315 Mint Pair Sold Four Times In Six Weeks

The Cartel/Philip Ryle "sold" the pair four times.

Dec 5 bargain-discount-deals

https://www.ebay.com/itm/US-1906-08...AOSwaSZaGCW8

Dec 17 bargain-discount-deals

https://www.ebay.com/itm/US-1906-08...AOSwe6FaKWHq

Jan 4 bargain-discount-deals

https://www.ebay.com/itm/US-1906-08...AOSwC-taPQup

Jan 25 xfstamps


https://www.ebay.com/itm/US-Regular...AOSwCMtaXNtk


Some of us know how this works. Others do not and I want them to get a sense of the games that go on.

There are hundreds of items like this that are traded between even a greater number of ID's and sold many more times.

If ebay had just one person assigned to the stamps category with a bit of technology and subject matter knowledge they could do amazing things to clean it up. It is not a herculean task. Just tedious. And hammering a few will send a message to many.

I wonder if ebay even cares !

Of course they will sell the stamps in the listings if you bid high enough but I have to wonder if the ebay sales are primarily some kind of money laundering operation. When a refund is made, you don't get your paypal fees back, so there has to be some other benefit to constantly reselling the same item to a shill.

Their stamp business is probably just a front. The shill wins the auction and money from another business (illegal) is pushed through the system to "clean" the money. So basically the $3,000 is now laundered.

Let's do a little math. If they pay 9% in ebay and PayPal fees each time, times 4 sales, that's 36%. Would you pay 36% running up an item hoping some sucker would buy it?

If the payment is refunded the final value fees are credited back.

It's not 36%. Again, the stamp means nothing. If and when the stamp sells the seller probably makes a huge profit. The main goal of the shill is to run the bid higher so a higher amount of funds can be cleaned and made "legal".

A return or cancellation also credits back the fee. Since he is buying himself in most cases it is just a shell game.

He appears to be using a clever technique for shill bidding- mirror the behavior of your target bidders. Ryles is placing bids the way many legit buyers place them- in the last few seconds. Most bidders believe the shilling occurs in the early stages of the auction. So Ryles places some of the shill bids at the end.

Of course this means he "wins" many of the lots, but so what? Each account can leave positive feedback to build up their credibility, and the transaction is then cancelled mutually so no money ever changes hands. That's why you see the same lots over and over again.

Why on earth would someone go through that length just to build "credibility"?

I will guarantee you that he is doing this to launder money from another (or multiple) illegal businesses. It's too easy and the seller's shill accounts would never lose an auction. If an item with a CV of $1,000 is listed the shill sets their snipe bid for 170% of CV knowing no collector will pay that high of a premium. It drives the price up on every bid therefore allowing him to launder a higher amount of money, ad infinitum.

Trying to launder money at $20.00 a clip isn't a productive method.

Stallzer, you just nailed what I have long suspected.

I figured that it's a way to show $X of business being done and it's a great way to launder money. I know of a coin dealer who, since retired and passed away, used his business to launder millions for people.

A discussion of the British cartel will probably go the same route as the Anthony's thread.

I have a feeling that the OP threw out a bit of a rhetorical question. I know this topic has been discussed in the past, but for those reading this thread that are scratching their heads now, I think Rogdcam would do us all a great service by explaining exactly how the cartel works... Fellow collectors-take note, as this is one of the more elaborate stamp scams on ebay.