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matfanofold
Active member
- Aug 10, 2008
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Over the last day or so I have contemplated posting about this (or not) because of my involvement and potential insight I may have to offer. Originally I decided against it simply because I am sick of even speaking/thinking of it but also because I felt I had a cross to bear, or potentially hide out of shame. However, despite that I will forgo that all and simply tell what I know, soup to nuts…
I was Dr. K at fanbro. Originally a member that became a moderator then a dministrator. In the beginning I was intrigued with the site, I knew Coastal as a good guy and likes what I saw there. The fast growing member base was a very good bunch and I guess it just felt good posting there with abunch of eager and enthusiastic hobbyists. I soon found that many/most of the members were younger and lacked insight/perspective and general hobby common sense most here have obtained over the years and many leaned on the more knowledgeable crowd, so after a while I began to write articles and hot lists to try and bring the hobby and my experience in it closer to the group. At first this was all done via the forum.
After a while coastal asked me if he could start publishing them to the site to which I agreed. Not long after this I was asked to be a moderator. Over the next month or so I continued to contribute to the site and Coastal and I arranged a financial deal that would include a set number of articles per week and a ‘promotion’ to administrator, but this promotion was ONLY because as an administrator I had the ability to edit and publish material to the website. Before that Coastal and to take them off the forum and do it himself, I guess me being an admin just made the process easier…
For the first few months everything was actually going really well, but the first sign of something going wrong was when a local (to him) card store who is well known for you tube box breaks, I believe his nameis Chris, had a falling out with Coastal. Chris would do all the video box breaks for Coastal for the giveaways on you tube but for reasons I really never knew that stopped and bad blood was between them. I heard it was because Chris was upset that Coastal was planning to sell cards via the site and he did not appreciate the competition as well as a few other stories, but the truth of itmay never be known to anyone other than Chris and Coastal. What I do know is that was probably the beginning of the end.
About this same time, Coastal introduced the ‘Black Box’. And from what I saw this was actually a very solid and well received product(grab bag if you will). Although there were a few issues, I believe in the end this all went off without a hitch and everyone was satisfied. However, all sales, packaging, shipping, and potential issues would all have been routed to/through him so I can only say what I saw on the surface, and from what I was told, and at this point everything still seemed legit and well.
Shortly after the ‘black box’ era Coastal was beginning to have financial issues (I Believe) because he no longer would/could pay me for the articles but instead would send me cards to sell, to recoup what he owed me. Anything beyond that I would simply send him a check because his PayPal account had been shut down, reason being that he was collecting too much money too quickly, or at least that is what he told me at the time. And although hindsight is 20/20 this seemed reasonable to me as I know PayPal had frozen my account in the past before because I sold a few things for large sums that they wanted to make sure went smoothly before releasing the money…
Anyawy, up until this point everything still seemed well, I loved writing for the site and was making a few extra bucks. I loved the member base and simply enjoyed the site. But that all was about to change. He starteda new ‘product’ called Elements that was based around redemptions and no sooner than this product going live the problems started to roll in. Member after member would contact me because Coastal was not communicating with them. I would always forward these concerns and/or issues to Coastal and was always given a reasonable explanation or confirmation that he would take care of it. However in no time the frequent issues turned in to an all-out bombardment of scam alerts and claims of fraud.
This is where is gets a bit murky for me because Coastal became hard to get ahold of after this. But even when I could contact him it was always something ‘he was actively working to take care of’ or ‘he himself was being scammed’. It really snowballed but I was assured by him that he was actively taking care of all issues. So he wound up pulling the elements productin a attempt to, what I was told, ‘to get caught up on all the issues’…
Now things were going downhill fast, the board was baron and he had revamped the website to the last incarnation that was working off points. One day I logged in and was told he was routing all points payment to my PayPal address, and I should just write him a check weekly because of his PayPal troubles. I initially objected but in the end told him that I would do this but he NEEDED to find another way and quickly. I must add that up until this point Coastal had always treated me well and had no real reason to think he was scamming anyone, including me, and that he routinely confirmed to me that he was actively taking care of every issue brought to light with regards to past problems. It seemed to me that he had just gotten in over his head and had no real recourse to immediately fix anything but was trying.
Fast forward a few more weeks and the site had pulled it’s plug. Over the next few days, all the people that bought points (that was routed to my account and then paid to coastal via a check) I had to refund personally, out of pocket. (Yes, I still have the means to prove this with cashed checks and paypal historic data). When I was finally able to reach and bring this up to Coastal I was basically shrugged off and was all but flat outtold that I should just be happy I made any money (the money he insisted paying me for the articles) and he would not refund me what I had to pay out of pocket to those people he sold points to on a board that is now closed.
After that argument I had with him, it was virtually the last time I communicated with him. I live in Albany NY and he in NC so I have no real access to anything involving what he sold, packages, shipped, scammed money made/lost or anything else. I wish I knew more of that side so I could offer more information to those who feel they were done wrong. In the end I was just a glorified member who was paid to write and given limited administrator rights to publish my work. I am still friends with MANY ex fanbro members so in the end I have that to be thankful for.
I want to finish this off by saying that I DO NOT believe Jon (AKA Coastal) purposely scammed anyone, and simply think that he just got over his head, made some foolish choices, and lost control. But what really bothers me out of all of this is that he would always try and maintain the role of the victim. He was being treated unfairly, he was being scammed, ect… And to that end I see no reason to believe he thinks anything differently today. I wish I was not connected to that site, but I am. I wish Coastal did not leave anyone out of pocket but he has (including some close friends). I wish this connection had not shed a negative light on me, but it did and I understand it.
I know posting this will most likely bring negative light upon myself for simply being associated with Fanbro but this is the cross I need to bear, and I am ok with that. I know I have NEVER done or treated anyone wrong in ANY deal, not there, not here, not anywhere and that will never change. What does need to change, what has already been mentioned, is that Jon needs to accept the fact he screwed a lot of people (intentionally or not), stop playing the victom role, and make right with who he can. I do not even care about the money I am out of pocket, I made peace with that long ago, but there area lot of people still looking for retribution, compensation.
To everyone reading this, I can only hope you understand I had nothing but good intentions and NEVER scammed a single person. Nothing he made/sold ever went through me nor did I get a single dime off of anything he sold. Just as an example, if Gilmore started to scam people would you hold any other admin or moderators here responsible? But in the end, and from the perspective of many, it was ‘fanbro’ that ‘scammed’ them and I was a face of fanbro so I understand the link, it just sucks…
I know this does not answer any real questions for anyone, but perhaps offers a bit of insight from someone close to the source. If anyone reading this thinks I should carry the wrath of fanbro and scorn, I object but understand.I would be upset too, I am upset too…
I was Dr. K at fanbro. Originally a member that became a moderator then a dministrator. In the beginning I was intrigued with the site, I knew Coastal as a good guy and likes what I saw there. The fast growing member base was a very good bunch and I guess it just felt good posting there with abunch of eager and enthusiastic hobbyists. I soon found that many/most of the members were younger and lacked insight/perspective and general hobby common sense most here have obtained over the years and many leaned on the more knowledgeable crowd, so after a while I began to write articles and hot lists to try and bring the hobby and my experience in it closer to the group. At first this was all done via the forum.
After a while coastal asked me if he could start publishing them to the site to which I agreed. Not long after this I was asked to be a moderator. Over the next month or so I continued to contribute to the site and Coastal and I arranged a financial deal that would include a set number of articles per week and a ‘promotion’ to administrator, but this promotion was ONLY because as an administrator I had the ability to edit and publish material to the website. Before that Coastal and to take them off the forum and do it himself, I guess me being an admin just made the process easier…
For the first few months everything was actually going really well, but the first sign of something going wrong was when a local (to him) card store who is well known for you tube box breaks, I believe his nameis Chris, had a falling out with Coastal. Chris would do all the video box breaks for Coastal for the giveaways on you tube but for reasons I really never knew that stopped and bad blood was between them. I heard it was because Chris was upset that Coastal was planning to sell cards via the site and he did not appreciate the competition as well as a few other stories, but the truth of itmay never be known to anyone other than Chris and Coastal. What I do know is that was probably the beginning of the end.
About this same time, Coastal introduced the ‘Black Box’. And from what I saw this was actually a very solid and well received product(grab bag if you will). Although there were a few issues, I believe in the end this all went off without a hitch and everyone was satisfied. However, all sales, packaging, shipping, and potential issues would all have been routed to/through him so I can only say what I saw on the surface, and from what I was told, and at this point everything still seemed legit and well.
Shortly after the ‘black box’ era Coastal was beginning to have financial issues (I Believe) because he no longer would/could pay me for the articles but instead would send me cards to sell, to recoup what he owed me. Anything beyond that I would simply send him a check because his PayPal account had been shut down, reason being that he was collecting too much money too quickly, or at least that is what he told me at the time. And although hindsight is 20/20 this seemed reasonable to me as I know PayPal had frozen my account in the past before because I sold a few things for large sums that they wanted to make sure went smoothly before releasing the money…
Anyawy, up until this point everything still seemed well, I loved writing for the site and was making a few extra bucks. I loved the member base and simply enjoyed the site. But that all was about to change. He starteda new ‘product’ called Elements that was based around redemptions and no sooner than this product going live the problems started to roll in. Member after member would contact me because Coastal was not communicating with them. I would always forward these concerns and/or issues to Coastal and was always given a reasonable explanation or confirmation that he would take care of it. However in no time the frequent issues turned in to an all-out bombardment of scam alerts and claims of fraud.
This is where is gets a bit murky for me because Coastal became hard to get ahold of after this. But even when I could contact him it was always something ‘he was actively working to take care of’ or ‘he himself was being scammed’. It really snowballed but I was assured by him that he was actively taking care of all issues. So he wound up pulling the elements productin a attempt to, what I was told, ‘to get caught up on all the issues’…
Now things were going downhill fast, the board was baron and he had revamped the website to the last incarnation that was working off points. One day I logged in and was told he was routing all points payment to my PayPal address, and I should just write him a check weekly because of his PayPal troubles. I initially objected but in the end told him that I would do this but he NEEDED to find another way and quickly. I must add that up until this point Coastal had always treated me well and had no real reason to think he was scamming anyone, including me, and that he routinely confirmed to me that he was actively taking care of every issue brought to light with regards to past problems. It seemed to me that he had just gotten in over his head and had no real recourse to immediately fix anything but was trying.
Fast forward a few more weeks and the site had pulled it’s plug. Over the next few days, all the people that bought points (that was routed to my account and then paid to coastal via a check) I had to refund personally, out of pocket. (Yes, I still have the means to prove this with cashed checks and paypal historic data). When I was finally able to reach and bring this up to Coastal I was basically shrugged off and was all but flat outtold that I should just be happy I made any money (the money he insisted paying me for the articles) and he would not refund me what I had to pay out of pocket to those people he sold points to on a board that is now closed.
After that argument I had with him, it was virtually the last time I communicated with him. I live in Albany NY and he in NC so I have no real access to anything involving what he sold, packages, shipped, scammed money made/lost or anything else. I wish I knew more of that side so I could offer more information to those who feel they were done wrong. In the end I was just a glorified member who was paid to write and given limited administrator rights to publish my work. I am still friends with MANY ex fanbro members so in the end I have that to be thankful for.
I want to finish this off by saying that I DO NOT believe Jon (AKA Coastal) purposely scammed anyone, and simply think that he just got over his head, made some foolish choices, and lost control. But what really bothers me out of all of this is that he would always try and maintain the role of the victim. He was being treated unfairly, he was being scammed, ect… And to that end I see no reason to believe he thinks anything differently today. I wish I was not connected to that site, but I am. I wish Coastal did not leave anyone out of pocket but he has (including some close friends). I wish this connection had not shed a negative light on me, but it did and I understand it.
I know posting this will most likely bring negative light upon myself for simply being associated with Fanbro but this is the cross I need to bear, and I am ok with that. I know I have NEVER done or treated anyone wrong in ANY deal, not there, not here, not anywhere and that will never change. What does need to change, what has already been mentioned, is that Jon needs to accept the fact he screwed a lot of people (intentionally or not), stop playing the victom role, and make right with who he can. I do not even care about the money I am out of pocket, I made peace with that long ago, but there area lot of people still looking for retribution, compensation.
To everyone reading this, I can only hope you understand I had nothing but good intentions and NEVER scammed a single person. Nothing he made/sold ever went through me nor did I get a single dime off of anything he sold. Just as an example, if Gilmore started to scam people would you hold any other admin or moderators here responsible? But in the end, and from the perspective of many, it was ‘fanbro’ that ‘scammed’ them and I was a face of fanbro so I understand the link, it just sucks…
I know this does not answer any real questions for anyone, but perhaps offers a bit of insight from someone close to the source. If anyone reading this thinks I should carry the wrath of fanbro and scorn, I object but understand.I would be upset too, I am upset too…
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