In the Star Wars collecting community, rip off offenses are considered especially heinous. Junk Man, the dedicated detective who investigates these vicious felonies is a member of an elite squad known as the Special Victims Unit. These are his stories.

@rusalexander1757

3 жыл бұрын

dun dun

@jennercustomtoys

3 жыл бұрын

Chung chung!!

@joemilner7710

3 жыл бұрын

Bahahaha got me ded AF 😂😂☠️☠️☠️

@ShinyGolduck5

3 жыл бұрын

I was like wait?? And then hahahahah good one.

@BangBang-hk4rg

2 жыл бұрын

🤘🤣🤘

I remember joining online Star Wars collector forums just a couple of years after this all went down and people were still reeling from it. You can usually tell someone’s age when they hear this story, if they ask, “why didn’t people just demand photos before buying the toys?” Back in the 90s the internet was not a friendly place for photographs and digital cameras or scanners, for traditional pictures, were very expensive.

This channel is C-10, thank you JUNKMAN!

George Lucas can be a mean SOB when he wants to be.

Bit like those stories of people buying PS2 boxes on eBay when they thought they were getting a console.

@Larry

3 жыл бұрын

@John Smith So many people just look at the photo and that's it, I must confess I've been guilty of that too, but luckily always managed to retract in time.

@CogSpartan

3 жыл бұрын

Larry!!! A fellow collector?!? Awesomeness!

@dgambo1985

3 жыл бұрын

@@Larry hello you😂

@imperialpresence3331

3 жыл бұрын

i think people still to this day fall for that banana in their tailpipe

Ren Hoeck is the mean Chihuahua from the cartoon Ren n Stimpy. lmao!!!

I hate many things in this world, but cons are near the top. Hope karma got this guy back.

@n7bansheebait299

3 жыл бұрын

I prefer Decepticons over the Autobots.

Even though it’s not perfect I’m glad eBay is so good about fraud protection now.

@Tfor2show

3 жыл бұрын

Same here! As a hardcore ebayer, I feel like ebay takes very good care of their buyers. I just wish they took better care of their sellers..

@dreamlandnightmare

3 жыл бұрын

@@Tfor2show I'm not so sure of that. 7 years ago, I ordered a vintage He-Man figure from Ebay. Never received it. Seller claimed the figure was shipped and received. Ebay did absolutely nothing to help me. Haven't used Ebay since.

@Tfor2show

3 жыл бұрын

@@dreamlandnightmare Oh really? That's surprising. I've used ebay for over 20 years, and I've never had an experience like that as a buyer. Sorry you had a bad experience. That sucks.

@williamwilkinson8735

3 жыл бұрын

@@Tfor2show if you sell something and the buying complains or wants a refund ebay won't even listen to the sellers argument ....I've been screwed over buy a couple of buyers one tried to say i sold some repro weapons with figures with was a total lie , but i sure wasn't going to let him switch out the real ones i sold him and send me back fakes so i ended up giving the jerk a partial refund .........

@Tfor2show

3 жыл бұрын

@@williamwilkinson8735 Yeah, I believe that. That's what I meant earlier when I said that I wish ebay treated their sellers as well as they treat their buyers.

Great video. As always you bring back so many memories of when I started collecting in the 90’s. Reminds me of the time this guy in the Kmart parking lot pulled up in his junk wagon and asked me to help him find his wookie!

This story had me on the edge of my seat. I thought for sure that it would either end in a murder or that the email would be traced back to Anthony Daniels.

I can't imagine the headache it must have been for collecting toys back in the day

@George-de6hd

Жыл бұрын

It was more of a hunt and it was fun ….more exciting and it was more special when you found & finally got the thing you were hunting ….I kinda miss it ……and yes it was a lot more work

Yep.. Those were certainly the days. I got knobbed for an empty box of Flutie Flakes for 50 bucks. I guess he never did specify the box DIDNT have the cereal in it. So here I am years later with a worthless empty box. FIRST and LAST time I ordered from a newsgroup seller. Thank God for E-Bay!

Before PayPal I used personal checks. I was lucky. Never had a problem. Those were the days

@scottandrewhutchins

3 жыл бұрын

The worst was when I bought a Quadrophenia record booklet that the seller led me to believe was the sheet music, which I was eventually able to photocopy at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. The seller gave me a refund without asking for the item back when I was disappointed, though.

@Larry

3 жыл бұрын

@@scottandrewhutchins I got ripped off on eBay paying with a check for a couple of PS2 games, lost about £50, and eBay's insurance only got me £3 back. A scumbag called John Skylar.

@RetrocadePodcast

3 жыл бұрын

The early days of eBay I used money orders

I love when you do these deep dive research videos! Great story! Thanks Junkman

Love your content, Junkman! KZread rec the stolen boba vid so I’ve been cycling through your video catalog for the past 2 hours! Subbed and liked!

"Ren Höek is a fictional character from the Nickelodeon series The Ren & Stimpy Show. He is the main protagonist in the series and the APC series. However, he is more of a villainous protagonist than an actual hero." The truth is stranger than fiction 😂😂😂 Great video Junkman 👍 #subscribed

Great video! It's like Junkman as Robert Stack Unsolved Mysteries format. I like it. Keep doing these! THUMBS UP!

Great topic and video! Never know what to expect with the Junkman.

You triggered a couple random memories... 1. I had a guy in the early 2000"s who owned a comics/vintage toy store try to aggressively offer me $1500 00 for my entire Star Wars collection, when I knew the set of Tops Trading Cards I had was worth that all on its own. 2. I grew up with a kid in the 70's - 80's who's mother was crazy. She'd get him tons of Star Wars toys for Christmas and birthdays, but wouldn't let him open the box's and play with them. They set in box unopened on a shelf in his room like they did in the store.

@edwardjohnson6744

Жыл бұрын

His crazy mom made him a very rich man.

Man , I got ripped off about a month ago , it wasn’t about Star Wars stuff but I got nothing for my money trying to get a deal too good to be true , it made me over aware now every time I buy something on the net .

Back in the late 90 or early 90. I was very fortunate to have purchased a collection but one of these methods from a woman named Wendy. I was thinking if it was a scam. It WAS NOT. WE COMMUNICATED OVER THE PHONE exchange address and I sent her a check and I received everything I ordered plus a free gift I didn't order. Usually a loose figure. I hope she is still alive and doing well. I hope she is watching this information you put out there. MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU

This reminds me of the early ebay days there was someone selling a "Big screen tv - great picture" People thought they were getting a big screen tv for cheap. They got a great picture of a big screen tv ... rolled up in a mailer tube.

You should do more stories like this

@ThatJunkman

3 жыл бұрын

this will be a series of videos if this one does good

It was really John Moschitta Jr. moving some Micro machines lol. Wow that was a wild story, and my god I hate scammers. Keep up the great work Junkman!!!

One of the best vids you’ve done in a while 👍

Great video !!!! Reminds me falling for a hand written Jon Bon Jovi song sheet I bought. Yes it was hand written, but it was a photocopy. That damned sheet came from the official fan club as well !!

Your channel gets better and better.

Great Video. I have never heard this story! Someday we hope that guy will get revealed?

Honestly, if things like this never happened back then, we wouldn't have the standards we have today. This guy was an innovator in online scamming. People are still falling for this trick too.

I'm sure that guy is still out there, I was in the studio scale model recreation hobby. There were a number of notorious characters in that hobby. One would keep doing the same thing over and over again. He would always snag some sucker, because people wanted something that bad. Only in the end to be parted from their money. I left the hobby after being taken for well over $20k in work and models. By one of the worst cons that hobby ever saw, before you say how could you let it get that far. Well, that's how cons work, they play on your emotions. They will tell you everything you want to hear to part you from your money. It's sad, because it's the community that gets hit the hardest.

@DrewPicklesTheDark

2 жыл бұрын

Any updates?

Great video. Excellent content! Great job 👏 👍

Before PayPal I used US Postal money orders. Only got ripped off when sending to Canada. But even deals on ebay can go wrong when sellers don't get the amount they were hoping for in open bidding. I've had more than one seller renig on an item after the bidding was over, saying the item was damaged or unavailable. Checking sales history is your best bet as to the reliability of a seller. After that, it's anybody's guess. But like you said, if it seems too good to be true …….

Great video!!

Good work! This is exactly why as a seller I like eBay. I have a good reputation and plan to keep it.

Great subject. More of this please

This is why I like Ebay. I know, it's popular to hate on them. And if you're a seller, they can get on your nerves quick, since they take the buyer's side 99% of the time. But, as a buyer, you are pretty solidly protected. And I've had a few good experiences with them as a seller, too, when some irate person flipped their lid and left horrible feedback. Ever having been accused of trying to "murder someone" by mailing them VHS tapes that had dust on them? I have! I was checking some old VHS tapes I was going to mail out, caught some dust on the inside of a couple of tapes, and then e-mailed the lady and asked if she still wanted them. "Could be dust or it could be the beginning of mold. I just did my final check and wanted to make sure she still wanted them." I was happy to just cancel the transaction, since she hadn't paid and I hadn't mailed them. She lost her mind, accused me of trying to murder her by sending her tapes covered in mold and she was allergic to it, and then proceeded to put that on the Feedback. I called Ebay, let them read our transaction archive, explained I had received no money and I had just thrown the tapes away to be on the safe side. And they erased the Feedback and saved me from that stigma of being a "murdering Ebayer!" Yeah, I've had issues with them as a seller where someone just was being a jerk and wanted to get free stuff. But, most of the time things work out well. And as a buyer, I think I've only had one issue, and that was back in the wild west days of the early 2000's. I would be scared to death to do these buys over a chat line!

@n7bansheebait299

3 жыл бұрын

Ebay totally destroyed toy collecting. Everybody is buying up everything now, some are not even toy collectors, *EVERYBODY* is trying to make a quick buck. It's not about enjoying your hobby anymore, it's about jacking the prices up as fast as possible. All thanks to ebay. I said back at the very beginning of ebay that it will destroy toy collecting & it has. It's a totally different beast now. Not the fun hobby I used to love. It's almost impossible to find a good deal on ebay anymore. It's nothing but ridiculously overpriced BUY IT NOW's. And when you find the rare old fashioned auction, they bid it up to the BUY IT NOW prices anyway. That's why it's popular to hate on them. With very good reason.

@TheJohno95

3 жыл бұрын

@@n7bansheebait299 I don't know...I've sold some Star Wars stuff on auction recently that went for extremely low prices! I start my auctions at 99 cents and I sold a nice Bespin Cloud Car for fifteen bucks. I mean, things go up and down. The comic market is the same way. Right now, you can't give them away. Last year, you could sell almost anything. It's just watching those peaks and dips. I know I watch them like a hawk to catch those good deals.

Dealing with Kylo Ren never ends well.

Great video, JM! Where'd you hear this story? Were you in the groups when it happened?

@ThatJunkman

3 жыл бұрын

Heard it for users but tracked down info for the video at some old sites and messages boards plus newsgroup searching

@Tfor2show

3 жыл бұрын

@@ThatJunkman That's pretty cool, man. Thanks for sharing this story! Pretty interesting stuff.

brilliant video sir!

That was interesting. Thankfully I have never experienced that sort of thing personally.

I guess he did a smugglers run.

Great Video 🏆

The worst part is that scams like this continue to this day & are usually much worse in this modern hi tech age🤦‍♂️ Great reserch Junk man. Cheers👍🏻🍻

@edwardjohnson6744

Жыл бұрын

Now it's called WISH

Coincidentally I bought a boxed legacy collection Millennium Falcon last night on ebay on "Buy It Now" for £99, about $120. The seller has 100% positive feedback and more than 600 previous transactions. Seemed too good to be true. Now the payment is "pending". Noticed after paying that the seller has more than 10 of these available! Really? I'm thinking this was an example of too good to be true. :(

I wish these things were worth bugger all! Then we would only have them because we love them

Getting ripped off really feels horrible. It's good to hear that they had the community on their side. Unfortunately here's alot of shady people out there.

Good one

That was an amazing video

That's so sad. Buyer beware. But I'd rather get suckered than to be one who sucks. 💯 Anyhow, I loved all the vintage toy commercials you rounded up. Very nice.👍

Just goes to show that you must be ever vigilant against treachery. It's always afoot. If it's to good to be true it ain't true.

In the Early 2000's listed a $1,500 ring on Ebay....got a bite but the guy didn't want to pay thru ebay....suggested a third party be the go between.....smelled fishy and didn't go for it.....later heard on the news the exact thing plaguing ebay......lucked out.

This is a classic scam, I have seen it a few times over the years. Sometimes the scammers are careless or stupid and include a key word which is enough to nail them but often they are very cleverly worded to fool people without being explicitly dishonest. These days anything without pictures is a no-no for me as if people are techie enough to use a message board, social media or auction sites it's hard to believe that they don't have a camera of some sort.i have asked sellers advertising model trains to just send me a picture of the box if they don't want to remove the model from its packaging and drawn a blank. You are right, if it looks too good to be true it almost certainly is too good to be true. If it's something cheap it might be worth a punt and if you get scammed then that's life, but never pay up more than you'd be OK with losing. The worst examples today are all those East Asian shopping sites bombarding social media platforms with adverts for stuff at a tiny fraction of the real deal price.

when i look back as some mail order transactions from my past...their catalogs and circulars were really ''sus''...monsters in motion..inter galactic trading...captain company...catalog printed on news print...send a check and 8-10 weeks later?...but...i always came out lucky and never got ripped off

Hey, I’ve got a prototype carded vinyl caped Jawa with double tipped lightsaber and rocket firing sandcrawler! It’s one(1) of series of zero production fallacies - from the makers of ArtooDetox, the astromech’s choice in cleaner galaxy wide.

@ThatJunkman

2 жыл бұрын

Lucky!

Buying stuff online is the worst. I tried picking up gi joes and it was crazy how many people think something with defects all over is mint condition

Fascinating story from the early days of the internet. Very slick con artist. While what he pulled was indeed very sleazy, I'm not sure if any legal action could have been taken against him considering that he never claimed any of the items were from the vintage Kenner line.

@ThatJunkman

3 жыл бұрын

Very true. However in my longer cut I did go it to some emails he had with collector Gus Lopez that was more misleading. Agree he stuff like “on a 12 back card” and more that was more directly related to the vintage line. However being Gus didn’t buy anything I felt it wasn’t needed and cut it. I think when it comes to ones that did buys stuff, you are right, he was very misleading on how he worded things.

@dreamlandnightmare

3 жыл бұрын

@@ThatJunkman Unfortunately, misleading alone isn't enough to break US law. I see ads all the time that, in big letters, say something like, "BUY ANY OF THESE FOR THIS PRICE!", then, in parenthesis at the bottom, in letters that it takes a magnifying glass to read, it will say it excludes certain items or that you have to purchase additional items to get the advertised price.

I remember the Ren Hoeck rip off very well. It was talked about for years.

We can easily look up Brian Kettler and Douglas Kettler in Wichita Kansas nowadays. Someone should give them some overdue vengeance.

Op has a knack for storytelling.

LOL "The packages arrives"

Jeez man the way you were going with this I thought someone was going to get murdered.

Kybo-Ren CHA! 😂 😂

I had an amazing eBay run in with a scammer. Lol, so sad these people got scammed

Why am I getting vested in early chatrm capers involving vinatge star wars toys? I wasn't even alive during the original trilogy!

I ordered a MP Transformer from China and got a bunch of angry bird stickers. Lucky for me it was threw paypal so I got my money back. ALWAYS A CROOK TRYING TO SCREW THE COLLECTOR. Can't stress how right you are...TO GOOD ALWAYS IS

Sounds like true knights of Ren right there. Evil as the day is long

Wow

I’d pull a Jay and Silent Bob if someone tried me.

Sir Knight, I doth be thy King and you the heir to the kingdom, search your feels...

I haven’t collected Star Wars in a while, the last few years it’s been Ghostbusters & the same problem happens there, I was in a trade with a guy that wanted a ghost 👻 from the Real Ghostbusters & I was to get a Ray from Him, no $$ just a trade the night before I was going to ship it he did the classic story, my kid broke the Ray I can’t ship it to you, I asked well how bad is it? I might be able to fix it, no he said it’s bad, I asked him to send a pic of the figure. Nope, I’ll send you something else, like what? He said I don’t know 🤷‍♂️ not feeling good about it I said how about Pay Pal he got pissed 😤 never heard from him again

1:13 12-Back Han Solo: C-9 so not all items are C-10

By the way I moved from NY AND MY WIFE AND I LIVE IN NEVADA WITH OUR COLLECTIVE.

Now that story was hilarious....

“Stimpty You Eediot!”

Cool story

Man i'd be kind of pissed Junkman (excuse my language) but what Ren and his brothers did was wrong when you think about.

Those poor buyers 😞 Ren also returned in 2015 😂

Just like nowadays it's all in the details of what is said and what is not said.

RW:i rly dont know who to feel sorry for or to blame,the buyers not being specific or the sellers,just one of the reasons why i dont trust anyone in life.

@jasontachin

3 жыл бұрын

rw:thnxu for the heart Junkman

Where did you dig up my old AOL account from?? 🤪😬 This is the sad aspect of any type of personal transaction being made. It’s why I’m cautious about getting things these days including MOCs There are still good eggs out there however!! 💕

@ThatJunkman

3 жыл бұрын

I bet you still you AOL :)

👍🏼👍🏼

😮...That Ren feller was a real sum bish...😒

I think this is hilarious.

Frank ? Isn't that the guy on American Pickers who loves Star Wars ? hmmmmmmm j/k

i’m sorry but how did no one ASK if they was vintage kenner figures or ships. that would be like bidding on a ebay action today with no pic or description and title simply said star wars luke action figure and get mad when you get it and it’s not a super rare figure. i’m not defending what he did but i’m also not letting these buyers off the hook. all it would have took is one simple email asking this is the 80’s kenner version right? that would have put a end to everything i use to buy items off ebay before paypal was a thing and had to pay with money orders i would double and triple check with sellers making sure everything they said in the description or title was 100% right before mailing out payment. never got screwed over. it’s not luck a scammer knows if they are vague they didn’t break the law just suckered a sucker.

Why on earth would you buy something from someone who used a cartoon character as an alias AND refused to give his real name!

@dreamlandnightmare

3 жыл бұрын

It was the early days of the internet. People were a lot more naive to the web back then.

The internet was the wild wild west back in those days.

@ThatJunkman

3 жыл бұрын

Good days. Before 3 to 4 corporations took it over. ;)

So, Lucas and Disney Co. were working together in the 90's.

@ThatJunkman

3 жыл бұрын

Since the 80s

Wow, those were the days of mailing checks or money orders. Thank God for PayPal and eBay fraud division

waiter , there's a fly in my soup let me taste it, where's the spoon ach ya!

I like ren... touché

when greed eats your brain

the buyers were taking advantage of the seller actually

Boomers telling us not to talk to strangers on the internet but they've been at it since the 80s

My name is Ren... Kylo Ren...

Well what he did wasn’t mail fraud so of course nothing came of it …..it sucks but technically he didn’t do anything illegal what he was morally fucked up and wrong …..but not illegal

I’ve got a different Darkside of collectors for you. I have no problem collecting I want to say that first. But the problem is is that some of you guys go out there and camp out at the stores waiting for the new shipment and then you buy every last one of a specific figure that’s hard to find. And let’s face it guys toys or toys first collectible second. I’ve had to go through hell to find a toy for my child . Got all the knuckleheads would buy them at every store. I’m a working man I work two jobs have a house to take care of the children. I can’t camp out at the store just to buy one. No I’m not saying you guys can’t go out and try to get capture that one figure. But stop getting every last one and then trying to resell them. A few years back there was a hulk cartoon . Wasn’t a very good one of course but it was a cartoon nonetheless. On the show there’s a character called a bomb. And my son love him. But I spent weeks trying to find this figure trying to buy it order it or anything. But I could never find it. Some of the store clerks would tell me how they were men that were waiting for the store to open every day and checking every day and buying every last one that came in. In the end I had to buy an expensive ticket to a common convention and then going to buy it at a ridiculous rate. Most likely from one of these guys that camped out in the first place. Not all parents are gonna be willing to do that. Some won’t be able to afford to. Also some collector cannot just finish his collection but hoard them to turn a profit on a child’s toy! It’s OK to collect but that behavior is pathetic!

@1eljugo

3 жыл бұрын

I swear, it could have been me who wrote your post. I feel you 100% You should try collecting Jordans. It's worse.

mind a tricks donna work on me, only money ! rubs fingers together

Very interesting junkman. What a scammer. Unfortunately if it sounds too good to be true it probably is

Was Kylo Ren named after this scammer?