Text | Lin Xiaoqu
Interview | Lin Xiaoqu Liu Yuanyuan Lai Hui
Operation | Chen Yingrong Zhao Peiming
Editor | Zhang Huifeng Huang Xicheng
Instructor | Wang Chenyao
During the Paris Olympics, athletes who performed well on the field attracted countless fans, but many media also issued Be wary of criticism that fanatical idolatry undermines the spirit of sportsmanship. Recently, some netizens shared an " Sun Yingsha small card" with a transaction price of tens of thousands of yuan on an online platform, and related topics also became hot searches. Some people are envious of this, and many people are puzzled by the behavior of spending tens of thousands of yuan to buy a small card. As of August 8, the wechina operation team of the Future Editorial Department of Nanjing University searched on the star card trading platform "Katao" and found that the price of a card with Sun Yingsha's signature and clothing material had been auctioned to 17,251 yuan after 67 bids.
("Sun Yingsha Small Card" on the "Ka Tao" platform has been auctioned to 17,251 yuan after 67 bids)
"Small Card" originally refers to the celebrity photos distributed in the peripheral products sold by the company where the entertainment star works. This form It originated in Korean entertainment, and then slowly entered the Chinese entertainment circle. It was sought after by some fans and bought and traded at high prices.
Why do fans pay high prices to buy "small cards"? Why do we often hear about “stuck” scams?
Nanjing University Future Editorial Department·Jia Shu Studio published a report on March 18 this year, " Small Card "Scam", Unrecoverable Money and Love ". Today, we re-post this article to let more firsts People who only heard about "small card" because of recent hot searches understand this phenomenon.
A small card can be worth tens of thousands of yuan, which is related to its rare collection value, the increase in popularity of athletes and the hype of the issuer. ’s blind hype on Xiaoka is essentially using the love of fans to make huge profits in the process of trading and circulation. This kind of card speculation trend is not only seen in the sports circle, but even more so in the entertainment circle. Inflated small card prices have brought huge profits, tempting to transfer money in advance, withdraw money, conceal defects, sell fake cards, have bad attitudes, and do not care. All kinds of chaos such as after-sales service are full of "stuck circles", causing some fans to be harmed by love.
In order to buy their favorite photocards
Fans are willing to pay a lot of money to buy "genuine" photocards of their favorite celebrities.But sometimes the card sales strategy of artist companies still makes some fans feel overwhelmed.
For example, some companies deliberately make the number of idol group photo cards less than the number of people in the corresponding idol group when selling "peripherals". In order to receive the cards of their favorite members or collect the cards of all members, fans had no choice but to purchase multiple peripherals.
In order to stimulate sales, the artist company played tricks on the small card. Many photo card buyers have said, "I would not buy this new peripheral if there is no photo card in it." Some artist companies will even launch multiple sets of cards for one peripheral. For example, the second album of the 7-member idol group "Era Youth Band" from China Entertainment released four sets with a total of 84 cards for the duo, but there are only 7 duo cards in one album. Even if these 7 cards are non-repeating, if fans only buy one album, the probability of getting the specific duo they want is less than 30%.
(Time Youth League’s second album double card configuration)
Rather than buying many copies of peripherals to get some things they don’t want and small cards they don’t like, some fans began to trade directly through the platform and buy them from other fans. Buy the card you like.
Xiaoyao is one of these people. The day before his birthday, Xiaoyao opened an empty package worth 720 yuan.What it contained was supposed to be a birthday gift she bought for herself, which cost her almost half a month of living expenses, but all ended up in vain. "I'm really devastated."
Small card scam
It is understood that a genuine small card owned by star Jungkook can be sold for a high price of about 30,000 to 40,000 on a second-hand platform. On a certain e-commerce platform, you can buy 50 Jungkook's homemade photo cards for 7.88 yuan.
(The price of a certain Jungkook card on a second-hand platform)
(The price of Jungkook’s fake card on an e-commerce platform)
The star card has given some people a taste of huge profits. Some people directly buy homemade small cards and pass them off as genuine ones and resell them. There are even people like Xiaoyao’s seller who sends out empty packages and runs away with the money. The reason why the seller sends an empty package is to show the delivery record to the buyer so that the buyer can pay in advance.
Xiaoyao said that he paid after the package was shipped, but he did not expect to receive an empty package. The other party did not use the platform to trade, and Xiao Yaojia's WeChat. Xiaoyao didn't think much about it. When he saw that the package had been shipped, he directly transferred the money to the other party via WeChat. "Because many of the same people who issued the card (people who chase the same celebrity as themselves) are trying to get some money to buy new peripherals." , I thought it would help her receive the money earlier." Xiaoyao said that he obviously had good intentions, but what he got was the other party's blocking. After that, Xiaoyao could no longer contact the seller.
Xiaozhi didn’t even receive an empty package.
She was looking for a seller on the second-hand trading platform "Zhuanzhuan". Generally speaking, if you purchase through a trading platform, if you find that you have been cheated, you can ask the platform to intervene. However, Xiaozhi's seller said that she needed to pay a deposit before he could reserve it for her. Out of eagerness to get the genuine photo card, Xiaozhi agreed to pay the deposit on WeChat first, and then clicked on the sales link on "Zhuanzhuan" Pay the balance.
As a result, the seller also ran away directly. Although the money from "Zhuanzhuan" was successfully returned, the deposit paid by Xiaozhi could not be returned. Xiaozhi contacted the seller many times, but the seller kept delaying the payment on the grounds that he had run out of pocket money this month, until he lost contact completely. "I can only lose 400," Xiaozhi said helplessly.
On the second-hand trading platform, only when the buyer confirms receipt of the goods will the money enter the seller's trading account. However, some sellers will require small card buyers to confirm receipt of the goods before receiving the goods. In this way, once a small card scam occurs, the buyers will not be able to recover their money, and the platform will not be able to recover the goods because the buyers themselves have confirmed the receipt of the goods. Intervene again.
There are some small-ticket transactions of about a hundred or ten yuan. Even if buyers call the police, the police often have difficulty defining the nature of the transaction. Many defrauded buyers can only go to the scammers to "collect debts" again and again, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive and will most likely lead to no results.
(Chat record with the seller, tq= in the first picture means to confirm the receipt in advance)
The seller's common words include: "I am in urgent need of money recently, can I receive the goods in advance?" "It's very urgent. Please collect the goods in advance" etc. There are also some sellers who will take advantage of the buyers’ trust: “I issued the card in order to grab tickets for offline concerts. Please confirm receipt of the goods in advance”, “I want to increase the sales of idols/I have no money to invest. , can I receive the goods in advance? "
Some people who play the "card trap" said bluntly, "Confirming the delivery in advance, not using the platform, and transferring money directly are almost synonymous with scammers."
In addition to not issuing cards, they also issue fake cards. Card fraud.
After Xiaoxuan received the new pack of cards, she immediately took out the most expensive card in it, but when she took it apart, she felt that the situation was not good because the feel was exactly the same as the card she had bought from the official store. different. After identification, Xiaoxuan confirmed that it was indeed a fake card.
(Figure 6: Xiaoxuan’s chat record of identifying the small card)
The small card that Xiaoxuan wanted most, which was confirmed to be fake, was mixed with a bunch of real small cards.
This makes the problem more complicated.
Some small cards are sold at very low prices and are difficult to sell because of the unsightly appearance, low member popularity, and particularly large sales volume. Some small card sellers will bundle these real small cards with fake small cards that are in great demand and are expensive. Fans particularly want to buy a certain popular card, but they must buy other cards in a bundle.
Xiaoxuan encountered this situation when he bought this card. The market price of the small card that Xiaoxuan likes is about 800 yuan, but there is no market for it. Xiaoxuan had no choice but to buy the entire set of bundled small cards and spent 2,500 yuan. But when Xiaoxuan discovered that the small card she wanted most was fake, and asked the seller for a refund, the other party only agreed to refund her money for the small card that was identified as fake.
"It took a long time to argue, but it was useless." Xiaoxuan said that the other party always disagreed, and finally he could only say that he wanted to contact the platform to intervene. Only then did the seller apologize and agree to return the goods for a full refund.
Xiaozhi also received a fake card, and finally got a refund after the platform intervened. “But it’s annoying to have to wait nine days to receive the money.” Xiaozhi said, “When I first received the fake card It was quite frustrating. After a few more times, I became numb and felt like I was arguing and quarreling with others every day. "
I was "cheated" by the card. What should I do?
Because fake cards are frequently issued, people even get stuck. A mutual aid community formed.
Almost all slightly famous idols have a Weibo super chat called "Peripheral Transfer Station" . Fans will post information about or receive peripheral information on the transfer station, and sellers and buyers will contact them directly.
In the transfer station, many people will also talk about their experiences of being cheated, and seek comfort from other fans, "Many babies helped me scold that person, and I felt much better."
There are many more in the transfer station. Lightning protection posts, posting information about scammers to make others more vigilant. However, because the conditions for registering on platforms such as Weibo, Xianyu or Zhuanzhuan are very simple, some scammers have registered multiple accounts.
(Screenshot of someone hanging in Song Yaxuan's super talk)
There are also some people who are very experienced in collecting cards and will tell others about their experiences and lessons. The information is as detailed as color, font, size, white edge width and even enlarged texture, etc. .
(Screenshot of super phone identification post)
Beware of being deceived by blind love
Transaction chaos is frequent in the card circle, and fraud behind the three-inch small card is rampant.
Pukou Public Security Bureau issued a special reminder, "When purchasing celebrity peripheral products, you should look for official sales channels, and do not trust strangers on the Internet. You should be more vigilant and verify more when transferring money. If you are accidentally deceived, you should report it as soon as possible. Call the police.”
When placing an order and paying, many people think they are spending money for their favorite idol, but maybe the money they sent went into the pockets of scammers.
(Picture source network)
is different from other scams in that the Xiaoka scam takes advantage of fans’ love for idols and obtains huge profits at extremely low costs.
Because for many fans, the small card is a substitute for their idol and a valuable "token".
Some fans will take Xiaoka out to eat, travel, go shopping, sing, and even take Xiaoka to experience important occasions in life.
(Fans take small cards out to eat)
For fans, buying small cards is a way to express their love, but the chaos of small card fraud has caused some fans to be hurt because of their love. I originally wanted to buy an emotional sustenance, but I bought it in vain.
In addition to the small card market should be better managed and standardized, should make pricing more reasonable, the trading mechanism more complete, and the recovery of losses easier, fans also need to rationally examine this love.
Maybe you can use the saved time and energy to "love yourself more," Xiaozhi said.
This article was first published on the WeChat public account "Jia Shu Studio", with the original title "Xiaoka's "fraud", unrecoverable money and love".
This article is the practical work of students from the "wechina Micro China" project of the School of Journalism and Communication of Nanjing University and the first-class course of the Future Editorial Department.
welcomes you to join us in finding micro China in the grand narrative by submitting articles, providing clues, etc.! Contact information: [email protected].