All 4 notes were bought by me from Jimrob23. Please don't blame me - I was new to this at the time. This happened to me in 2011 and although I mentioned it in a previous post - I never dared to reveal the details. But now that he has made literally $millions on eBay and is STILL doing this (as revealed recently), I can no longer keep this to myself. I realized that I actually do fear this very wealthy con artist. He has a lot of money and power. But I must reveal this information and the details. I bought 4 notes from Jimrob23 and ALL 4 of them were doctored. So, this is a warning. Here is just one of four notes that he "got me" on. This note was graded by PGCS as a "20" and bought 2/26/11 on eBay. 3 weeks later on 3/20/11 Jimrob23 sold it to me on eBay as an "A/U". I requested and was denied a refund on all 4 of the Notes - to be honest, the refund window had expired. It took me a while to research the notes and by then it was after the deadline. However, this should not be tolerated on eBay. I notified AND called eBay to report the 4 notes and they said they would "look into it" but never got back to me and no action was taken. Track & Price Heritage Auction The "same" note sold and sent to me by Jimrob23
I'm familiar with jimrob's scumbaggery. I wonder why he has all positive feedback? Does he have different accounts?
Thanks for sharing legolas. This seller was recently mentioned as a scammer in another thread similar to yours. As I get more interested in paper money, I see more and more of this and it makes me question my choice to get involved with paper money vs coins. Some of the this paper money doctoring looks almost impossible to detect unless you catch the bill on another website like the OP did.
Fall Guy, if you want to get into currency, you should buy graded notes from reputable TPGs like PCGS and PMG. Coins can be doctored and cleaned just like paper money. It just takes some knowledge to pick out the good from the bad. If you want to buy raw notes, build a relationship with a trustworthy seller. Also buy from sellers with return policies and examine the notes as soon as you get them so you can return them within the given window. The program the OP used is called Track & Price and contains auction histories. Although not all notes sold at auction are in that program, it is better than nothing. Another thing you should do is train your eye to pick out doctored notes. It's pretty easy to see a pressed note or a washed note. There are tell-tale signs to look for like faded or off-color seals and serial numbers, more than a couple of folds that are just barely visible, and paper that appears too white for the number of folds it has. And the paper may appear to have a sandpaper-like texture. A good way to spot folds is to save the image and invert the colors. They are easier to spot on a dark background. Pull up a high resolution image of the same note on ha.com. Invert both images and set them next to each other. The doctored note will have a lot more variation of color in the "white" areas. The AU/CU image should be straight black in those areas, while a doctored note will have areas of gray. I did the comparison on the OP's note against this one http://currency.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=396&lotNo=17914#Photo You can ask the seller to take some different photos. Have them take the photo at a low angle with a light shining over the note at a similarly low angle. This reveals folds and embossing (if there is any). Also look at the edges. Most high grade notes will not have seen enough circulation to have edge damage (there are exceptions). If you see a note that looks to be in high grade, but the edges are worn, have nicks or splits, or looks like the nicks/splits were filled in (restorations), stay away. You can spot the restorations by inverting the image as I mentioned earlier. It's rare for the pieces to be the exact same shade as the rest of the note. Check out these examples: http://www.flickr.com/photos/coinforgeryebay/sets/72157631103745094/with/7866984970/ Hope that helps.
I agree. As an "outsider" looking in, it appears the good with note collecting is traceability of notes by SN, something impossible with coins. The bad is somewhat easier ways to affect the appearance of the note, from trimming to ironing, etc. Like everything, you need to know what you are doing before getting too far in I imagine.
I only bought 4 Notes from Jimrob23 and all 4 were proven to be doctored, That is 100% fraud. Quite honestly, I spent a lot of time and reviewed the "Sold" items from this 100% Positive reviewed Con Man. I added up Jimrob23's take for 2 weeks and it came to $34 grand, which is about $635,000 for that year. Oddly, the Jimrob23 and nm777Wood huge volume criminals get 99% to 100% positive Feedback. This is why newbies like I was get "taken to the cleaners" (Pun intended). When someone is lucky enough to find they have been ripped off, the Seller refunds the money, no neg FB occurs . . . and the extremely profitable ripoffs continue with 100% positive FB. Believe it or not I was somehow scared to give him a neg review - even after losing over $6,000 to him !!!! The refund window was past. BUT - I stayed honest. I never sold those notes to others because I did not want to rip anyone else off !!! If I ever do sell them - I will reveal that they are "doctored Jimrob23 notes". eBay loves these guys because they are selling close to $1 million annually, which is about $100,000 into the pockets of eBay. So eBay has NO INCENTIVE to kick them off and no incentive to even warn them about their criminal activities. But this is a crime - and he is very wealthy from the backs of Honest people, who now have thousands of pricey, doctored notes from him. But they do not know this. They are people with collections that are not savvy enough to check against Track & Price and they simply TRUST the 100% positive Rating. He is not "REPAIRING" the notes. Washing and Bleaching is not "repair". He never mentioned the fact that the notes have been washed with solvents. Even worse - removing the Notes from the holder is also not "repair". It is FRAUD - which is a crime. But not in eBay's mind - they see it as PROFIT. The victims (like me), unfortunately are often looked upon as "you idiot - hahaha - serves you right", etc, etc. So we do not really want to come forward with the details . . . admitting that we were suckers.
I'm sure they think of it as restorations. Certainly there is some "restoration" at work here, but in my opinion it crosses the line into doctoring when the notes are being pressed to make folds less evident. In addition, the lack of disclosure makes this practice unethical. Don't be afraid to leave negative feedback for the seller. A seller cannot leave neutral or negative feedback for a buyer any longer. You should contact eBay to see if they will let you revise your feedback.
I hope this threads benefits new collectors. Words cannot express how surprised I am at the money being blindly spent by new and/or uneducated collectors. These shenanigans occur in every facet of collecting and the phrase "hindsight is 20/20" comes to mind.
I agree, of all the doctoring/fraud ive seen since ive began looking into bills, i havent seen anyone attempt to change/defraud serial numbers, giving an informed purchaser 2 ways to verify the note's history, the serial number, and the reference number on the graded bill (PMG or PCGS). The real risk is buying non graded bills imho
While this is true...removing a VF note from a TPG holder and heavily doctoring it (bleaching, ironing, ect.) to make it appear to be a much better grade and then selling it as a problem free AU note for 5x the money is fraud.
Paper money is a little easier to weed out the repaired notes since there is a website that tracks all the serial numbers that appeared in auction. Problem is that website charge money for it.... If you are buying a high grade raw note, I would recommend it.
I do not disagree with this but go back and read the OPs statement in post 7. He stated that the act of removing a note from a holder was both fraud and a crime.
While I understand what you are saying...I think the point here is the note has been doctored. Taking a coin or note out of a slab is fine as long as it isn't advertised as something it is not.
