It seems that an ebay seller has been listing several different previously rare ($25 diswirl, $25 orange arodie & .50 dovetail red) chips on ebay (along with quite a few other more common chips). The ebay's id is currently pokernut89 (although his ebay id used to be 2mer1c2). Take for example the $25 orange arodie that he has listed over and over again as an R-9 chip. His first listing on ebay was # 6246585596. He ended this listing early however he told several chippers via e-mail he had at least 4 of these for sale. Since that date he has sold the $25 orange arodie at least 5 more times on ebay (items: 6269965601, 6274634629, 290000230913, 6283860346 & 6289529427)and normally it was described as an R-9 chip. During that same time frame the $25 orange arodie was also sold at least 5 different times by other ebay sellers. I have those auction numbers as well but not sure how much knowledge they had about this other seller. He also seems to have a lot of the $25 diswirl and .50 dovetail red (selling these numerous times on ebay while using the R-9 & R-10 descriptions). If you'd like a list of these auctions numbers then e-mail me. Unfortunately, as previously communicated he is very vague about what quantity of each chip he holds. I have no idea if this seller is purposefully misleading his potential bidders. I'll let everyone draw their own conclusion on that.

However, what most consumer don't know is that there are a couple of different government agencies who investigate alleged fraud via online auctions. I'm NOT suggesting that anyone report the above ebay seller. However, I'll let everyone decide on their own if taking action is appropriate. You can report alleged fraud even if you didn't purchase an item.

The FBI (http://www.ic3.gov/) is partnered with another governement agency and actively investigates alleged fraud via online auctions. Since most transactions happen either via Ebay or PayPal the records are usually fairly easy for them to obtain. The FTC (http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/menu-internet.htm#coned) also can investigate alleged internet fraud. I've heard a few success stories from people who have used these avenues but I've also heard they have a tremendous amount of compaints to investigate. Although, I'd imagine most people are usually willing to change their ways when they find that the FBI has opened an alleged fraud investigation on them.