acadiahiker Posted September 30, 2008 Posted September 30, 2008 (edited) A former geocacher *found* a box lot of geocoins and travel bugs at a yard sale and has them up for bid on Ebay. <moderator removed URL> Edited September 30, 2008 by Flying Spaghetti Monster Quote
+RifleMan81 Posted September 30, 2008 Posted September 30, 2008 that's pretty bad. whether they "bought them at a yardsale" or not, they're still selling stolen property which is a crime in itself. Quote
+River Cacher Posted September 30, 2008 Posted September 30, 2008 (edited) Wow that is amazing. Can anything be done? Edited September 30, 2008 by River Cacher Quote
+avroair Posted September 30, 2008 Posted September 30, 2008 that's pretty bad. whether they "bought them at a yardsale" or not, they're still selling stolen property which is a crime in itself. You can report the listing as stolen property. Quote
+-Eleanor- Posted September 30, 2008 Posted September 30, 2008 I noticed that one of the tracking numbers is visible in the picture, so I looked up the TB and contacted the owner of it. Hopefully at least one of the owners can get their TB back. Quote
ELTADA Posted September 30, 2008 Posted September 30, 2008 (edited) I looked up the code on the TB and it belongs to Team SAM -- I'm sure they would be interested to know that someone is trying to sell their bug! As if someone would try and profit from this!! I am appalled! Edited to add: I guess Eleanor and I had the same idea at the same time!! Glad to hear you contacted them. Edited September 30, 2008 by ELTADA Quote
Flying Spaghetti Monster Posted September 30, 2008 Posted September 30, 2008 The actions taken are the best route for sure. On the other hand it might be nice for somebody to win the auction at a low price to get these back. Groundspeak is aware of this but since they are not the owners of said items the best actions are for the owners to reach out to eBay directly. I've removed the link to eBay as per forum guidelines to avoid arm-chair logging. Quote
+burgessfour Posted September 30, 2008 Posted September 30, 2008 I wonder who is currently bidding? It would be good to get these circulating again and I sure would be willing to bid, but not if one of us is already doing so. The cheaper these can be retrieved from this thief the better.... Quote
+kehunt64 Posted September 30, 2008 Posted September 30, 2008 (edited) I noticed that one of the tracking numbers is visible in the picture, so I looked up the TB and contacted the owner of it. Hopefully at least one of the owners can get their TB back. I already contacted this owner this morning and they confirmed that this was a TB of theirs that has been missing. They hope that if they don't win the bid that the person who buys them gets them back into circulation. ~Karen Edited September 30, 2008 by kehunt64 Quote
+Captain Zulu Posted September 30, 2008 Posted September 30, 2008 As a 'former geocacher' this seller, who calls himself 'Blessingspoint', ought to know that these items belong to someone else and that probably they've been stolen from a cache. In my opinion even he himself can be regarded as a possible suspect. He would only have done right if he had tried to track the original owners and get these items back to them in exchange for their gratitude or even for a small reward. No, instead of doing this he has chosen to tell a story on eBay to sell other people's property there. And of course some vultures have reported for duty already! I think seller and candidate buyers should be stopped immediately! Quote
+burgessfour Posted September 30, 2008 Posted September 30, 2008 My husband brought up a good point; by bidding on these it gives people more incentive to steal coins and travel bugs. Once they see them listed on Ebay and selling they might try it themselves. Or the current seller might do it again. Quote
+CBT69 Posted September 30, 2008 Posted September 30, 2008 As a 'former geocacher' this seller, who calls himself 'Blessingspoint', ought to know that these items belong to someone else and that probably they've been stolen from a cache. In my opinion even he himself can be regarded as a possible suspect. He would only have done right if he had tried to track the original owners and get these items back to them in exchange for their gratitude or even for a small reward. No, instead of doing this he has chosen to tell a story on eBay to sell other people's property there. And of course some vultures have reported for duty already! I think seller and candidate buyers should be stopped immediately! There's another thread, where several people said they would attempt to purchase them, to then re-release or mail them home, at their expense, depending on the owner's wishes. I wouldn't be too quick to scream "vultures". Quote
+tsunrisebey Posted September 30, 2008 Posted September 30, 2008 (edited) If you read the auction, it's very clear that the seller knows these are activated by stating you are paying for coins/TB's to have them continue on their journey. Very sad indeed. I don't believe that garage sale bit for a minute having been a geocacher themselves. I think ebay needs a deluge of emails about the stolen property, hopefully the auction will get pulled. Just saw your post Karen... good to hear! Edited September 30, 2008 by tsunrisebey Quote
+derschlings Posted September 30, 2008 Posted September 30, 2008 it appears the seller ended the auction early. ebay site indicates it was to sell the auction to the current highest bidder. I hope this is bologna. I've emailed the high bidder encouraging them to do the right thing and send these coins on their way. I also contacted the seller offering to send a prepaid mailer to have them sent to me so I can move them on... that or to send them to the good folks at geocaching.com... I'm sure someone there could find someone to move them on. It will be interesting to hear how ebay handles this one. Quote
+fairyhoney Posted September 30, 2008 Posted September 30, 2008 It would be interesting IF any of our missing coins/TBs were in there. Quote
+Eartha Posted September 30, 2008 Posted September 30, 2008 I posted a note to the one TB that had a tracking number showing in the photo. That was the "Spinner" TB owned by Team SAM. I posted to let anyone trying to log it know that this is for sale on ebay as stolen property. I also asked the TB owner report it as a stolen item. There isn't much more Groundspeak can do other than that. It appears from the photo that there were 2 USA geocoins, one Arkansas coin, and one Colorado coin along with a couple of TB's. No other tracking numbers were showing, so I can't help on any of the other items. I hope someone lets these people know that what they are doing is wrong. Quote
+Butterfly_lady Posted September 30, 2008 Posted September 30, 2008 Look up that cacher and....... "The user selected has invalidated his or her account. " Quote
+Butterfly_lady Posted September 30, 2008 Posted September 30, 2008 Look up that cacher and....... "The user selected has invalidated his or her account. " Quote
+slowdownracer Posted September 30, 2008 Posted September 30, 2008 Look up that cacher and....... "The user selected has invalidated his or her account. " That's really rotten, shame on the seller. I wonder where my missing TB's and coins are? Quote
+sdkonkle Posted September 30, 2008 Posted September 30, 2008 One of the coins even has an attached tag that plain as day says "PLEASE DON'T KEEP ME" Quote
+hollora Posted October 1, 2008 Posted October 1, 2008 By going to look for Team SAMs TB you can get to this listing on Ebay. It is closed. Although a very unscrupulous thing to do........I also do not believe the yard sale story..........be cautious.....as at least these are out there to be seen and maybe recovered. For whatever reason - they ended up on Ebay but perhaps they will somehow come back into circulation. Folks who wave in and out of things sometimes do odd stuff with what has collected (whether theirs or some other persons). At least these ended up back out in the public eye, rather than sitting on a shelf, in a desk drawer, stashed in a caching bag or coat pocket in a closet or the worse yet - chucked into the trash! Remember, if you are not engaged into the hobby/sport/game - a tag of "Please Don't Keep Me" probably means little. As horrid as this auction may seem - it may have been a blessing. Quote
+avroair Posted October 1, 2008 Posted October 1, 2008 This auction has just ended Yep, the ebay report button works. Quote
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