I messaged a guy on ebay about several lots of magic magazines he had listed. If he didn't sell them on there.. that I would be interested in buying the entire lot.
He didn't sell them. So after a few conversations on the phone... he agrees to give them to me. over 2000 issues of TOPS, Genni, Abracadabra, Magicgram, Linking Ring and a bunch of others. Over 1000 pounds (weight) worth of magazines. Some of them had issues from 1969 thru 2010. All I have to do is arrange for a truck to pick them up. That was Wednesday. Deal was made. I told him I will call on Friday to let him know what I was doing about shipping. I make a deal with one of my bosses to have a friend of his (owns a shipping company) do the pickup. I call the guy with the magazines at 3:30pm with the good news. He apologizes but he dumpstered the pile to clear up space in his garage.

That is my worst trade / attempt at acquisition. Can anyone beat it?

I don't see what's in it for the guy but that sure sounds like some kind of scam to me.

I had a friend in another state contact him through ebay about them. He told them that he recycled them.

I can't see the benefit to him either.

Doesn't sound like a scam to me.

He wants the garage space currently occupied by an enormous pile of magazines. He could probably use the garage to park his car.

Maybe he bought the house with the magazines already there. They were clearly of less value to him than a usable garage. He tries to sell them, but can't cover what it would cost him to pack and ship them. He gets fed up. The magazines are a nuisance to him. He gets an opportunity to have them hauled away. He takes that opportunity and moves on with his life.

No scam. His life is less cluttered, and he doesn't have to wait for you to pick up the magazines (another intrusion on his life) and lose another day of waiting for you to pick them up.

But to make the deal on a Wednesday, deal was still good on Thursday when I talked with him and told him I would have a shipper by Friday. He knew I was working on a shipper and would have one by Friday. I called him as soon as I got one on Friday.. just like I said. On Wednesday and Thursday he was ok with giving me time to find a shipper. To change that without calling my home, cell or email. Strange course of events.

I am 900 miles away and have a full-time job. He agreed to put them on a pallet Thursday night when he gave me the address for me to give to the shipping company.

So for him to agree to that Thursday night and by 3:30pm the next day have them junked.

I guess I am old fashioned in that I believe people should keep their word. If he was just going to toss them I wouldn't have an issue. He should have just said so when I talked with him on Wednesday night and Thursday night. On Thursday he was telling me about some handwritten notepads of magic stuff and some magician society newsletters he had found and was going to add them to the pallet. To me that sounds like the deal was still on. What changed between Thursday night and Friday at 3:30pm when I called to let him know that a shipping company was going to call to verify the address for pickup? And doing that without calling or emailing.

My boss burned up favors lining up the shipping company and now I own him big time and I do not like owing people favors.

I am sorry, but I don't think this is a big deal. He "agreed" to allow you to take them for free, right? Or did you agree to pay him for the magazines?

It would appear that all you needed to do was hire a shipping company. Isn't that correct?

You could have done so earlier than Friday; did the delay have anything to do with your arranging a free pickup and delivery? Did the owner know that? Did you do anything to assure him that the pickup/delivery would actually take place?

Apparently the pickup would involve a round trip of around 30 hours. Clearly that could not have been accomplished on Friday. How long would he have to wait before you actually made the pickup? Maybe he thought you were scamming him or at least stringing him along.

I can only see your account of what happened, and not his. You feel you acted in good faith. But on its face, even your side looks a little fishy.

Since I have zero experience with arranging shipping freight across country I had to talk with my boss on it.

I talked to the owner Thursday night to get the address and the owner was telling me about the other things her found and was adding to the pallet. Are you getting the picture? He was still finding things to go with the magazines on Thursday night.

He and I made the deal on Wednesday night and I got a shipper arranged by Friday afternoon. That is pretty fast considering my lack of experience which I told him about. He also lacked experience in shipping things via truck freight. Since he had no dock I had to find a shipping company that had a liftgate on the truck used to pick the pallet up. Loading dock to loading dock shipping is easy to arrange. Finding a company that has a truck that can pick off the ground and transport from PA to WI... a little difficult for the inexperienced.

Since I was paying for the shipping to haul off the magazines... where exactly do you see a scam on my part? All he had to do was what he agreed to. He agreed to find a pallet and put the boxes on the pallet for the shipping company to pick up. Less work than putting them in a recycling dumpster at a church.

I liked talking with him. He seemed nice both times I talked with him on the phone. That is why the change from Thursday night bugs me so much. It was a once in a lifetime collection for me.. recycled because someone didn't hold to their word.

I was raised to hold to my deals. I guess that is too much to expect from people nowadays.

Just plain rude. The world is full of strange people. There is no accounting for human behaviour.

His behavior will bite him in the butt someday. What goes around comes around.

sad thing is.. three friends of mine (one bar/restraint performer and two other hobbyist magicians) and I are slowly working toward having a dedicated magic clubhouse/library. Two of them have women in their lives that want them to clean out or thin down their magic items. I have room to put in a 16x80 and may be able to get a decent one for free or really cheap when my sisters boyfriend moves to Mississippi. Our plan is to use it to store all our stuff. Books, big TV, small parlor type stage, convert the kitchen breakfast bar into a bar type bar for practice... large mirror for self practice... And plenty of bookshelves for our collections

We each kicked in $150 for the magazine deal. Since the guy was into old electronics and radios... I was going to offer him a 1930s tube shortwave radio and the money left over from shipping the magazines as a gift. The guy screwed himself out of around $400 and an old radio.

I once bought Christian Fechner's Soirees Fantastiques in an eBay deal. I sent the seller a money order (many years ago), and was promised the books within a week. A couple of weeks later I emailed the seller and was told that her husband had passed away, and she was trying to put together enough money to have him buried. I sent my condolences and waited another couple of weeks. I then emailed her back, and she said "You're not going to get your books. I don't have any money and everyone else is suing me, so get in line." This was the only bad deal I ever had on eBay, but it was a doozey.

Live and learn...

A couple weeks back I answered a craiglist ad about a trunk of magic items in a town about an hour north of me. $100. I didn't get a good feeling when she told me that another magician had driven two hours and said it was a good beginners set, but she had better stuff. Nothing was on TV that night so I took the drive. I set aside three big bags of what I set aside as being plastic kids magic type items... and found a half dozen UF Grant items and a big ziplock of decks of cards, plus a bunch of thumbtips (one metal one)... I thought it was worth it. So when I get home and have to justify the purchase to my wife. LOL.... I have a footlocker in good shape from 1948.. around $360 worth of UF grant (ebay prices) and the three bags of kids (I thought) magic items. I pull out a folder filled with the instruction sheets.... and found that what I had originally thought was kids plastic magic toys... was in reality.. 17 TENYO items. Smallest number being T-7 to T-48 (I think). I am so glad the other magician overlooked it.

Nice surprise.Worth your effort and time. Have you used any of the items yet?

Just playing around with them in front of my wife and kids.

I bought a large lot of scam/con artist books on ebay and have been reading instead.

I was actually the bad guy in a deal once.

I posted in the balloon forums here on the Café looking for a few DvDs or books to trade. A member pm'd me and we agreed to a trade. He sent me a "twist with sam" DvD and a book as well. In return I was to send him a few DvDs, Apollo and Shoot Ogawa's Cultural exchange 1&2. He sent me the items, but during that time my wife had a miscarriage, we moved, as well as started school, and I completely forgot about it during all the hectic times. I felt awful when I finally remembered, but couldn't find the address he had sent me and apparently he was an infrequent visitor to our Café, and he never responded to my pm's. I tried several times over about a year to pm him on here, but never did find him to make it right. I still feel terrible about the whole ordeal. I can't even remember his username now either. I honestly wish I could find him to apologize and fix things though!