ATLANTIS II

[Dino]

If you look up the sellers feedback you will see he paid $296 for the game. Sad thing is the seller received a positive feedback. I have actually given positive feedbacks a couple of times too early myself without testing the game. It's one of the worst feelings in the world when you do that.

Here is the link

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...em=230151006397

I see that now...I edited my earlier post. Why would anybody give feedback without testing a cart? Why? Especially something like this. Very bad move. I don't want to insult Dino, because I know it sucks to get hustled, but quite honestly, situations like this are why scammers thrive...because there's always some buyer who will take a silly chance at something. In this case, the problem was now magnified by the buyer leaving positive feedback without testing the cart (presumably)...another silly thing to do.

 

Hopefully you can get this guy Dino, but I doubt it.

 

I don't know what to say...a wise man once said...

This is why I won't collect stuff like Atlantis II, Pepsi Invaders, etc. Too sketchy and easy to reproduce in my opinion. You need the original paperwork for A2 and the box for Pepsi.

Truer words were never spoken, my friend.

 

The guy had pretty low feedback anyway, so giving him a neg wouldn't have done much. He just wouldn't use that ID again. Its more important to let the community know his name.

Edited September 19, 2007 by Dino

[+Psionic]

I initially thought it was real. It is Atlantis II on the cart and looks legit except when you open it and it has an extra chip on the back with 3 or 4 wires going places I'm not going after him. I just put it down to the cost of collecting. Its actually the first time I've done anything risky. I have always been very prudent, preferring to pay a premium for a 100% guaranteed item. I only posted about it so that no one else on these forums gets scammed by the same guy.

The guy had pretty low feedback anyway, so giving him a neg wouldn't have done much. He just wouldn't use that ID again. Its more important to let the community know his name.

It wouldn't have done much? Sorry, but that sure sounds like sour grapes to me. The guy still has a 100% feedback rating...and your money. More importantly, he thinks he got away with the scam. It's your choice ultimately...you're the one who got scammed. But sorry, I don't support the pacifist 'live and learn' approach in this case...not going after him just encourages further scamming. It's nice that you informed the community about this...but there are many Atari collectors who aren't members here at AA...and they will be easy targets for this guy's next scam.

[Dino]

I initially thought it was real. It is Atlantis II on the cart and looks legit except when you open it and it has an extra chip on the back with 3 or 4 wires going places I'm not going after him. I just put it down to the cost of collecting. Its actually the first time I've done anything risky. I have always been very prudent, preferring to pay a premium for a 100% guaranteed item. I only posted about it so that no one else on these forums gets scammed by the same guy.

The guy had pretty low feedback anyway, so giving him a neg wouldn't have done much. He just wouldn't use that ID again. Its more important to let the community know his name.

It wouldn't have done much? Sorry, but that sure sounds like sour grapes to me. The guy still has a 100% feedback rating...and your money. More importantly, he thinks he got away with the scam. It's your choice ultimately...you're the one who got scammed. But sorry, I don't support the pacifist 'live and learn' approach in this case...not going after him just encourages further scamming. It's nice that you informed the community about this...but there are many Atari collectors who aren't members here at AA...and they will be easy targets for this guy's next scam.

 

Not sour grapes. The facts are that he had low feedback and if he sets up scams like this he will have multiple e-bay IDs. Sure it would have been good to give him a neg, as that would have shut one down, but realitically, you can never stop these guys from setting up another account (which he probaly already has). As for getting the $ back, that is not going to happen.

[+Psionic]

Not sour grapes. The facts are that he had low feedback and if he sets up scams like this he will have multiple e-bay IDs. Sure it would have been good to give him a neg, as that would have shut one down, but realitically, you can never stop these guys from setting up another account (which he probaly already has). As for getting the $ back, that is not going to happen.

That is true, Dino. You can't stop anyone from doing something if they really want to do it...but is the fact that certain criminals will continually break the law repeatedly no matter what a reason not to punish or incarcerate them? Certainly not. I'm not going to go on about this anymore. You can do whatever you want Dino...it's your money. But as I said, not going after him at all is crazy and irresponsible in my view and only encourages his behavior. That is exactly what scammers are banking on - that you'll just throw your hands in the air and cough it up to collecting and not bother pursuing the matter because it "isn't worth it". You may not get your money back, but if I had to make a wager, I'd bet we haven't seen the last of this guy. Just my two cents.

 

Cheers, my friend. Sorry to hear about this.

[Dino]

Not sour grapes. The facts are that he had low feedback and if he sets up scams like this he will have multiple e-bay IDs. Sure it would have been good to give him a neg, as that would have shut one down, but realitically, you can never stop these guys from setting up another account (which he probaly already has). As for getting the $ back, that is not going to happen.

That is true, Dino. You can't stop anyone from doing something if they really want to do it...but is the fact that certain criminals will continually break the law repeatedly no matter what a reason not to punish or incarcerate them? Certainly not. I'm not going to go on about this anymore. You can do whatever you want Dino...it's your money. But as I said, not going after him at all is crazy and irresponsible in my view and only encourages his behavior. That is exactly what scammers are banking on - that you'll just throw your hands in the air and cough it up to collecting and not bother pursuing the matter because it "isn't worth it". You may not get your money back, but if I had to make a wager, I'd bet we haven't seen the last of this guy. Just my two cents.

 

Cheers, my friend. Sorry to hear about this.

 

I have a "dispute" open, so we'll see what happens.

[+Psionic]

I have a "dispute" open, so we'll see what happens.

Good, hopefully something good will come of it. If not, at least you tried. Keep us posted.

 

Honestly Dino...the thing that really sucks about you already leaving positive feedback is the fact that if you hadn't, you could have easily scammed the scammer. All you had to do was file an 'item not received' dispute...since you're outside the U.S. (Australian) and therefore have an 'unconfirmed' address, the seller is not covered by PayPal's seller protection when he ships to you, especially if he shipped it without tracking/delivery confirmation. But even if he did, all you have to do is claim you never got the package and PayPal will automatically side with you and refund your money in full...no questions asked. There'd be nothing he could do about it, even if you did in fact receive the game...I've seen this happen many times. But obviously, since you've already left him positive feedback, it's obvious that you've received the game and doing this would not be a possibility.

[Dino]

I have a "dispute" open, so we'll see what happens.

Good, hopefully something good will come of it. If not, at least you tried. Keep us posted.

 

Honestly Dino...the thing that really sucks about you already leaving positive feedback is the fact that if you hadn't, you could have easily scammed the scammer. All you had to do was file an 'item not received' dispute...since you're outside the U.S. (Australian) and therefore have an 'unconfirmed' address, the seller is not covered by PayPal's seller protection when he ships to you, especially if he shipped it without tracking/delivery confirmation. But even if he did, all you have to do is claim you never got the package and PayPal will automatically side with you and refund your money in full...no questions asked. There'd be nothing he could do about it, even if you did in fact receive the game...I've seen this happen many times. But obviously, since you've already left him positive feedback, it's obvious that you've received the game and doing this would not be a possibility.

 

Paypal was not a payment option....of course.

[Dino]

An interesting development. I didn't mention before that I had opened a dispute with him originally as he hadn't sent me the cart. I hadn't closed the dispute even though I had received the item. I updated it before with a message about it being a fake and for him to refund my message. i just received this e-mail:

 

Hi Con,

Glad the cart arrived safely. I have some other stuff that might be of interest. I was going to put it on Ebay but work has kept me busy lately. A friend of mine worked at the Imagic company, this was probably at least 25 years ago, so the other things I have are probably from the same company. I'll try to dig the stuff out in the next week or two.

When you get a chance, can you close the dispute claim? I just received an email about it still being open. Thanks Con,

Paul

 

Any thoughts on what I should do?

[homerwannabee]

An interesting development. I didn't mention before that I had opened a dispute with him originally as he hadn't sent me the cart. I hadn't closed the dispute even though I had received the item. I updated it before with a message about it being a fake and for him to refund my message. i just received this e-mail:

 

Hi Con,

Glad the cart arrived safely. I have some other stuff that might be of interest. I was going to put it on Ebay but work has kept me busy lately. A friend of mine worked at the Imagic company, this was probably at least 25 years ago, so the other things I have are probably from the same company. I'll try to dig the stuff out in the next week or two.

When you get a chance, can you close the dispute claim? I just received an email about it still being open. Thanks Con,

Paul

 

Any thoughts on what I should do?

Wow, that bastard is going to try to rip more people off. I did notice that this guy lives in Pennsylvania. This seems to be within a days drive of where Phantom lives. Maybe Phantom can straighten out the situation for you.

[+Psionic]

Any thoughts on what I should do?

Well, don't close the dispute. Tell him the truth...tell him you think it's fake.

 

First of all, his story is inconsistent...he originally said (in the auction) that he got the cart through "some promotion they were doing", now he claims that he got it from a friend who worked for Imagic. Which is it?

 

Second, from what you've said, the cart sounds fake. There shouldn't be any extra chips or wires on the PCB. I can't see your cart (and I don't know exactly what a real Atlantis II PCB looks like), but I would assume it should look like a normal PCB. On your cart, it sounds like someone bypassed or replaced the original Atlantis ROM chip and added a ROM/EPROM chip containing Atlantis II.

 

I don't know...you may want to wait for some experts to weigh in on this before you proceed any further. But don't close the dispute.

 

Where's CPUWIZ when you need him?

Edited September 19, 2007 by PingvinBlueJeans

[FND]

Removed

Edited September 19, 2007 by FND

[djpubba]

If this seller knows about Atlantis 2, he's probably going to know about Atari Age and is probably reading this thread and having a good chuckle over it.

[iwan-iwanowitsch-goratschin]

Is there nobody out there who can stop him? :x :x

Edited September 20, 2007 by iwan-iwanowitsch-goratschin