…and I lost.

Last month, while doing Google searches for FreeMarket (to check reviews, chatter, actual play reports, etc.) I came across a copy of the FreeMarket boxed set for sale on eBay. It was selling for a Buy It Now price of $9.99, which seemed odd. I told Luke. He thought it was weird too. I joked we should buy it and re-sell it for the real value.

Checked the eBay store again and noticed, no, not one game. Two. Same price, same seller. Weird.

Now, Luke and I only sell FreeMarket at conventions and via our website. The one exception is we’re selling one case (6 boxes) through our friends at the Compleat Strategist here in NYC. So I looked through our records…who bought two copies in listed area?

Answer: nobody.

Okay, a little weird but we have sold them at conventions and even sold some to con organizers to be used as prizes. No doubt some Pathfinder fan won them in a contest or auction and decided to unload them. At $10 each. Whatever.

But two things were weird about the listing:

1) The promo copy in the listing was from the interview Luke and I did with the transhuman-themed blog Technoccult. My name was in the listing’s title. Odd. Looked like the seller just cut and pasted from the first listing that comes up with details about the game when you Google my name and FreeMarket. Sure enough, the interview is third on the list of searches.

2) I wrote to the seller asking about the games. The seller was quick to respond.

“I have more!”

“How much more?” I asked.

The response: “A whole case of six! If you buy five I’ll throw in the sixth for free!”

So, $450 worth of games for $50 (plus shipping)? Hmm…very suspicious.

I said, “Cool! I’ll take them all!” and followed with “BTW, where did you get them anyway? I hear they’re rare”

No response.

So I emailed a friend and asked if he could pick up the case for me and I’d pay him back. He did. The shipping was about $12. The box they were shipping in? The exact same box that the games arrived in from China. Complete with FREEMARKET stamped on the side with the case number. How did a case of FreeMarket arrive in Pennsylvania when we never shipping six copies in an original shipping container? Possibly, a case was left behind in LA when the games arrived in the US. I’m not sure it was a surplus because the box clearly states #127 on the site next to C/NO (case number). Luke and I must have miscounted when we carried the boxes off of the truck in Staten Island.

Of course I emailed eBay to let them know that something weird was up. The site said that a law enforcement official had to fill out a form on the site to report stolen goods. I called my local police department and the police in the seller’s town to get something done. Each said it was the other’s jurisdiction.

EBay continues to offer no help and the seller (who also sells the most random shit imaginable — diet aids, car tire rims, USB routers, sun lamps, DVDs…oh and the FreeMarket roleplaying game of course!) continues to operate.

So I’m out $62 but I have my games back.

And that’s the story.