drama The Moonlight Saga: a Tale of Duplicity

Hello good friends! I would like to share with you all the adventure I have endured in the last 48 hours since successfully winning an auction to obtain my grail doll, Smart Doll Moonlight. It is a tale of sheer dumb luck, poor financial decisions, and most importantly of all, a villainess that rivals the best of what Disney has to offer. Please grab a seat (while supplies last,) grab your dolls, and settle in as I present to you:

The Moonlight Saga

A bit of background: ebay will let you sign up for email alerts when listings that fit certain criteria go live. As a result, I get daily results for any listing that include the terms "Dollfie Dream," "Smart Doll Cocoa," and "Smart Doll Moonlight", (among other things.) I set this up ages ago on the blue-moon chance that a Moonlight might just come up for sale one day!

Yesterday, a Moonlight went up for sale.

I don't need to tell you the details of how that went down, only that the result was a positive one for yours truly. After an eternity of trying and failing, hope and despair, I was finally getting the doll that I wanted most. Tears were shed, fraud alerts were tripped, and I was perhaps a bit too exuberant with my celebrations. This would ultimately prove to be, if not my undoing, then certainly my immense inconvenience, as it attracted the attentions of the person I will henceforth refer to as Wack.

Wack and I originally met when they put up a discontinued SmD for sale. When they decided to keep her, our conversation veered away from there, but overall I didn't know them very well at all, even if our conversation was amenable. One point of note however, is that they were a fellow Moonlight hunter; at one point they even fashioned their own Moonlight with an ARTFUL spraypaint job on a Kurenai sculpt! This is ultimately why, when I finally got my own girl, I wound up telling them about it. I wanted to celebrate that we both had found ways to get the dolls we dreamed of!

Unfortunately, my enthusiasm was one-sided. Rather than excitement, Wack's immediate response to the news was to say they had seen the listing, and that it was a scam. What followed over the ensuing hours of conversation was a concerted effort to get me to cancel my winning bid with the end goal of swooping in to buy the doll for themselves once I was out of the way!

 

Spoiler

Wack was INCREDIBLY insistent that, for my own good, I HAD to cancel the order as soon as possible. For over three hours they messaged me on this singular point, ever more fixated on my "need" to get a refund ASAP. One might wonder why I didn't block them after five minutes of this nonsense, and the best answer I can give in response to that is that I am, regretfully, stupid.

Unfortunately for them, I am not stupid enough to take what they had to say at face value. I immediately went to the seller to clarify a few points:

• If the product photo was stolen, as alleged by Wack
• If they did, in fact, own the doll they were purporting to sell
• If they in fact had, somehow, multiple Moonlights to sell (as purported by Wack)
• If they were ignoring my messages purposefully while, supposedly, responding to this other party
• Why they hadn't been active on their ebay account in over a year*

*Inactive accounts that come back from the dead can often be hacked by, or sold to, scam artists who benefit from the karma of an established account. You... ironically see this in the Neopets community a lot. :I

The seller responded to all of this with more grace and decorum than the situation warranted. They immediately offered to send me a timestamped photo of Moonlight to prove ownership, and followed through on that promise not long after, as I explained to them what had prompted my concerns. Putting two and two together, we rapidly came to the conclusion that this was orchestrated by a singular bad actor who wanted me to withdraw my bid so they could buy Moonlight instead!

Spoiler

Naturally I responded to this revelation in an appropriate manner.

Thankfully, the seller was able to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that they in fact had Moonlight in their possession with a timestamped photo and the custom message I requested they write. I broke the news to our deviant do-gooder in hopes that they would finally drop the act and relent on their fruitless crusade, but alas, they were in too deep to give up the ghost now!

Spoiler

Even faced with reasonable proof that I was dealing with a legitimate seller, Wack refused to back down from their efforts. Ultimately, I was the one to bow out of this conversation by virtue of having better things to do with my time- and by the time I got back to see what else they had to say, they had taken the ultimate step and deleted their instagram account, unfortunately taking their wild claims with them in the process. As a result, I don't have screenshots of some of the wilder things they told me -- like how they were a "personal friend of Danny Choo," and that he was planning a secret rerelease of Moonlight "soon". They said they could get me a legitimate Moonlight from him, so I would have the Culture Japan warranty, rather than buying a sketchy one off ebay. They even offered to trade me their own modded Twilight girl (but never got back to me on how the sprayed joints were holding up.) They lied through their teeth time and time again, but thankfully in the end, I wasn't swayed.

Moonlight will be here next week, the day after my birthday. She's coming with some cute gifts (TINY SANDWICH) as well, and I couldn't be happier that it's all managed to work out. I'm very grateful that the seller was patient with me, and willing to be skeptical of the other party in this incident, and more than anything else, I'm thankful for my friends being the voice of reason when I talked this out with them, too. There are good people in this world, in spite of the occasional bad apple. ^^

If I can take anything away from this experience, it's this. If you're concerned about something, ask! People like Wack operate by controlling the flow of information between parties. When you cut out the middleman and address someone directly, you take away their power. Honesty really is the best policy!

Moonlight's gonna be here soon, and when she gets here you can expect about three billion photos of her. In the meantime, I'd love name suggestions! And if you've taken the time to read this absolute monster of a thread... thanks! I hope this... whatever this is amused someone!

Thanks! ^^

Spoiler

 

@baldylox senpai can you look this over and make sure it's kosher? thank you!!

Holy moly! What a wild ride! I can't wait to see your pictures on here after everything you had to go through!

@Moon-to-Starlight Thank you! I'm still baffled about it all myself, I know she's very sought-after from personal experience but... who's like this!!!!

OK, my mouth is hanging open. Honestly gobsmacked someone would go to those lengths. What a loon. Congrats on getting your Moonlight and I hope you have a ton of fun with her.

@deinosor Yeah that's a mood, I'm still just... overcome with this strange mix of amazement and dismay by the whole situation. Thank you for your kind words though, I appreciate that. This year has been........ far from ideal so I'm really happy that this worked out in spite of everything. ^^

23 hours ago, Mothiraffe said:

@baldylox senpai can you look this over and make sure it's kosher? thank you!!

Even tho this post makes me mad and shows off the bad side of this hobby, it is absolutely needed so that people can see that not everyone in the doll hobby is a nice and/or upstanding person.  

All info is well shared and hiding Wack's real name is the best thing.  No reason to make things worse by calling them out and possibly having them show up and start a flame war that *I* will have to deal with.  LOL

Thank you for sharing this with everyone.  It sucks that it happened but at least you will be getting your long awaited Moonlight and Wack will get NOTHING.  I await the onslaught of Moonlight pics.  😄

 

 

Billy

@baldylox Ahhh thank you so much, that's very kind! That's ultimately part of why I wanted to share this story... it represented the sort of worst-case scenario when someone pretends to be someone that they're not. That said, I removed the identifying info for the reasons Billy mentioned -- I don't want anyone to be harassed even if they did do something shady, and I don't want our lovely mods to have to work more than they already do. This was definitely cathartic to write up though, I'm grateful I could share it!

And as for those Moonlight pics, you won't have to wait long! She should be here in a few days, I'm so excited!! 😍

.

Edited August 25, 2023 by ParacosmDoll

I have to say I'm really disappointed if this type of drama is going to be allowed here now.

7 hours ago, baldylox said:

Even tho this post makes me mad and shows off the bad side of this hobby, it is absolutely needed so that people can see that not everyone in the doll hobby is a nice and/or upstanding person.

Doesn't everyone know this already? The world is full of bad people and being part of this hobby doesn't change that. At minimum, it'd certainly be possible to relay the gist of what happened without all the details and pictures of message logs.

I don't see how this doesn't violate various forum rules https://www.dolldreaming.com/guidelines/:

Quote

Private messages are private.
Please keep private messages private. Please do not carry private arguments to public posts. The forum staff will not intervene with private discussions. Only report private messages if you are being repeatedly harassed by a member or if it is spam.

I get that is specifically referring to this forum's PM system but I don't see why it should be different for private conversations outside. Removing personal info doesn't make the conversation any less private.

I also don't see how it isn't a violation of this:

Quote

Sales disputes.
Do not discuss sales disputes publicly. Do not comment or insult a seller's price or item value if you feel they are unfair. Sellers have every right to sell items at whatever price they wish. This includes sales conducted on this site or other sites.

@Averis: If this type of discussion is going to be allowed here now, I would like to request, again, that a "hide thread" feature be added to the forum if at all possible.

41 minutes ago, cfx said:

@Averis: If this type of discussion is going to be allowed here now, I would like to request, again, that a "hide thread" feature be added to the forum if at all possible.

What would this sort of function be for? To prevent you from seeing a post after you read it and decided you don't want to see it again? I'm not sure what that would actually accomplish. There isn't a way to do that as far as I know nor is there a way for the site to automatically flag posts of a certain nature to be hidden.

It is a grey area, I admit. The rules you quoted were specifically set to prevent a back and forth flame war, and I agree that the images weren't really needed to get the story across.

I do, however, disagree that because people can be bad doesn't mean that within the hobby people automatically know that these things can happen to them. Some folks are new and might not be aware of such tactics.

So to me, It's okay to warn people about certain things to look out for within the hobby. It's better to be cautious and educated than possibly ignorant. But this is certainly pushing the limits of how to do that. I would prefer if the images of the conversations were left out of it.

@cfx kindly forgive me, but I beg to differ as I live by: Everything in moderation, including moderation.

A mod was already here and commented and did find some value in the whole overall though maybe some critic in detail - imho that's fine and should be left at that.

Now, you're obviously here much longer and may have bad past experiences I do not know about, all I can contribute is a personal opinion as a moderator in another forum and I would tolerate some rule leeway if it brings a possibly important point across and I do not like censorship unless VERY neccessary.

Just my view.

6 minutes ago, Averis said:

What would this sort of function be for? To prevent you from seeing a post after you read it and decided you don't want to see it again? I'm not sure what that would actually accomplish.

So I would only have to see it once, not again and again when it gets replies. If it insn't doable, it isn't doable. I know some forums have it though so I asked because that also suggests someone finds value in it. I don't see how it's really any different than ignoring users in terms of possible usefulness.

To everyone: I'm not any kind of mod and not trying to be one but just expressed my opinion on the matter. I'd hate for this place to turn into the equivalent of those "bjd confessions" sites with all the negativity.

Edited July 28, 2019 by cfx

15 minutes ago, cfx said:

So I would only have to see it once, not again and again when it gets replies. If it insn't doable, it isn't doable. I know some forums have it though so I asked because that also suggests someone finds value in it. I don't see how it's really any different than ignoring users in terms of possible usefulness.

Ah, I see. I can look to see if there is something like that. (EDIT: I found such a thing. I'll see about adding it soon.)

As for the rest, yes, I don't want the forum to become a place for people to effectively gossip about others openly.  In some cases it will be unavoidable just for the simple fact that the community is not huge and -some- people will be privy to what someone else may be be referring to even if they don't say anything directly. That's why we moderate to make sure things don't get out of hand.

Averis pretty much stated what I was going to say about this in that not everyone in this hobby knows that there are "bad" people in it.  For YEARS I never, ever, EVER had a run in with anyone or even heard of one in this hobby.  It was basically sunshine and kittens all day, every day.  I had just left the vintage Star Wars toy collecting hobby due to drama and backstabbing collectors so when I found the DD groups, it was a huge breath of fresh air for me.

But about 4 or 5 years into this hobby I started seeing the occasional story about someone getting screwed over on a deal and it let me know that no hobby is safe from jerks.  I made a few threads about it on FFM before that went under and I think there may be one on the old DD forums too.  So I wasn't blind to it, I just preferred to not talk about it because this hobby is very therapeutic for me.  My girls allow me to be creative and have fun and that's what hobbies are all about.... having fun.

So that's why I let this stand as it is.  People NEED to know about things like this.  As the original poster mentioned, they talked to me about this WAY before they made the post.  We talked at length about what they wanted to do and how to do it without causing issues and we agreed on things.  Sure, the PM thing might be going a little far but I think it helps make the point.  If Averis wants those taken out then I'll ask the OP to do so.  But I'm fine with it as it sits.

As for flame wars and other things being allowed, that's a big NO.  The OP and I made sure to talk about that as well as how to handle it if anyone did come in and want to start something.  So don't worry, things won't change to allow open flaming and trash talking of people here.  We won't have open complaining about sellers and buyers either as those are clear violations of forum rules as CFX stated.

 

 

Billy

I do want to say that I took the time to ask for moderator permission before making this thread, as I did not want to cause forum trouble for anyone involved, mods and myself included! It is a form of drama, that's undeniable -- but I felt sharing it would have benefit beyond the tabloid draw as a cautionary tale; and selfishly, as something I personally found cathartic to type out. 

I do see where cfx is coming from that it's an interpersonal dispute that shouldn't be shared per the forum rules, but for me personally, it goes beyond the level of interpersonal, petty drama because Wack was NOT the seller or the buyer in this situation. Wack was an uninvited third party that maliciously interfered in, and attempted to sabotage, a legitimate transaction between two near-complete strangers for their own potential gain. I felt it was a shade beyond the pale of expected levels of indecency, and quite frankly I felt a little violated by it all! It is for those reasons that I wanted to talk about this experience, in spite of the... sideshow nature of the experience. I definitely do not want to be a drama-monger, and really I would be happiest if I didn't have this story to share in the first place, believe me. OTL

At the end of the day, the reason I shared this is because someone went to the level of impersonating me to try and obtain the thing they desired. It was that singular point which drove me to type this whole ordeal out, because to me personally, this level of duplicity was heretofore inconceivable. I still can't wrap my head around it, either, because, and quite frankly, what the hell.

I do apologize if I have made a mistake in posting this, that said, and if the staff or community feel that I should remove this thread, I shall do so! 

Thank you for your time.

EDIT:// Ahh, as an addendum, I would like to illustrate the reasons I included the screenshots, as they've proven very divisive, and I do apologize for the trouble they've brought! For me personally... I can say why and how this all happened, but without anything to back up what I have to say, my words are simply hearsay. By including the messages I was sent and the quote from the seller, I simply wanted to substantiate my claims. I admit I did so with a bit of cheek, that's undeniable- but humor is how I cope with distressing situations, so I apologize if I have come across as rude or... sensationalist. I can remove the images if the community feels that is the best course of action. I simply wanted to provide context and proof of the things which I experienced.

Once again, thank you for your time, whether it was to commiserate with yours truly, or to discuss the value of this thread as a whole. I think it's definitely an important discussion to have, and I have absolutely no hard feelings towards cfx or anyone who feels similarly to them! ^^;

Edited July 28, 2019 by Mothiraffe
addendum

6 hours ago, baldylox said:

 I had just left the vintage Star Wars toy collecting hobby due to drama and backstabbing collectors

When I first read this topic, the very first thing I thought of was my old Star Wars collecting days of the late 90s/Power of the Force era.

 

Mothiraffe, we need pics when your Moonlight arrives.

1 hour ago, Gabriel said:

When I first read this topic, the very first thing I thought of was my old Star Wars collecting days of the late 90s/Power of the Force era.

Oh man, POTF2 and newer stuff was a "hive of scum and villainy" if I must say.  LOL  I was a long time member of the Rebelscum forums and some of those collectors had the worst attitudes when it came to toys.  I bought a bunch of the newer stuff due to pure nostalgia and love of the Star Wars property.  But I agree, some of those collectors were just.... ugh.  I'm happy to be free of that hobby for sure.  I sold off almost everything I owned but saved my childhood loose figures because those are what I enjoyed most about the Kenner line of toys.

 

Sorry for the OT thing, I'm just happy to see another SW collector turned doll collector.  😄

 

 

Billy