sold it and I'm not a business, so I don't take returns unless I've erred in the description somehow. Warduke, on the other hand, wants the best of both worlds. He wants to both purchase the item before doing his research so that he doesn't miss out on a deal, but reserve the right to return the item after he's done his research, despite the fact that I did not misrepresent the item and sold the item as is, with no claim to it being an original.

I'll consider a return, but I'd like to hear opinions from everyone else first. And know that the money you paid, Warduke, was spent at GaryCon, so IF a return were to happen, it will be when I've recouped the cash to do so.

EDIT: P.S. Thanks for the heads-up on this thread, Grodog, and for the kind words. I'll be in touch soon.

misterspock wrote in Interesting eBay alert! TSR belt buckles:Hi Jason, thanks for the explanation. I'm under the impression for ebay that if the buyer requests a return, then the seller basically has to take the return despite if you write in your auction "no returns". Some other people can pipe in about that because I'm not 100% sure on that.

Sure thing. Yeah, I've seen that written here before, but I'm not sure that it is true because there is an actual setting for whether or not a seller takes returns. I honestly don't know 100% myself, as I've never had a return request, but I've dealt with both sides of a dozen or more PayPal disputes and I've won every time, because I document everything, respond in a timely fashion and make good on any mistakes I make before a dispute is ever warranted.

@DnD Geek - Maybe you didn't know it was fake, but your explanation makes me think you had some hunch it might not be real and worded your auction in such a way to leave yourself a way out. You say you left it for the buyers to figure out if it was real but then didn't take a picture of the back of the belt?  It doesn't matter when I asked for the photo. I said this could be a fake, please send a picture of the back before you ship it. I'm not sure how you didn't understand what I meant. I'm not going to hammer your feedback, I just want my money back.

Good call Jason.

You are definitely one of the good-guys and I have seen you help out numerous gamers before, including me! You also contributed to the GenCon 50th charity game at 330 Center St. to help Jim Ward among others.

Your decision to refund the buyer's payment and take the whole thing as a lesson learned is a good one.

The guy who made those counterfeits is the bad-guy here and he has only caused problems for our fellow collectors and sent ripples through the community.

Warduke, I think it is cool that you are understanding to a point but wisely cautious too and want and deserve a refund in this situation. I despise eBay for sometimes fostering a retaliatory relationship between buyers and sellers. In normal retail mistakes are made, items are flawed or broken, or purchases are sometimes subject to a comedy (or tragedy) of errors. These are just a normal course of business and as long as the proprietor tries to make things right there should be no backlash.

Thanks for being the better sort of buyer.

Futures Bright,

Paul