This is an insanely unlikely set of circumstances. This hobby feels antiscam compared to literally every other hobby, but they’ll all have rheir bad apples. I’d say try to find people with a presence, and honestly if you wanna be shameless you can try just messaging a bunch of people if you really want it. The best thing to do moving forward would probably be to create a forum looking for it, unlike a bunch of niche stuff I think you’ll have an easier time finding one as people LOVE CLYW and G2 unlike anything else around here. They will treat them as something to be collected/traded over playing (I may be wrong)
Even with well-known people, G&S all the way. I’ve already been ghosted/silent by the main creator of the biggest BST & Talk yoyo on Facebook.
After a few months, he went back there as if nothing had happened. And yes, he still hasn’t an explanation or responded. And it didn’t just happen to me; he did it to other people I know.
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Without setting up a market place like eBay with protections for just yo-yos I don’t see a better way than what exists now and the transaction fees needed to make it work for something built to purpose for the community without the scale of an eBay will be more than just using eBay to cover its self
I had some similar unpleasant experiences with FB bst threads. I recently kinda unplugged from most social media, fb, ig, and whatnot. Here’s good for me. 
Also, as far as monitoring goes? I feel like yye does a pretty good job keeping scammers out of the forums. Of course it’s never gonna be absolute, but I’ve always felt like they’re on top of it. From watchin certain ip’s, countries, and previous associated accounts. I feel a lot safer dealing with people here.
As far as g&s vs fandf? If ya take g&s PayPal WILL invoice ya. I mean, I’ll ask people to pay me fandf, but if they don’t feel good about it, I can understand. I’d just rather not eat the fees is all 
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Old YYE had a good rating system for BSTing. Now we have to do convoluted Feedback Threads.
RE: F&F, I don’t mind choosing that option, but if I’m buying from someone with no/few trades, I request them ship first. Once I receive the yoyo, I’ll send the money - at least, that used to be much more commonplace. And it really only works if one person has a significant amount of feedback.
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I always ask for a “discount” on a purchase, as I usually buy more than one item from a listing. If it’s just one, I see if the person can match the asking price, but also cover the G&S fees. If it’s a yo-yo that I really want, I cover the G&S fees, and that’s it.
Any seller asking for F&F payment should be suspect. Is 3% really that much? That is $3 on a $100 purchase.
Be smart, tell them you will pay the 3% and send it (price + (price * 0.03)) G&S. If they are scammers and no yo-yo is forthcoming, the money will come from their account and PayPal will put their account on probation.
Scammers are asking F&F hoping that PayPal never learns of their abuse of the platform. By paying for G&S you protect yourself as well as alert PayPal to this fraudulent behavior.
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Same thing happened to me. I even made a post about it that was approved by Skip but didn’t get any interaction. Definitely something shady going on there, I wonder if Facebook allows group admins to limit viability.
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imo it should really be the person who buys it who should cover G&S. 3% is very little especially since no one here is getting taxed the 13% here, like you would going to a store in Canada for example. I usually cover the G&S but sometimes I don’t, not that I want to skimp out but because I really really have severe ADHD. I can and will forget out of carelessness.
I call my ADHD a superpower.
No matter the person, never ever pay f&f.
I’ve seen a thread on someone who had really good rep, came back a couple months later, then scammed a bunch of people ‘selling’ yoyos they had already sold ages ago
Any money you ever put into f&f for reasons like international shipping or middle man deals should be considered gone to the risk.
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for such a close-knit community, getting scammed by randos seems kinda prevalent if you go off the context of this thread
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Note: He sold me an 888 Ti, I think it was $200 at the time. And yes, I was seriously ghosted by Connor Vranizan. It basically took me 2 months to get my money back through PayPal support. I’m naming names because I’ve seen that he’s done this to several people, and he’s the creator of BST & Talk on Facebook.
Regarding limiting who can see it, I don’t doubt that option exists. The only reason I have Facebook is for BST and random memes about topics that interest me, that’s all. Apart from that, I wouldn’t even have it.
Thanks for bringing attention to this so others can be on the lookout. It sucks because I’ve found this to be such an open and welcoming community. I basically created a new account and members sold me some of my most prized throws when I had no rep. Hope you’re able to get a satisfactory resolution on your end.