... And Bootlegs For All

Bad Traders

This is a story on my first trade where I was ripped off after almost 4 years of almost no probs with trading with others.

The whole thing started back in September 2004, when a guy posted on the Coroner bb that he has some shows on VHS and can trade those on DVDs. Some of those were either rare (not available on audio) or just it was great to have video versions of those.
Anyways I contacted the guy and he sent me his list in attached .txt file which contained a humongous list and damn there were so much great shite apart from the mighty Coroner. At that time I was only getting myself into DVD trades and my friend/all-time partner Dimon has just finished transferring Moscow show of Amorphis from VHS to DVD, having worked his ass off to do a good menu, i.e. just to do a good quality thing unlike most of the DVDs that are stand-alone transfers with no menus etc. I also had the same type of DVD he had made from Children of Bodom Moscow gig.
Anyways the guy wanted those two plus 2 more, so the whole deal was: I send

Coroner: 1989-10-28 Streets: New Rochelle, NY, USA
Paradise Lost: 1991-04-14 Ludwigsburg, Germany
Amorphis: 2002-12-14 - Gorbunov Cultural Center: Moscow, Russia
Children Of Bodom: 2003-08-16 Moscow, Russia/2001-10-13 'Mystic Festival' Hala Wisly: Krakow, Poland

and I was to get "his":

CORONER-Chicago, IL. 9/17/89 36 min. 4+
CORONER-Pittsburg, PA. 10/21/89 32 min. 4+
CORONER-Detroit, MI. 4/27/90 58 min. 4+
CORONER-Detroit, MI. 11/8/91 46 min. 4+

So we agreed to send at the same time.
I sent the package on October 16, 2004. The Number is 9522, weight 0.126 kg. I have to scan the receipt... if anyone need more confirmatory documentation.

Now about this guy. He calls himself 'abyssic serpent' and his snail mail address is as follows:

SWANAND RAIKAR
B-7,RX7,Koyna Society,
Sudarshan Nagar,
M.I.D.C,Dombivli(E),
Dist.-THANE 421203,
Maharashtra,
INDIA
e-mail - theabyss666@rediffmail.com

After I got his addy I was a bit shocked - I have never traded with anyone from India and it was surprising how a guy from there could accumulate such a great list of vids! But why not?! I have nothing against people there so...
Right after I sent out his package...THE VERY NEXT day I sent a message via icq to my good trading friend Michael from Switzerland, who likes Coroner as well and trading DVDs now saying to him how lucky I was to arrange such a deal... But what I heard from Mike was very saddening. He told me that 'abyssic' guy had contacted him before for a trade and although he had contacted Mike he disagreed to send first, so Mike ruled out the trade. And after that he recalled that he saw a similar looking list somewhere else - and guess what the list belonged to a very well know video metal trader from USA if I'm not mistaken. Compare this guys' list for coroner with the one I got from that India guy:

880. CORONER-Chicago, IL. 9/17/89 36 min. 4+ (1st gen.)
824. CORONER-Pittsburg, PA. 10/21/89 32 min. 4+ (1st gen.)
819. CORONER-Detroit, MI. 4/27/90 58 min. 4+ (1st gen.)
820. CORONER-Detroit, MI. 11/8/91 46 min. 4+ (1st gen.)

the only difference was generation info and tape numbering. Here's the link to the US guy:

I was shocked cause I saw this guy's list some time ago but never approached him for a trade. Mike told me to forget about getting anything from India cause it was evident this f*cker was using this US guy's list for ripping people off...
I decided not to jump with conclusions (although they were evident) and wrote to the Indian requesting number of his package and wondering what equipment does he use to transfer VHS > DVD. He replied: "SAMSUNG DVD-RW & PINNACLE POINT STUDIO TV CAPTURE CARD. HERE'S THE NO. RU9821308879." A month later I wrote him a mail asking if he got my package:

"HELL.I DID NOT GET YOUR PACKAGE EITHER.NOW THE QUESTION IS,WHERE THE FUCK DID THE PACKAGES GO ? WHAT THE FUCK TO DO NOW ? I EVEN CHECKED IN THE POST OFFICE & IT'S NOT THERE."

A week later I asked the same and he went like: "NO.I WANNA SAY THAT I DID NOT RECEIVE THE PARCEL SENT BY Y.F.NICE RIPOFF."

I replied:

"hahahah YOU want to say I ripped you off? i knew from the day two that you ripped me :) a guy i know and the one you approached for a trade gave me a list of a very known video trader and his list looked exactly the same as yours is... but i decided to trust you and you even gave me a number of a package you 'sent' but seems like the truth was you never sent anything.... enjoy my Dvds...the package you got from me (i'm sure you did) was sent registered air mail on October 19, 2004 at 8:15 am #9522 weighted 126 gr. so you better never say i ripped you off!"

The last reply as of now I got from him was:

"NICE EXCUSES TO PROVE YOURSELF INNOCENT.BUT NOW I'M DEAD SURE THAT YOU RIPPED ME OFF.I KNOW YOU GOT THE DVDS FOR SURE."

The funny thing is that I know I sent the package and I know I haven't received mine and this joker insists that I ripped him off. I have a website and I have been trading with people from ALL OVER THE WORLD for 4 years now, he doesn't have a web site... only a list that he stole from some other people.

To crown it all, I'd like to say that it's better to trade with people you know and when trading with people you never did before - ask for some justification info on the materials they have, be it video caps or mp3s. As you see I'm not that much saddened, after all there were 4 DVDs and not, say, 30. But still it's always bad when your expectations of getting something great are let down and you ain't get a thing and being called a rip-off.

Thank you all for reading it.

and this is the last mail I got from this guy after i told him i'll let the world know about him:
"I'LL DO THE SAME YOU FUCKIN' RIPPER.THAT WAS JUST ANOTHER STEP TO PROVE YOURSELF INNOCENT.KEEP TRYING.BUT I KNOW U R A RIPOFF TRADER."