Woman Tries to Buy S$17.8K Rare Pokemon Card with S$178; Threatened to Get Him Fired When He Refused

If you have ever tried to sell something online, the chances are that you have met a lowballer who wants to rip you off.

For one Pokemon card collector, things were even worse as he was lowballed and insulted for an item that he wasn’t even selling in the first place.

This is his story.

Youth Centre Volunteer Showed Some Kids His Rare Charizard Card

Earlier this month, a post under the Reddit tag r/ChoosingBeggars began to garner some attention from netizens. The description of this subreddit is for “screenshots, pictures, or stories of people who are being way too picky when begging for things”.

The post title captured the story in one line – the poster was a volunteer at a youth centre which occasionally ran Pokemon events, and one of the mothers of the children at the centre wanted the volunteer’s Charizard card.

Eight screenshots were attached to the post.

The conversation between the volunteer and the mother started off quite cordially when the mother was thanking the volunteer over WhatsApp for taking care of her child (which we are presuming, given the child’s name is censored).

The mother also said that her child “loved the cards” that the volunteer gave out. Then, she started to probe about one of the cards that the volunteer brought in for one of the sessions.

The volunteer says that it could be the Charizard card, which he had brought to show the children at the youth centre as he had previously mentioned it to them, and they asked to see it.

The mother then sends a few links and screenshots showing Charizard characters, asking if it’s that card.

In reply, the volunteer clarifies that the character is the right one but the card in his possession is way more valuable than the ones in the links she sent, as his card was from the original printing. The rarity of the card was one of the reasons why the children at the youth centre were so excited to see his card when he brought it.

The mother continued to send images of Charizard cards from eBay, and the volunteer continued to patiently explain that those cards she had found were “similar” but were the “reprinted version” and still different from the one he had.

The Mother of One of the Children Wanted to Buy the Charizard Card

Then, the mother revealed the real reason why she was so concerned about the Pokemon cards. Her son’s birthday was coming, and he really loved the card that the volunteer had, so the mother wanted to buy the card at $140, which was supposedly the price in one of the eBay links that she sent.

She offered to pay the volunteer in cash.

Met with a request to buy his card, the volunteer politely declined the mother’s offer. He even explained why he was not selling the card, which was “significantly more valuable” as it was from the “original print”, which had “certain features” that made it “rare”. The card he had was even “authenticated” by a company which grades cards.

This card was so valuable to the volunteer that he preserved it “in a capsule” and had only intended to show it to the children rather than sell it.

Although her offer to purchase the Charizard card was rejected, the mother was persistent and double-checked with the volunteer that he would not be selling the card even if she could pick up the card that week.

The volunteer then clarified again that the card was “not for sale”.

The mother then upped her offer to $200, which the volunteer rejected again.

Trying to explain to the mother that his card was on a different grade from the ones that she had seen on eBay, he sent a screenshot of a card that was of a similar grade to his.

The price of the card was not visible in the screenshot of the conversation, but some of the comments revealed the price to be around AUD $15,000 to $20,000 (approximately S$13,415 to S$17,886).

Unsurprisingly, the mother baulked at the price of the card and said it was just “cardboard”.

The volunteer then calmly explained that there is a “big market for these kinds of cards”.

Indeed, anyone who is aware of the card trading market (or sneaker trading market, for that matter) would know that rare items can be listed for sale at eye-watering prices.

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The Situation Escalated When the Man Did Not Want to Sell His Charizard Card

From then on, the conversation took a downturn. The mother showed her true colours and expressed her disappointment in the volunteer for raising the “completely ridiculous” card.

That was not taken well by the volunteer. He retorted that he took care of her child “for free” in his “own time” and even gave the child “a free card from [his] own collection”. He also clarified again that he had no intention to sell the Charizard card.

The mother did not take well to this, saying that she was “frankly disgusted” and insulted him, saying that it is “quite sad” that a “grown man” is “playing cards with kids”.

To nobody’s surprise, the man took offence at this. With brutal honesty, he said, “Quite sad I spend more time with your son than you do”. Burn.

The mother then cursed at the man and threatened to call the youth centre to make sure that he would “never work there again”.

The man was calm as he said he was a “volunteer” and added a healthy dose of sarcasm that he was “scared” as the worst she could do was “spend a whole day with [her] son”.

The conversation ended with the mother losing, using shouty capitals to tell the man to stop contacting her.

Honestly, a wild story from start to end, but we all know that there are lowballers around.

Netizens Appeared to Take the Side of the Charizard Card Owner

Many of the netizens who commented on the Reddit thread looked like they supported the Charizard card owner.

One of the comments from (@ashutosharma97) mocked the mother for being a lowballer. In particular, her comment about the Pokemon card being “cardboard” didn’t sit well with the commenter. If the card was simply just a piece of cardboard to the mother, she could easily have bought a cheaper one rather than the expensive original print version that the volunteer had (which was not even for sale).

Another user, @Orcus424, laughed at the mother for being inconsistent with her position. She was initially fine with offering up to $200 for the piece of “cardboard” before she found out its true value. Perhaps the mother just did not deal well with rejection.

The Reddit user with the handle @No-Albatross-7984 was also sharp to point out that the mother could merely have been using her son as a shield to try to scam the card owner out of a valuable card at a fraction of its true cost.

On a different note, it seems that such nasty people are not uncommon to meet in real life. The user @Chateaudelait shared a similar experience where all goes south after a person with “feigned sweetness” is met with “polite” rejection. After the rejection, the person “flips the switch and goes psychotic” with name-calling and threats.

The user also pointed out the irony that the mother had cursed and swore at as well as threatened the volunteer, assuming that the two were acquainted because of a religious youth centre.

It sounds like a good summary of what occurred to the OP (original poster) in this situation.

Other readers found entertainment of their own. The Reddit user @sh0nuff said that the man with the Charizard Pokemon card had missed an opportunity to make some money out of the woman. He could have printed out a card and sold it to the woman for her highest offer of $200.

Tempting but unethical.

So, what do you think of this exchange? Did the man overstep his boundaries by being rude to the mother, or was she in the wrong for trying to buy a card that was not for sale and getting upset when she found out its true value?