The hassle. You have to try and get PayPal on your side, with the dispute, which could possibly be very hard.
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i think it’s amazing sometimes how much defense of, giving a pass on, or straight up ignoring of the poor and mediocre bst practices that go on. in a community (i’m not referring to yye btw, just as a whole) gives itself such a massive pat on the back for being so great and honest and welcoming, the yoyo bst community as a whole does not leave that impression.
it’s easy to run up a quick chain of feedback on here too, then operate like a jerk. and then when they tell me things like, “well, it’s up to the seller to do their research when selling their pieces…” and wonder why i ban and/or block them (
)…
the problem isn’t pictures, or paypal, it’s INTEGRITY! and, when you have an environment filled with people that have it, and don’t… or people passing through. and, there’s likely little incentive to add “more categories” or “more filters” for the bst… anyone can tell someone ‘in charge’ that they ‘gotta do this/should do that’. this is all FREE! setting up and managing a website, group, discord, is not easy…
btw, i didn’t “where’s waldo” the other red flags in my example.
EDITE to clarify i was NOT referring to yye specifically
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That’s why more stringent requirements for BST are needed. It discourages the fly by nite scammer. People need to earn the right.
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i agree. i edited my post to clarify that i wasn’t specifically stating yye, i meant the overall online yoyo/bst community
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going through the claims process is a hassle. having money held up is a hassle. the wasted time in the conversation making the deal… or what about the time on the in between wondering “did i get scammed? i hope i didn’t get scammed. this couldn’t be a scam… “ that could go on for a month… stressed, over a yoyo
getting hyped up about a throw and then disappointed sucks… and leaves an impression, sometimes lasting. then if you’re even lucky trying to find another of that throw.
sounds like a lot of fun to me, even having the g&s insurance… because that’s what happens.
and the best part is, there is only insulation after someone gets screwed. “oh, he hosed a dude… can’t be here anymore.” and that person just goes to the other bsts, and does it again… lol
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Sounds that way, but I don’t know what happened.
I’m going to guess there were warning signs that were ignored…
- periods of no communication
- ongoing excuses like “Hey bro, something came up. I can’t ship till next week”
- it was an international sale. (these seem to be especially problematic)
If the person you’re dealing with doesn’t respond or has excuses, don’t hesitate to reverse the transaction and move on unless you like to gamble.
If you require a higher level of proof that someone actually owns the things they’re selling, then you can ask for proof. Get as much corroborating evidence as you need – please don’t force everyone else to do it.
At the end of the day G&S is your best protection. Anything else is essentially “security theater”.
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Uh oh I just made one 
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It’ll be fine. I bought a yo-yo from a guy in Russia using F&F. I broke all my own rules (but it was for charity). It showed up maybe a month later. No issues. And if there had been issues, I would have been out a little bit of money. Life goes on.
I think the amount of actual scamming going on is greatly exaggerated. 99.9% of people on this site are good and decent and you won’t have any issues.
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while outright ‘scamming’ may not be as rampant, there is certainly more effort that could be put in by buyers and sellers on behalf of the community
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G&S on its own is in no way difficult, but it takes a lot of wasted time to apply for a chargeback from PayPal and to go through with the fraudulent deal to begin with, especially when the end product is literally a zero-sum game for everyone involved.
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Dude, I’ve only made international transactions on here, I’ve had no problems to speak of so far. Honestly, the experiences I’ve had buying from people on this forum so far have been some of the best buying experiences I’ve had on a BST, it’s just a bit saddening to see other people having trouble with people or getting tricked out of time or money.
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So how do you propose we alleviate that?
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i’ll tell ya… give me the keys to the bst channel, i have plenty of references…
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I don’t think there’s any one magical thing that’s gonna fix all the risk. There is a concept in computer security called “defense in depth”, or “belt and suspenders”, where you do multiple things to protect yourself in BST transactions:
-
investigate the user’s forum history (visit their user page and read their recent posts, see how long they’ve been a member, visit their feedback topic)
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definitely specifically look at their BST category posts to see how those went, if they have any, and how many, etc … this is pretty easy with the search terms just enter
"@username #buy-sell-trade"without the quotes. -
ask for them to post a pic of the throws with their username written on a piece of paper next to it, to prove that they actually have those items in their possession… or ask for an additional pic closer up if you’re trying to establish dings or scratches or whatever. If they are unwilling to do that, it’s a bad sign, obvs
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use PayPal Goods & Services for the extra fee and protection
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if it is a new user, increase the restrictions on when they are allowed to post in the BST at all – right now you have to be trust level 1, brand new users aren’t allowed to post in BST whatsoever
(probably some other stuff you can do here that I forgot, so feel free to chime in)
Security means striking a reasonable balance. If you make it too strict, then people will just go elsewhere to BST their stuff (puh-lenty of options out there, btw) and the BST here will die off. If you make it too lenient, then everyone will get ripped off constantly and this will be viewed as a lawless place with unacceptable risk, and the BST here will die off.
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Trust level 1 is meaningless.
Maybe send in the unicorns.
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We should change it to 2. That would probably help somewhat. (this genius idea was totally proposed by me jk jk)
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Agree to disagree!
Anyway not our decision to make (and definitely not mine), Andre and Garrett need to.
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It’s completely meaningless as a gateway to the BST.
- Entering at least 5 topics
- Reading at least 30 posts
- Spend a total of 10 minutes reading posts
All that is easily gamed within 15 minutes of creating an account.
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Trust level one basically keeps bots away. Doesn’t work on a human wanting to run a scam.
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