Scammer Alert: auroradumar

This was originally posted on SeraSell, but now that the issue has been resolved I feel comfortable posting this for everyone. Just a heads up!

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Hey eveyone! Ochibawolf and I have both recently had a very unpleasant experience with an eBay seller so we wanted to share the story with you all in hopes you can avoid the trap we both fell into. The seller in question is auroradumar.

In December, Ochi and I each won an auction for a Cutie figure: mine was Mercury; hers, Mars. Both figures were listed as being in “excellent condition” and “not been removed from the box.” The box was listed as “good condition, with little wear and tear.” The seller noted that the box still had “the original tape.”

Ochi and I both got into a bit of a bidding war with some other buyers but ended up winning our respective figures. We each paid promptly. I received my Mercury figure on January 15th. Ochi got her Mars on the 17th. Ochi noticed that her Mars figure seemed to be missing the stand which can be seen on the back of the box in the pictures. Also, her box was not “with little wear and tear” considering strips of the box wear torn off.

At this point, Ochi filed a claim with eBay that the item was not in the described condition. Then she contacted me to ask about my Mercury figure. I told her my figure was new and unopened but when she told me about hers missing the stand I decided to check to see if mine was also missing the stand.

When I got home that night I looked in through the front of the box and I couldn’t see the stand. While I was peering at it without the awe of ‘omg new toy,’ I noticed some weird thing on her arm. It looked like some kind of goop. I decided to open the box. Boy, what a SHOCK. Poor Mercury’s arm and leg almost fell off!! It’s clear that someone broke this figure and then tried (poorly and without any skill) to repair it. I was horrified.

I contacted the seller and politely inquired about a return/refund because of the condition of the figure. I told them that I didn’t think they were trying to mislead me. I can see how one would think the figure was unopened since I too thought it was fine when I first got it. Long story short, the seller seems to think that Ochi and I are in cahoots to scam them out of their money when it’s pretty clear they were trying to scam us in the first place (or they really just didn't LOOK at the items they were selling). After failed attempts at nice communication with this seller I gave up and also filed a claim.

Ochi and I were both awarded in our favor for our claims and we have shipped our figures back to the seller. eBay has issued full refunds to both of us. However, we are concerned the seller is just going to relist them so we wanted to make sure the community had all the information. Please see this Google Doc for a record of the communications.

I would also like to concede that it is possible this seller really did think these items were new and unopened. It might be that they did not intend to lie about the condition of the figures, but given the circumstances and their conduct it does seem pretty unlikely. Ochi and I are both really happy that eBay sided with us in these cases and we hope we never have to deal with something like this again. :(