Quote from: Razor 007;1067269My D&D 4th Edition PHB is ready to ship, for $300.00

My offer still stands.......

Includes Custom Notes, as well as Authentic Wear and Tear!!!

(One day, there will be a 4th Edition D&D Revival; and I will be ready to cash in on it.)

I have a copy of the Indiana Jones Masterbook boxed set that includes;

* Original contents (3 books)
* An extra Masterbook core book
* The original cards
* Ten black d10's

PM me and make an offer!! Buyer pays shipping.

Have a complete set of WE's Indiana Jones and can't bear to part with it yet.  I really should.  I've hung on to Warhammer Fantasy 1ed books that are now worth far less than before (due to the C7 PDFs -- which I really appreciate).

Quote from: Tod13;1069112On Amazon, some of that is money laundering. A place resells your book, from your stock, at a ridiculous mark up. This gets purchased, excess money is declared as profit (or written off due to overhead), taxes paid, and poof, clean money.

Seriously? You think it's money laundering? As in, for drug traffickers or something??

I've wondered about the money laundering aspect too. Not for RPG stuff, but you see bizarre prices for products on Amazon occasionally and while its probably just algorithm glitches, there's always the possibility that its a form of money washing.

BTW, if any of you own valuable RPG books (aka, over $100), look into your homeowner's insurance policy for your personal art coverage. Yeah, that's a thing. I knew somebody whose home flooded and his old book collection was largely covered.

I'll add on to that and advise not to assume that something is covered. If you have a significant collection, talk to your insurance company. I use a separate insurer that specializes in collectibles as my primary coverage isn't adequate.

Quote from: RPGPundit;1069546Seriously? You think it's money laundering? As in, for drug traffickers or something??

I've seen that suggested before when this subject has come up. I'm not sold that this is a thing with RPGs, but it does strike me as plausible in some cases. Classic automobiles seems a more efficient way to launder large sums of money than obscure RPGs. Marijuana is a major black market crop where I live. A few years ago a couple of the local restaurants got raided by the IRS for suspected money laundering so it doesn't all happen through off shore bank accounts.

Quote from: Toadmaster;1069909Marijuana is a major black market crop where I live. A few years ago a couple of the local restaurants got raided by the IRS for suspected money laundering so it doesn't all happen through off shore bank accounts.

Of course.

Restaurants and other cash heavy businesses with inexact inventories are the classic ways to launder money. Especially with booze since bartenders vary in how they pour.  They just claim to sell more than they actually do, pay taxes on some dirty money and it comes out clean. I've actually read that it's virtually impossible to catch if they don't overdo it, its just that many try to launder the money too fast.

Amusingly - many such businesses also do it the other way. The owner will take some cash out, claiming NOT to receive it to lower their taxes, and then just spend it as cash without ever reporting it to the IRS and paying taxes on it.

Quote from: RPGPundit;1069546Seriously? You think it's money laundering? As in, for drug traffickers or something??

I certainly don't think so.

I think it's a combination of a handful of different factors, but the biggest is automatic pricing software.  It's easy enough to test - open yourself a seller account (disclaimer:  be smart, don't use this for fraud, use different contact information, I'm not responsible for Amazon booting you, etc. etc.), find a listing that has some batshit crazy price, and list a copy cheap.  Within 24 hours, you'll see those crazy listings drop, dramatically.

Some of those sellers have their auto-pricing software set to always be a couple of percent higher than the highest price (subtly advertising that they're the cream of the crop), while others have their software set to be a couple points lower than the highest price, and others are all over the map.

When the rationally (and manually) priced copies have been bought, and it's only auto-pricers competing, that's when shit goes crazy.

Amongst those highest-priced sellers are a handful of folk who don't actually have the product in stock - they're hoping that you'll buy from them, and then they'll buy a cheaper copy from one of their competitors and ship it to you.  They really have nothing to lose doing this, since Amazon only charges on a completed sale.

-bh

Quote from: kythri;1069971I think it's a combination of a handful of different factors, but the biggest is automatic pricing software.

Yes; as I posted earlier:

Quote from: rawma;1067197An actual example

I would doubt that RPG collectibles are much used for laundering money, since they don't seem high enough priced or numerous enough, so the volume needed to launder significant amounts of money would stand out relative to legitimate sales. Laundering money via alcohol sales sounds a lot more plausible.