[Warning] Zeus9699 aka Mark aka Animal Magic

[jayefbe]

I posted a WTB ad in search of some scorps. I got this response from Zeus9699:

Hi there. I have the following for sale, all are captive bred:

1.1 Adult Leirus quinquestriatus (Deathstalkers). Proven breeders, female is gravid. Only $125/Pr.
(7) 4i-6i Leirus quinquestriatus (Deathstalkers). These are babies from the above adults. Only $30 each
5 Centroides vittatus (4 gravid females and 1 male). Proven breeders. Only $25 each
2 Hottentotta trilineatus (sub adult or adult, I'm not sure). Only $25 each
4 Rhopalurus abudi. Extremely rare, these are 4i-5i and captive bred. Only $30 each

All the money fromn these scorpions will go into our licensed non-profit educational facility.

Please feel free to call me at (313) 819-5719 with any questions.

Mark
Animal Magic

These scorps look remarkably like the ones listed in a previous ad:
http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=170386&highlight=jawlessemu


Ok, so clearly Mark bought the group and is re-selling them. Whatever. But then there's this:
http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=165682


Now, I'm confused. He's offering to sell me some scorpions that he's also attempting to get a refund on claiming they are dead and in the freezer. Maybe he just forgot. I surreptitiously, I admit, asked how much both of the H. trilineatus (maybe he forgot they were dead) would cost shipped. He responded with a price.

Hey,

How much for both of the Hottentotta trilineatus shipped to CA?

thanks,
Josh

Hi there. I have the following for sale, all are captive bred:

1.1 Adult Leirus quinquestriatus (Deathstalkers). Proven breeders, female is gravid. Only $125/Pr.
(7) 4i-6i Leirus quinquestriatus (Deathstalkers). These are babies from the above adults. Only $30 each
5 Centroides vittatus (4 gravid females and 1 male). Proven breeders. Only $25 each
2 Hottentotta trilineatus (sub adult or adult, I'm not sure). Only $25 each
4 Rhopalurus abudi. Extremely rare, these are 4i-5i and captive bred. Only $30 each

All the money fromn these scorpions will go into our licensed non-profit educational facility.

Please feel free to call me at (313) 819-5719 with any questions.

Mark
Animal Magic

The total would be $78 for express shipping

I responded to this with "I thought they were dead".

I got this response:

These are not the ones from the guy in New York. I purchase many things from a lot of people. I will have a new updated list out either later today or tomorrow with other scorpions also

Uh, I don't buy it. He ordered the exact same species? The exact same sizes/ages? The exact same numbers? The same sex ratios? The same number gravid? He may purchase "many things from a lot of people" but every single one of the scorps he's offered me came from one user. And a number of them he has claimed were already dead.

Shortly after I received this message:

Oops...I was mistaken. I just checked and these two were from the guy in New York. They came in frozen but then came around after sitting near the heat duct. Sorry about that. Not all the other ones were from him.

Mark

Ok, so they came around....but I thought they were put in the freezer? And not all the other ones were from him? Again, did he order a gravid deathstalker from someone else? Look at jawlessemu's original ad, and look at the response I got from Mark. They are almost word for word identical.

At this point, the PMs from Mark were very argumentative, "I don't have to defend myself to you, I buy from tons of people, not all those scorps are from that person" type of stuff. I don't him I thought he was a liar and that was it. Unfortunately I have since deleted these PMs.

I know that he sold the pair of adult deathstalkers (again, the female was supposed to be dead) to a member of this forum, so he was at the least, trying to get a refund on scorps that didn't die.

 

[UrbanJungles]

Interesting...
Last year I sent some whipscorpions to Mark and he told me the same thing, that they arrived frozen and he could send me a picture of them in his freezer. It was indeed a cold winter so I never asked for pics and refunded his money right away no questions asked.

Now I'm thinking maybe I should have asked some, especially since a couple of weeks later he was advertising Whipscorps. I just assumed he had gotten some from elsewhere since my group didn't pan out.

This is all just a big assumption on my part and I'm not saying I was ripped off. But just wanted to share my experience since it sounds eerily similar.

 

[flamesbane]

I sold some stuff to Mark no problem, he was a good guy and it was an easy transaction.

 

[rustym3talh3ad]

ive done many deals with Mark, trades, 50/50's and purchase. I was there on a personal pick up and witnessed with my own eyes a few dead scorps and a few that looked quite pitiful. he showed them to me and was very disappointed. he did however have some of what was listed as live (which u debate the truth of) that were already logged into his collection...NOT of the same shipment. He was unpacking and labeling the shipment in question the day i was there and there were infact some dead scorpions. sorry you feel this is shady but the fact is this man has one hell of a reputation to uphold i doubt he would be trying to scam and be dishonest about something like this.

 

[jayefbe]

You're the one that got the adult deathstalker pair. The fact is, he claimed the female was dead but still managed to sell her to you. If he had a reasonable explanation for the perceived dishonesty, this thread would not have been posted. If he hadn't already claimed dead arrivals under other suspicious circumstances, this thread wouldn't have been posted.

If you look back at the original ad, and the response I received from Mark, it appears as though possibly a single scorp died (C. najarit) not the 6 that Mark claimed.

So there are two possible scenarios:
1) Mark bought a group to re-sell, some showed up dead and he just happened to replace them with identical scorps from other sources (same sex, same age, same species, same gravid females, same wording even).
2) For whatever reason, Mark claimed that some were dead when in fact they were alive and he even re-sold them.

I believe that scenario 2 was the more likely. In fact, he even admitted to me in a PM that the Hottentotta trilineatus from Jawlessemu did NOT die even though his review post claimed that they were already in the freezer. He tried to sell them to me. At least when it comes to the Hottentotta trilineatus, Mark lied and it is posted for everyone to see. He claimed they were dead, and then later tried to sell them to me. You can't claim they were from another source, because he even admitted to me they were from "the guy in New York". I have no reason to believe that he wasn't also lying about the other scorpions.