I understand Mikey's point of view, but I agree, if someone wants to take the chance, and they get burned, too freking bad. I won a jonb auction, but I'd have gladly driven down there if it didnt arrive.

tec-9-7 wrote:He's certainly gotten a nice collection of negatives in the last few days... Anyone notice that he described The Sunless Citadel as VERY RARE!?

This isn't good news when you find a string like this on a guy you just bought something from, all negs:


  Sent three emails,no response,been a month,paid June5th. No product.No exscuses.
 Buyer   numberonespud ( 78)   Jul-03-05 15:51  5202932459  


  won the 29th, paid the 29th, no product 32 days later never again
 Buyer   bacaruda ( 54)   Jul-03-05 13:11  5200539576  


  30 days and not recieved anything.got promise it was coming but +2 weeks nothing
 Buyer   501jonathanc ( 10)   Jul-02-05 17:42  5203283304  


  no product no communication no deal terrible ebayer never buy anything from him
 Buyer   grandpa_gohan ( 15)   Jul-02-05 04:14  5205077659  


  Never recieved item
 Buyer   elricrpg ( 62)   Jul-01-05 17:26  5202309747  


  emailed and got no reponse
 Buyer   zerohero92 ( 93)   Jul-01-05 14:23  5200499679  


  waited over a month and received nothing
 Buyer   zerohero92 ( 93)   Jul-01-05 14:22  5201191381  


  Paid, but never recieved item. No response to emails I've sent since winning.
 Buyer   varek-kai ( 16)   Jun-29-05 10:06  5202649834

Mike B.

Interesting that the "active" time for this clown keeps get shorter. Here's some relevant numbers:

ETC: Active 27 months**; 1,895 feedback (95.7 ratio)

TGE: Active for seven months; 707 feedback (88.9 ratio)

JonB: Final numbers aren't in yet, but he's only in his fourth month and his feedback appears to have topped out in the high 200s.

+++++

** interesting to note that ETC had a different user name from 10/00 to 07/02 ...

Thanks to the Acaeum, I have never bought anything from this Jonb thief, nor I have even THOUGHT of doing it, even at the start of his course.

I think that this kind of people should be eradicated from the ground like a bad seed - and maybe our talks and advice here have helped to do this sooner than later.

My opinion is to display in the auctions we run something about the Acaeum, so that people could check here, and maybe help themselves defend against such scammers.

Personally, I agree with a lot of Mike said in his posts and it is actually the hidden message that I have been trying to relay for awhile now, but I did not want it to be viewed as an attack on the members of the board that had bought from him.

In the long run I don't think banning everyone from your auctions who bought(or at least attempted to buy from him) jonb's auctions would be the solution, but realistically it does make a very clear point. Lets face it, we are all adults here and we all most certainly make our own decisions in life, but the fact of the matter is that a lot of times that even though when you buy from a guy like this you ARE hurting more people than just yourself. Buying from a guy like jonb is not only taking money out of good and legitimate sellers hands, but you are helping to both perpetuate a cycle and continue a scam.

Jonb's scam is basically a pyramid scam. His scam is not to steal everone's money, he only steals some people's money. To make everyone understand what I mean, look at it this way. If jonb buys a 10 item lot from a seller and lists them all on Ebay, all of which sell, and to make the it simple, say for $10.00 each. He decides to ship 8 of the items that were paid for and not ship 2 of them. He then holds onto those items that he did not ship for another month or 2 and includes them with a different 13 item lot he purchased from a different seller in his next 15 auction listings. These items also sell for $10.00 each, and of that lot that sold and were paid for, he chooses to not ship 3 items. Then from that newer lot of items which he has sold but didnt ship the 3 from, he will then list those items again in another month or 2 down the road, with an even newer lot of 15 items he bought from 3rd seller. This process continues until the negs finally catch up to him and EBay boots him off, only to return another few months down the road under a new user ID and running the same scam.

Every time you buy an item from jonb you are giving him both more money to purchase more material (to sell or not sell) and you also providing him with more leverage(aka feedback in this circumstance) to end up stealing from someone else who doesn't know anything at all about the jonb7839/ETC/TGEs of the world. By continuing to buy from the jonbs of the world you ARE perpetuating the cycle of theft, so buying from jonb is NOT a victimless crime.

One last thing I wanted to mention that I don't think everyone realizes, and although some of you may not really care at all, the fact of the matter is that this forum is actually read by a lot of people who are not even neccessarily members of the forum (and I mean more than Cougar, Keep, and jonb) . These people who read the forums are interested in this hobby and a lot of times use this forum as a guide to help them with what to buy and what not to buy and also who to deal with and who not to deal with. Over the last couple of months I will bet that I have had at least 7 or 8 people who are not members of the forum, tell me that they read these forums and thanked me and the other members here for keeping them informed of who to buy from and who the hell to stay away from. A majority of the members of this forum represent what is the top of this hobby and a lot of people look to us to provide them guidence and help, so we should be holding ourselves to higher standard when dealing with the jonbs of the world.

Part of the problem is that he does have some items that are semi-rare, and the vast majority of collectors do not have the patience it takes to collect smartly. I can't say it enough times; EVERYTHING shows up eventually.
I have to admit, I bought the GM3 from jonb in the hopes that he wouldn't ship it. I didn't need it. But I was either one of the 8 out of 10, or he read the forum, because it arrived fairly quickly and in excellent shape. I did not leave feedback, however.

I agree to an extent with what's been said regarding those who've chosen to bid on Jon's stuff.  

I personally have made an effort to "go the extra mile" with quick shipping, personal contact, and accurate descriptions on my items.  When someone like Jon comes along and screws with buyers, that buyer is going to be ALOT more hesitant to buy from ANYONE on ebay next time. Particularly a couple of weeks ago, Jon looked to have good feedback unless you are looked deep and actually read the weak positives.  So maybe JOEDRAGONGUY who got ripped off by jon (Who looked like a good seller) will next time just spend his money locally on what items he can find, instead of buying what he really wants off ebay just out of fear of another supposedly good seller ripping him off.

I also admit to perpetuating the cycle a bit, by having sold him a couple of lots of books, but I did finally see the light and had him blocked from bidding more reciently.

Another thing that saddens me in regards to him are the people that were ripped off that probably don't even realize it, those who bought the common items that he hyped as rare and got the big bids for.

bclarkie wrote:Well it is official, jonb7839 is now: No longer a registered user

eBay Feedback Profile for jonb7839


The question is how long before he shows up again? My guess will probably be around November, so keep an eye out.

I'd like to think that eBay finally acted on that email.  But maybe just coincidental.

Xaxaxe wrote:
Aside: Mike, good posts on the subect. I'm not sure I totally agree with everything (I'm a big "free will" guy), but I read every word and you've raised some interesting points that I need to think about more seriously than I have in the past.

Thanks, to provoke discussion was the main thrust of the post, glad to read everyone's take, whether we can agree or not we can always discuss issues intelligently, I hope...

Mike B.