2.8 Million Reviews Didn't Stop These One Piece Boxes From Being Tampered
There's a trap in this hobby that catches rookies and veterans alike — and it has nothing to do with resealed packs or shady pop-up vendors at card shows.
It's called trust by reputation.
The logic goes like this: if a seller has 2.8 million eBay reviews and a 99.6% positive feedback rate, they're too big, too established, too visible to risk selling you something compromised. You stop asking the questions you should be asking. You give the benefit of the doubt. You open the boxes.
And then you find out the hard way that a feedback score doesn't tell you anything about where the product came from before it landed in that seller's hands.
This is the story the One Piece TCG community is currently discussing — and it's one every collector should read before clicking "Buy It Now" on a sealed booster box.
What Happened
A buyer — a self-described rookie to the One Piece TCG — came across probstein123 on eBay, one of the platform's most recognizable trading card sellers. The listing: a $250 Lot of 20 One Piece packs, advertised as pulled from a sealed case. The buyer purchased two PRB02 booster boxes at just under market value.
On paper, this looked like a solid buy from a trusted source. In practice, it was about to become an expensive lesson.
The Purchase
- Seller: probstein123 (eBay)
- Item: One Piece TCG The Best Vol.2 PRB02 Booster Box — listed as SEALED ENGLISH
- Order Number: 14-14642-94228
- Quantity: 2 boxes
The listing specifically stated the boxes were from a sealed case — a detail that matters enormously in the TCG world, because sealed case product is supposed to guarantee pack integrity.
What Was Actually Inside
When the buyer opened the boxes, here's what they found:
- Both boxes contained mixed packs — some marked "for Asia," others the American version
- Packs from different print runs do not belong in the same booster box. Full stop.
- Across both boxes combined, the only hit was a single SEC rare
- PRB02 is widely documented to guarantee at least one SEC and one AA per box
- One box pulled zero alt arts and zero SECs — completely dead
The buyer, being new to the hobby, didn't immediately know the guaranteed hit rates. He opened the first box, got one SEC, thought it might just be a dead box, and opened the second. Only after researching online did he realize something was seriously wrong.
The Red Flags That Got Ignored
To be fair to the buyer — and this post is going to be fair — he actually noticed the red flags. He just talked himself out of them.
The Boxes Weren't Individually Sealed
When the boxes arrived, they weren't sealed the way you'd expect sealed case product to be. The buyer noted this felt weird. Then he reminded himself: it's probstein. They have 2.8 million reviews. It's fine.
It wasn't fine.
The First Box Set Off Alarms
One SEC from an entire PRB02 box is suspicious. But the buyer didn't yet know the guaranteed hit structure, assumed it was just variance, and kept going. By the time the second box confirmed the problem, both had already been opened.
This matters later. A lot.
The Seller's Response — Who's Actually at Fault Here?
This is where the story gets complicated — and honestly, more interesting.
"I Personally Opened the Case"
When the buyer reached out through eBay messages, the seller — Rick from probstein123 — initially stated: "this is rick…I personally opened the case."
That's a significant claim. It means the seller isn't hiding behind a drop-shipper or a third-party fulfillment center. He's saying he touched these boxes before they shipped.
Then, in the same conversation, he said: "The case must have been altered and retaped or something."
So which is it? You personally opened the case — but someone else got to it first? The community has been sitting with that contradiction ever since.
"Your Source Must Have Scammed You"
The seller's position ultimately landed here: his supplier sold him a tampered case, which made its way into the buyer's hands. He framed it as a chain of deception that started above him — and positioned himself as a fellow victim.
It's not an unreasonable argument. Tampered cases do exist in the supply chain. Sellers don't always know what they're getting. But here's the problem: the buyer didn't buy from the supplier. They bought from probstein123. The listing said sealed. The boxes weren't.
The Split-the-Loss Offer — And Why It Disappeared
During the text exchange that followed, the seller offered to split the loss with the buyer — on the condition that the buyer shouldn't have opened the second box once problems appeared with the first.
That's a fair point in isolation. If you suspect a problem, stopping before opening more product protects everyone. The buyer's explanation — that he didn't know PRB02 guaranteed hits, assumed it was just a dead box, and only researched after the second — is also completely understandable for someone new to the hobby.
Then eBay's 3-day return window entered the picture.
The buyer couldn't reach the seller for two of those three days. With the window closing, they filed an eBay dispute to protect themselves. The seller's response?
"I was willing to split the loss with you since you opened the 2nd box without reason. But now that offer is over since you went the dispute route."
The offer to make it right evaporated the moment the buyer used the only protection mechanism available to them.
The Bigger Question: Should probstein123 Be Responsible?
This is the part where reasonable people can genuinely disagree — and we're not going to pretend otherwise.
The case for seller responsibility:
- The listing said sealed. The product wasn't.
- Mixed packs across regional versions is not a packaging accident — it's a product integrity failure.
- The seller claimed to have personally handled the case. That's not a passive role.
- A $250 purchase advertised as sealed deserves sealed product. Full stop.
The case for nuance:
- If the sealed case was genuinely tampered before it reached the seller, probstein123 may be a victim of their own supply chain.
- The buyer did open both boxes, which complicates the return process.
- The seller did offer a resolution — before the dispute was filed.
What the community seems to agree on: regardless of how the product became compromised, the buyer paid for something they didn't receive. The seller's size and reputation made the buyer less cautious than they should have been — and that reputation is something probstein123 has built and benefits from every single day.
With that comes a responsibility that goes beyond blaming the supplier.
What Rookies — and Veterans — Can Learn From This
1. Big feedback scores don't guarantee product integrity. Probstein123 has 2.8 million reviews. None of those reviews told this buyer anything about where this specific case came from or whether it had been touched.
2. Know your guaranteed hit rates before you open. PRB02 guarantees at least one SEC and one AA per box. Knowing that on box one stops you from opening box two.
3. Always file the dispute within the window — even if you're talking to the seller. Three days is not a lot of time. If a seller is unavailable for two of them, you cannot afford to wait. File first, talk second. That's not bad faith — that's self-preservation.
4. Sealed case product should look sealed. If the individual boxes inside a case aren't wrapped or sealed in the way you'd expect, that's a red flag worth pausing on — even if the seller is probstein.
Have You Bought From probstein123?
If you've had a positive or negative experience with this seller, other collectors want to know about it — especially newer members of the community who are still learning what to look for.
👉 Leave a review at GradedVendors.com
One honest review from someone who's been there is worth more than a thousand feedback stars.
A Note on Fairness
GradedVendors reports on publicly documented community experiences. We are not making legal determinations, and we're not saying probstein123 intentionally sold compromised product. The seller's claim that his own source tampered the case is plausible — it happens. What we're documenting is the experience a buyer had, the evidence they shared publicly, and the conversation that followed. probstein123 is welcome to respond, and this post will be updated if new information becomes available.
Sources
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