Cardmarket Takes Legal Action Against Pokemon TCG Market Manipulators, Seeks Damages

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Cardmarket, often dubbed the “European version of TCGplayer,” appears to be taking legal action against sellers who manipulate the market prices of Pokemon cards on its platform.
In a cease and desist letter obtained by PokeBeach, the company has accused a seller of creating over 200 fake accounts to manipulate the price of the “Pikachu with Grey Felt Hat” promo card.
In this type of fraud, the seller uses fake accounts to “buy” the cheapest listings without paying for them (which temporarily removes them from the marketplace). This then allows the seller to offer their own listings for what they want the “cheapest” price to be.
“[You bought] competing offers that you never paid for, nor had the intention to do so,” Cardmarket’s letter says. “You consistently aimed to provide the...
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Oh wow! That's pretty wild. I did hear from some Cardmarket sellers that they experienced people specifically putting the Van Gogh card in their basket but never buying them, but I hadn't put 2 and 2 together yet.
 
How does this manipulate the market? Why can't the marketplace only count cards that are actually paid for?
 
bbb888 said:
How does this manipulate the market? Why can't the marketplace only count cards that are actually paid for?
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You buy a card, then it disapears from the listing. Your intention is to buy all cards lower priced than yours which makes your higher priced card the only/lowest available for other buyers. But you never pay for your purchases. This stops the other sellers to resell their cards again which you have bought but never paid. How does this not manipulate the market?
 
raumich said:
You buy a card, then it disapears from the listing. Your intention is to buy all cards lower priced than yours which makes your higher priced card the only/lowest available for other buyers. But you never pay for your purchases. This stops the other sellers to resell their cards again which you have bought but never paid. How does this not manipulate the market?
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Some sites put a timer on your shopping cart. If you don't pay for your items (say within 48 hrs), then your order is canceled and the items you wanted to buy goes back on sale to the public. It is very tedious to manipulate the market in this way.

Also, as a seller, you can cancel the order if the buyer never pays. If this happens multiple times, you can block and report the buyer. Again, trying to manipulate the market this way seems stupid.
 
I’m actually a lil confused about it saying it being in a cart and not paid for yet removed the listing where as EVERYTIME I have things in my cart for the **15 minutes tops** I am adding things to my cart at least 3-5 cards are zapped out from under me and sold / and pulled out of my cart 🤔 is this market they speak of more like when you win a eBay bid and then have a window to send money - not like a buy it now button kind of thing?
 
bbb888 said:
Some sites put a timer on your shopping cart. If you don't pay for your items (say within 48 hrs), then your order is canceled and the items you wanted to buy goes back on sale to the public. It is very tedious to manipulate the market in this way.

Also, as a seller, you can cancel the order if the buyer never pays. If this happens multiple times, you can block and report the buyer. Again, trying to manipulate the market this way seems stupid.
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There's no "easy" way of manipulating a market 😂. Can you really call it stupid if it works?

Sure the seller can cancel the order but that doesn't happen immediately. The period in between the listing being gone and the seller cancelling the order, is when the manipulator can abuse to be viewed as the "lowest" listing.
 
I swear by cardmarket, super professional staff and always good seller experiences. Even when things don't arrive when the mail service is shite, they sort it out for you.
 
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I've just been linked this by a friend. I was someone who was directly affected by this, with MULTIPLE accounts instantly purchasing all of my listed copies. I won't say much more as the law suit is currently on-going, but yeah...
 
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