Hello members of the Obscure Gamers forums,
First off, I want to apologize for bumping this thread. Being a new user, I know this is particularly poor form, but I have good reason.
I'm an eBay seller who has been at it for a few years now and mostly sells video games / occasionally tech. Unfortunately I am sad to say that I had my first (and hopefully last) run in with Nicholas AKA PlanetNick72 AKA whatever alias he's currently using.
I'm doing what I can to get eBay involved in doing something more drastic about this person, but in the mean time I want to make it fully aware to anyone who comes across this thread like I did via Googling his "business", that
it is very likely Nicholas is knowingly a serial scam artist / Defrauder.
Let me tell you my story and explain why I believe this.
I sold him the second of my 3 copies of Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare for PS1 I had for sale. The third copies' manual was in slightly worse shape, so after he purchased the game, I changed the description to reflect that for the last copy that was still available for purchase. (This comes in later).
2 Days later, the first message comes in. It's cordial enough - the tracking hadn't yet updated to show I had dropped off the package at the post office, and he was checking in to make sure I had actually put the game out to post. I get messages like this from time to time.
The next day, he sends me a message about how he wanted the game packaged. Unfortunately it was too late for changes like that, but thankfully he seemed content with the way in which I packed it anyways, so I thought things would be okay. I mean... I thought his complaints were super nit-picky, but I like to make customers happy and be a good steward.
Then for some reason, he sends me an extra message going in detail about his company, PlanetNick72. I was curious about his company and what he sells (myself as a small business, I like supporting other small business... and hey, he seems a bit odd but maybe it's a language barrier or something) so I decided I should look him up and.... oh. Yeah, so I stumbled across
this site and saw the reports about his behavior. Then I checked his feedback he left, aaaand....
Yeaaahhhh... At this point, I was kinda shaking in my boots and was really not looking forward to what could happen next. The good news is, the game showed up super fast. And the bad news is... the game was actually in better condition then I listed it as and therefore I'm dishonest? ....Huh?
I try to reason out what the problem was. As bizarre as it is to suggest that my description be perfect to his understandings, I still wouldn't have minded if he actually intended to send the game back. (I mean, it's supposedly in like new condition, right?) However, he checks my current active listing about the game, sees I added that the manual had a curl, and uses this to basically go on a huge rant spanning 4 messages he sends throughout the next 12 hours or so about some of the things that have been reported in this thread - the illegality of selling used games, how the companies still own all distribution rights, something about suing over the ordeal and going to court... He even takes
pictures of the game as it was received, proving that it was potentially in better condition then I described...?
At this point, I don't even know what to do. His arguments are barely coherent to me, and read very similarly to accounts others have described. (Almost as if he's using a sort of "script" and tailoring his story to each item he tries to scam). I've tried reasoning out every way I can, but eventually I just told him straight out that I'm only refunding if he returns the product and that it doesn't seem fair that he gets to keep it just because of a very small difference of opinion on the condition (that's actually in his favor, no less).
So... the rest of this is gonna unfortunately be hear-say, as I didn't record my calls with eBay.
I called them to report that the buyer at this point was harassing me with messages, and that it seemed ridiculous that he would want to return an item because it was in better condition then I listed it for. The rep on the other side was very understanding and told me that in the few years he's been working for the eBay call centers, it was the first he'd ever heard of that kind of report. I then explained to him what I learned here: That he's done this many times before in the past using his old alias, that he says he's "against third party selling" but then participates in it himself.... I think I overwhelmed the guy, to be honest. Might have been best to leave it at just saying he should be investigated. Then, the rep drops a bombshell while looking into the issue:
"This guy has over 100 accounts".
So... I don't really know what the context of those accounts is, but... let's say you wanted to run a business conning people out of goods on eBay. How would you do that...? Make a bunch of accounts, and cycle through them when the account is closed or frozen due to suspicious activity... ? Seems like a good chance. I mean, connecting all those accounts would not be a good idea as it makes it very obvious that something is fishy, but it is why I believe this person is knowingly trying to get away with fraud. Again, this isn't proof necessarily, but it's certainly a big red flag in my opinion, and you would think that eBay would have seen this and recorded the unusual behavior by now...
Anyways, the rep was kind enough to close the return for me, which seemed all well and good until...
Apparently, Nicholas called eBay after I did and had them re-open the return case!
Or... at least he sure seems to think they did. I'm not really sure either... but I can't find it on my returns page. I called eBay back about it, and they said that the issue has been resolved and not to worry about it, so...
hopefully, the story ends here for me. I'm normally not the kind of guy to make posts like this. Even with some of the most difficult customers, as hard as it has hurt for them to personally insult me, I believe these are private matters and I try to move on.
However, with the possibility being that Nicholas has been potentially defrauding people for years and may continue to do so, I can't help but want to protect other sellers and make it known that this person is to be avoided and reported whenever possible.
I know that it is difficult, as it's clear he goes by many aliases. However, if you're able to pay attention to your buyers names and you get a purchase from a
Nicholas H. from Escondido, CA - look at the feedback they left for others. I suggest that unless you're ready to work through the likely drama storm, it'd be best to just outright cancel and accept the negative feedback, then try to fight eBay on getting it removed after all the circus is over. Especially if you're dealing with one-of-a-kind items, like some of the users of these boards might be.
Thank you for allowing me to share my story here. Hopefully this post is okay per the forum rules (Maybe it gets close to the drama category? Sorry about that). I found evidence that he's been at this since at least 2018 in different ways which I can share if people are interested, though I know this board is supposed to be about preservation / prototypes / obscure / unreleased games, so I don't know if this is the appropriate place to continue that conversation.