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March 6, 2011
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The guy selling the Winchesters with boxes on GB. I thought his name was selling dads old guns, but that does not come up on a feedback search. I was trying to see what he is doing now, and keeping people aware of him.
April 15, 2005
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He changed his name at least 3-times while he was actively selling on Gunbroker… to hide his negative feedback. I believe that GB eventually booted him and he disappeared. I have not seen anything on GB in recent times that would indicate that he is back again.
WACA Historian & Board of Director Member #6571L
March 6, 2011
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I believe he changed his name because of exposure on this forum. His feedback was 100% positive. If he has resurfaced under another name, we should be aware of it. With the quantity of guns he sold, it is hard to believe he would just stop selling guns. This forum has been beneficial for exposing “discrepancies” in Winchesters offered for sale. That is a public service provided to collectors.
April 15, 2005
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wolfbait said
I believe he changed his name because of exposure on this forum. His feedback was 100% positive. If he has resurfaced under another name, we should be aware of it. With the quantity of guns he sold, it is hard to believe he would just stop selling guns. This forum has been beneficial for exposing “discrepancies” in Winchesters offered for sale. That is a public service provided to collectors.
I now for a fact that he had negative feedback at least twice… one of my acquaintances got burned by him and posted a Negative feedback. Like I mentioned, he changed his User Name several times to dump his negative feedback profile.
WACA Historian & Board of Director Member #6571L
March 6, 2011
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When I last saw him he had 200+ feedback, all positive. He was in a very small town, and kept coming up with large numbers of very nice looking Winchesters, many very high grade. Some were altered, although very nice in appearance. Others appeared original. And then there were the boxes, flaws noted, but good enough to fool most people. It is hard to understand how a guy in that small town could continually come up with rare model guns for sale, even if professionally altered, and be completely off the radar amongst collectors.
April 15, 2005
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wolfbait said
When I last saw him he had 200+ feedback, all positive. He was in a very small town, and kept coming up with large numbers of very nice looking Winchesters, many very high grade. Some were altered, although very nice in appearance. Others appeared original. And then there were the boxes, flaws noted, but good enough to fool most people. It is hard to understand how a guy in that small town could continually come up with rare model guns for sale, even if professionally altered, and be completely off the radar amongst collectors.
Each time he changed his registered User Id, his previous feedbacks went with the old ID, giving him a fresh start. The vast majority of his feedback (and sales) using his last User Id were from people who quite frankly had no clue what they were doing. The people (collectors) he took to the cleaners using his first two IDs quickly learned of his treachery and stopped looking at or bidding on his faked boxes, accoutrements, and guns. His potential market kept getting smaller and smaller as his reputation continued to get spread across the internet. I booted him off of the WACA website almost 20-years ago when he was still using “Midas” as a user name. I believe that he was located in the Jamestown, CA area.
WACA Historian & Board of Director Member #6571L
June 1, 2023
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I would wager that he now hauls his faked guns to gun shows (in their pristine faked boxes) where a whole new batch of pigeons are unaware of his falsified wares.
BRP
March 6, 2011
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Blue Ridge Parson said
I would wager that he now hauls his faked guns to gun shows (in their pristine faked boxes) where a whole new batch of pigeons are unaware of his falsified wares.
BRP
I doubt that. I do not believe he would want to go face to face with people selling his guns and boxes. They would get examined and critiqued right in front of him. The internet provides anonymity. If it were not for the plethora of conspicuous boxes, which fueled the conversation here, the authenticity of his guns would slip by a lot of people.
November 7, 2015
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I feel pretty sure he is still up to something even if he is steering clear of this sector of the collector market for now. He may be selling thru some of the smaller auction houses.
Mike
March 6, 2011
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Jamestown is close to the SF Bay Area. I am surprised no one here who lives close by asked to come to him to examine a gun before bidding. Or bought a gun and said I will come pay you and pick it up to avoid shipping. You would have no obligation to purchase if it did not pass inspection, and you would get to meet him and see his operation. That may have been revealing.
November 7, 2015
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wolfbait said
Jamestown is close to the SF Bay Area. I am surprised no one here who lives close by asked to come to him to examine a gun before bidding. Or bought a gun and said I will come pay you and pick it up to avoid shipping. You would have no obligation to purchase if it did not pass inspection, and you would get to meet him and see his operation. That may have been revealing.
Some of these questionable sellers seem to do an impressive volume of business. Sometimes I wonder just how big some of these operations are.
Mike
March 6, 2011
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Jamestown is very rural, less than 4,000 population. Everyone in town would know this guy. If I was closer, I would have found a way to contact him for pickup, just to find out who he is. Some of his guns, like an 1890 I was interested in, were not real expensive and looked real nice. He posted over 50 closeup pictures of the gun. Excellent markings, excellent wood, excellent blue. What can you do to an 1890 to make it “fake” other than refinish it? And a high quality professionally refinished 1890 at a reasonable price, even a little overpriced, would not be that bad. If I could find him again, I may be tempted. He gave a 3 day inspection, for me and my friends to give it a close examination. I have a good friend who lives 2 hours away, so he could go knock on a door if something went sour.
July 17, 2012
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wolfbait said
Jamestown is very rural, less than 4,000 population. Everyone in town would know this guy. If I was closer, I would have found a way to contact him for pickup, just to find out who he is. Some of his guns, like an 1890 I was interested in, were not real expensive and looked real nice. He posted over 50 closeup pictures of the gun. Excellent markings, excellent wood, excellent blue. What can you do to an 1890 to make it “fake” other than refinish it? And a high quality professionally refinished 1890 at a reasonable price, even a little overpriced, would not be that bad. If I could find him again, I may be tempted. He gave a 3 day inspection, for me and my friends to give it a close examination. I have a good friend who lives 2 hours away, so he could go knock on a door if something went sour.
John (Wolfbait),
I am not sure what your intentions are here, your initial post stated you want to “keep people aware of him” but your latest post seems to be defending the seller and/or encouraging others to buy something from “him” to see what will happen (aka “trolling”). Every time I contacted the seller I spoke to a woman, not a “he” and she verbally gave me even more BS than what was posted on GB. There WERE negative feedbacks, contrary to your assertation. Please re-read some of the former posts.
If you are trying to legitimize some of the misrepresented sales here we can just end this conversation now as the topic has been thoroughly discussed in the past and there is no reason to drag it out again (unless you have an ulterior motive).
I (and others) are more than happy there is a break in the sales shenanigans but if the same seller (or significant others) surface again we can certainly start a new thread with fresh information.
Have a happy Thanksgiving.
Jeff
WACA Life Member #6284 - Specializing in Pre-64 Winchester .22 Rimfire
March 6, 2011
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I was trying to find his current selling location, and examining his guns for sale out of curiosity. Nothing nefarious involved. As a collector of Winchesters for over 60 years, I found the fact that he continually came up with high grade and rare guns intriguing, despite what their current condition may be. I don’t think the other forum members here are going to influenced by anything I do. Every time he was mentioned here there were hundreds of views on the threads, and many comments, so many other people were obviously curious about him also.
Frequently here examples are given of fake Winchesters for sale by major auction houses and experienced long time sellers. Some repeatedly. For some reason they do not seem to receive the same vitriol. To set the record straight, I watched his auctions, and the fact is that under his different names he received many hundreds of positive feedback. He may have received a couple of negatives I did not notice, but I bet if those people returned the gun they got their money back or we would have heard about it. He posted 50 to 80 clear pictures of his guns for sale, that is rare. Almost unheard of.
I am not defending this guy, I have had no dealings with him. I just do not understand the extreme hatred toward him expressed by some people. Lots of guns have been refinished or modified, yet their owners are happy with them as they are. As far as I can tell, no one lost any money dealing with him. I have bought many guns on the internet, and unfortunately I can not say that about many of my purchases.
Well, I understand the animosity toward this guy, so no sense discussing it any further. I was just trying to find him now, to see what he was up to.
May 14, 2025
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Just a thought but why would someone with nothing to hide change their selling name even once, much less twice? I think sellers work hard to build their name and reputation and it would seem counter productive to build that brand and then change their name.
July 17, 2012
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wolfbait said
I was trying to find his current selling location, and examining his guns for sale out of curiosity. Nothing nefarious involved. As a collector of Winchesters for over 60 years, I found the fact that he continually came up with high grade and rare guns intriguing, despite what their current condition may be. I don’t think the other forum members here are going to influenced by anything I do. Every time he was mentioned here there were hundreds of views on the threads, and many comments, so many other people were obviously curious about him also.
Frequently here examples are given of fake Winchesters for sale by major auction houses and experienced long time sellers. Some repeatedly. For some reason they do not seem to receive the same vitriol. To set the record straight, I watched his auctions, and the fact is that under his different names he received many hundreds of positive feedback. He may have received a couple of negatives I did not notice, but I bet if those people returned the gun they got their money back or we would have heard about it. He posted 50 to 80 clear pictures of his guns for sale, that is rare. Almost unheard of.
I am not defending this guy, I have had no dealings with him. I just do not understand the extreme hatred toward him expressed by some people. Lots of guns have been refinished or modified, yet their owners are happy with them as they are. As far as I can tell, no one lost any money dealing with him. I have bought many guns on the internet, and unfortunately I can not say that about many of my purchases.
Well, I understand the animosity toward this guy, so no sense discussing it any further. I was just trying to find him now, to see what he was up to.
Fair enough, if he/she surfaces again we will certainly be watching closely and refresh the topic.
WACA Life Member #6284 - Specializing in Pre-64 Winchester .22 Rimfire
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