Ghosted by a seller and COMC order is getting shipped

 I didn’t exactly know where to ask this question but I figured that all of the fine readers and collectors have probably dealt with a situation like this before. 

On April 28, I wanted to purchase 2 cards of Rays mascot Raymond for my collection. There was a 2010 Topps Openong Day card, which I purchased from an eBay seller, and then a 2021 Topps Opening Day card of ol’ Raymond with a jersey relic on it. The relic card had only had 3 listings, 2 of the listings were on eBay at the time for 20 bucks, and another one for 13 bucks on a website https://johnnybtrading.com/ .  The site looked like just some dealers personal website, and at 7 bucks below the eBay price (and at about the top of what I would pay for the card, I decided to jump on it and place the order. 

Immediately after I placed the order, I got a confirmation email saying I would get another email when it had shipped. The bank took the money out, and I waited for the cards. 

I got the 2010 card in a week or so, and after waiting about 2 weeks on the 2021 relic with no update, I decided to email the seller. I basically asked what the standard shipping time was and was wondering if he was perhaps on vacation. 

I found a Facebook page https://m.facebook.com/107599331470921/ for this guys stuff as well, so I sent him a FB message after getting no response to the original email. It was the same general question, just how long it generally takes for a single card to get shipped. All I got was an auto response that they would get back to me as soon as possible. 

The page had a phone number on it. I typed the number into my phone, and it turned blue when I put it into my text messages, so I am pretty sure it’s a cellphone number, it is an iPhone that can get texts, and from the area code is a Louisiana one. Judging from the only email from this guy, the cards are coming from the Birmingham, Alabama area, and judging from my bank statement, it is located specifically in the Lake Paradise area of the state. 

After a few more days of no response to the FB message, I sent the same question via a text. It’s been about 5 days, so I sent a pretty angry follow up text, letting the guy know that I knew a judge in Alabama, some politicians, lawyers, and people in law enforcement in the state. I may have embellished some of it, but I want this guy to know that he can’t just set up an online card shop, forget about it (as he hasn’t posted anything on his FB page in about a year), ignore customers, but still accept payments into whatever bank account he has for the shop. I’m gonna keep being persistent, sending texts whenever I think about it, maybe calling it when I get up for work at 3:30 AM every day, and perhaps that will draw a response. It almost appears that he is still operating his home page, as the card I ordered was listed as the last one and was for 13 bucks, and now it appears on his site that he now somehow has 4 left and they are now 4 bucks cheaper and at 9 bucks per. 

I really don’t even want the money back, I more want the actual card. It would be so easy to get it signed at the next Rays game I go to, and it would be one of the coolest cards of the Seadog who is my teams mascot. I just don’t want to pay 20 bucks plus shipping on eBay to get it from a different seller. 

So I say all this to say what else can I do?  I’m sure people have ran into other sellers like this who aren’t on eBay and have sold a card or cards and then ghosted the buyer. What is the next step?  Should I try to flag his FB page or leave a bad review on it?  Can I contact the BBB?  Am I basically screwed and left to play mind games on the guy with the phone stuff until one of us blinks?

On the more positive note, my order from COMC is shipping, so I’ll have between 150-200 cards to add to my binders. I’m looking forward to getting them, as I have a nice stack of Rays, Tigers, favorite players, rookie cards, sunset cards, highlight cards, and shiny cards to add to their respective binders, which haven’t been updated in about a year. My birthday is in about a month, but I don’t really expect to get any cards, and if I do, I expect it would be current stuff which would be added to the ends of my binders since I have them organized by year. So I’ll probably start putting the COMC order into my box of loose cards, and then put all of the ones in the box into the binders. Should be fun doing that. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post. 

-Jeremy