As I wrote in my introductory post, I found this community only now, and that's a shame because otherwise I would have not dealt with such individual... However, by reading things about him, I was actually surprised I was scammed so hard, as far as I understand he's a shady guy but not used to sell fake reprints... Anyway, here's the story.

TL;DR: he sold me an inkjet reprint of Uncaged: Faces of Sigil, and I could not check it before the 30 day buyers' protection time had passed because I was travelling.

I'm not a hardcore collector myself, but I have a thing for 2nd ed. Planescape. I started collecting quite long ago, and I am now very close to completing the collection (except the Sketchbook of course). So, in November I decided to buy myself a Christmas present and I found this copy of Uncaged: Faces of Sigil in VGC (pictures did not look disappointing).

The seller was cougar_rinard (from whom I had bought something long time ago with only minor issues). He has a HUGE amount of feedbacks, 100% positive, so I thought I could trust him blindly. I bought the item and had it shipped to my parents' house (because I was travelling and would only be back for Christmas). When the package arrived, I asked my parents to check and show it to me on video call. It was looking good, so I left a positive feedback.

Then, when I was back a few days ago, the bitter revelation: the book is actually a FAKE INKJET REPLICA (probably from a scanned PDF). See pictures. There was no easy way of telling the difference through the webcam without checking the side border, which unfortunately I didn't.

I contacted the guy asking for a return but of course, 30 days having passed, he just refused.

So I am warning you here, although I'm pretty sure it's quite pointless. My only question is: HOW THE HECK IS IT POSSIBLE THAT THIS PIG HAS 100% POSITIVE FEEDBACKS? Admittely, I've been an idiot, but only because I was travelling, usually I'm much more careful and never had a problem.

Does anyone know his address?  

Did eBay kill the "6 month return" policy already?


You might be able to dispute the charge via PayPal and/or your credit card (many cards give 60 days).  Not sure how the credit card/PayPal/eBay connection works these days.

zaratambo wrote in Cougar Rinard Scam on Ebay - Fake Inkjet Reprint:Does anyone know his address?  

His address used to be: 78 Thurbern road, Portsmouth, Hampshire, PO2 0PJ

I don't know if that's still his address.  I got that information from here:
Cougarrinard is now using Ebay ID of littleprincessfreya

I wish you the best.  He's the worst kind of eBay seller.  

Carl is probably right: the reprint might be legal... and in this case you cannot follow the "illegal print" topic against him...
Sadly he built a solid and legal case!

Sorry you are going through this. I would at least attempt to file in PayPal against this print out. Maybe choose the category unauthorized copies of media or whatever the exact term PayPal and eBay use.

You should try doing a chargeback, especially if your Paypal payment is through a credit card. I think you have up to six months on one of those. When asked why you would like your money back after you left positive feedback for the seller - just say that it took you some time to figure out it was a clever forgery.

And am I correct that DTRPG receive the PDFs directly from WotC?

Mister Yuk wrote in Cougar Rinard Scam on Ebay - Fake Inkjet Reprint:You should try doing a chargeback.

Yes, I requested a chargeback on Paypal, let's see what happens...  

Echohawk wrote in Cougar Rinard Scam on Ebay - Fake Inkjet Reprint:The folks at Drivethrurpg are entirely legit. They launched the Dndclassics.com website in January 2013 in partnership with Wizards of the Coast, selling PDFs of out-of-print D&D titles. The site was rebranded to DMsguild.com in 2016, and later that year, they began adding print-on-demand options for some titles. If you don't mind filling gaps in your collection with reprints rather than originals, then I'd recommend visiting the site before paying Ebay prices for second-hand originals.

OK, I see, best of luck to them then, it's nice that WotC agreed to such partnership, although it's not entirely clear why they have to use a dummy UPC code, but oh well...

Personally I don't see these reprints as an option in terms of collector's joy but they are definitely a good idea in case you want to use the material in game, or even just read it without having to tear your beloved shrinkwrap. I might even buy a couple of them since they're so cheap, let's see.

zaratambo wrote in Cougar Rinard Scam on Ebay - Fake Inkjet Reprint:

Mister Yuk wrote in Cougar Rinard Scam on Ebay - Fake Inkjet Reprint:You should try doing a chargeback.

Personally I don't see these reprints as an option in terms of collector's joy but they are definitely a good idea in case you want to use the material in game, or even just read it without having to tear your beloved shrinkwrap. I might even buy a couple of them since they're so cheap, let's see.

I found that if you want a play only copy it is almost always less expensive to by an old "non-collectible" version (such as a well used copy) rather that the reprint.  The new Judges Guild and Met Alpha stuff that Goodman has pumped out lately are a perfect examples of this.