No it doesn't

he has done this before so it begs the question why was he and his IP address allowed to carry on posting ?

Skullbrain was not established as a safe place for people to buy and sell. The market aspects of it are incidental. If you want the warm fuzzy feeling of safety, stick with eBay.

Otherwise you're taking your chances sending money to total strangers (and mentally deformed ones at that, due to the nature of them being toy collectors) on a BBS.

Caveat emptor...

I've pasted up a bunch of toys cause I had no idea who the seller or buyer was. Maybe it's my loss but at least I haven't been ripped off....yet. I've had packages lost or stolen but I've never been ripped off.

I see DR's point, why wasn't he flagged after the Crimson Tide revelations?

But then I can see how you might give someone the benefit of the doubt with that.
Ultimately I agree with roger - let the buyer beware.

Overall I think we have been pretty lucky.
but when SB gets done, it gets done big time.
Whatever came of whats-'is-face? Mr Card Fraud.

Mr. eLoco?

Thats him!
What happened with that?

Sounds like Flatline is starting to encroach on his territory.

I think the sellers had to have proof of delivery. Not sure about the exact details though.

roger is right. buyer (and seller in some cases) beware.

not to sound terrible, but if the deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

also, if you're unsure, make them send what you're trading first, or ask around about people. if you don't know them well, don't trade with them. as a personal rule, if i don't know you i won't do a trade unless the other item is sent first.

It's time like this that I wish we had some kinda list for red flagged members that we can refer to.

Or someone could have asked, "Can anyone vouch for Flatline?" before they initiated a transaction with Flatline. Would make sense, wouldn't it?

Unless a sticky is added to the top of the BST where people can ask, it'd be pretty fucking annoying otherwise.
And you know people are lazy fucks who wouldn't do a search and probably post the same question to verify someone.
Then usually the first person who replies would tell them they're a lazy SOB and post a link to a previously asked and answered question or tell them to fuck off because they're a Fresh Meat and they should learn how to use the search function.

Oh yea, I'm sure if someone posted if they can vouch for Flatline, the responses would have been positive to a certain extent.
At least the previous shady dealings w/ the multiple names would have popped up.
But otherwise it seems people who have sold/bought from him all have received their stuff.

a bunch of us live near sunnyvale.....

How about using third parties for trades or expensive trades.
Sorry if this was already mentioned.
Have different long time trusted members around the country acting as third parties,
the traders would send their goods to the third party, and then he would ship them when both were received.
Safe for everyone, might cost a tad more in shipping twice and maybe a nominal fee by the third party, but if your dealing with $500+ in items, who cares.

Another way to do it, would be to sell each other the items for the same price, and use paypal, with a credit card...
Again, it would cost 3% more, but it would be safer.

Just what long time board members want to do I'm sure, play babysitter for trades.

I've traded maybe two items total ever.
One item was missing a piece when I got it, I didn't even notice, and later I got an email that the person I had traded with found it and was sending me it.

There are ways around this... eLoco pulled the most common way of doing it: He asked if he could pay with his girlfriend's paypal account (saying that his paypal account was having problems). She would make payment, and then have the toys shipped to his address. The girlfriend would then do a chargeback stating that she never received the items she paid for. Paypal requires proof of shipment to the payee's address, any other addresses are not accepted, and the seller would out of luck.

eLoco managed to scam people for thousands of dollars this way.

I actually shipped everything to his girlfriend's address (address and name listed in paypal), but three months after the transaction I just didn't have proof anymore. What a piece of SHIT FUCK he is!! Please contact me so we can do lunch!! Oh I would love to meet up with him one day!!

I only ship to a confirmed paypal address now, I have had people I trusted ask to send it to their work address, etc... but I just don't do it. I know there is probably no way of being 100% safe.
I got burned once doing that, that was enough.

And then what...??? I NEED CLOSURE ON THIS ANECDOTE!!!

oh well.. still sorry to hear about that happening to anyone.

Can anyone vouch for The Lost Kaiju/John?
He had helped me out in the past scoring some Anraku stuff, and told me that he was going to get me a couple of the recent releases.
He told me that he was having a problem with shipping from Japan, and has strung me along for months.
With no toys ever materializing.
Needless to say, I want my money back.
He refunded a fraction of what is owed, like a month ago, and said that he would send the balance when he got paid 2 weeks ago.
The thing is, he sent a payment through what he said was his "Girlfriend's" account.
After reading some of this thread, I'm starting to worry a bit.
Can a mod or someone from s7 help me out here?

Nice to see you randomly jump in everywhere,
I was just stating if you do your homework or know who you are dealing with you get an honest person that goes out of their way to make sure things are right.
I got the missing piece in the post.

THANK YOU!!!

Ya, it would nice if that guy was in jail or lying on the side of the road somewhere

hmmm...no word yet on these eh?

this really stinks.

I had luck getting replies from Flatline before he was banned but now cannot get hold of him. I have his supposed email adress but have yet to receive a reply.

This really sucks and I wish everything could be sorted out but have little faith in a positive resolution.