Dies to Removal

A couple Friday's ago (12/13 to be exact), I was getting ready to pay into FNM at the LGS. So Im standing there and overhear this kinda goofy fella talking to the manager.

"Those cards the people back there are playing with, how do you know if they're worth anything?"

Manager says it's hard to tell, depends on the card. Dude says "I was wondering because I bought a big box of them at an estate sale. A bunch of them are individually wrapped and stuff."

Here's where I step in and tell him I'd be interested in looking. Dude introduces himself. I tell him I'll give him a call tomorrow, pull out my cell and ask for his number. "It's ###-###-##, no, wait, it's ###-###-####." I call the number and wait for his to ring. "
Left it in the car." he says. OK. Whatever, I'll call you tomorrow.

Well the next day I go to call. No answer. At all. I did a reverse lookup on it and find it's an unassigned landline number. Oh S-H-I-T!

I've spent the last almost month trying everything I could to track this dude down. LGS store manager says he didn't buy anything and can't remember if the girl he was with did or not, and they have no vid in house. Called a cop friend and he talked the anchor store security guys to turn over parking lot video at the time the dude was leaving the store. He could see the guy, and his car, but not get the plate number.

It's killing me to know there's some guy out there with a box of cards from an estate sale that are valuable enough to be individually sleeved, and he doesn't really know what they're worth. All I can imagine is a giant pile of Black Lotuses and Moxen!

So, I know this guy's first name and that he drives (but maybe not owns, as he was with some chick) a late
model blue or green Ford Explorer. Any ideas on how to track him down?

You have failed to ask the real questions. Why would this person give a bad number? Why would he buy stuff at an estate sale that he knows nothing about? Why did he not bring the cards with him?

After everything you just told me; I suspect these cards are stolen. Please do not find this person as you would be placing yourself at risk.

Lol, why are you stalking some guy?

People who buy at estate sales are looking for valuables to flip. You're not going to hit payday -- the guy is already going into stores looking for input, he is on the ball.

Sort of concerned with your dedication to finding the poor guy.

Nah, this dude was a dope. If you knew the people around here (upstate SC) you'd understand.

What do you think he was in an LGS for? >.>

He gave you a landline brah

Why are you still trying to find him?

What do you think he was in an LGS for? >.>

His girl was looking at used game console stuff. Probably Christmas shopping.

And I don't think he intentionally gave me a landline. I think he's just a dipshit. Probably just bought a new Tracfone or something and didn't have the number quite down yet. Like I said, you gotta know the natives 'round here.

Course I'm the real dipshit for not making sure I had the guy's digits or another way to find him. I know that. Now...

He probably gave you a fake number, meaning he isn't interested in selling to you.

You could case the place for fingerprints and give them to your cop friend?

I can tell you from experience, let this one go. The chances that there's anything worthwhile in the pile is infinitessimal, and the guy probably did enough research to figure that out, otherwise he'd probably have come looking for you.
If you really want to continue doxxing the guy, though, it looks like there was an estate sale in an Oxford, SC back in October where one of the big ticket items was a blue Ford Explorer, you might try to track the paper trail from there; found the info on estatesales.net so you might want to shoot them an email. Nothing else listed really popped for nerdery paraphernalia, and there's a hell of a lot of blue and/or green late model Explorers in South Carolina, but that seems like your best bet. You also might want to try putting an ad in the newspaper.

Hey now, see there's some useful info, Pendulum. Mixed in with some fatalistic, glass-half-empty advice, but useful nonetheless.

At this point, it's now more of a game just to see if I can find this guy. I'm not going to put any money in it (newspaper ad).