PSA: Avoid these Ebay scams regarding 2013 star notes! ~ Project 2013B

New York (B seal) series 2013 Star Notes are not valuable by themselves. Over a year ago I was able to pick some up for $3 or $4 each, and since then the price seems to hover around $20-$30, as more people become aware of this note's printing error. Having said that, there are some being sold for MUCH, MUCH MORE, and from what I have seen these notes do not even have the matching serial number note in the 2013B database!

Here are a few examples, bad buys, and other caveats.

First up is simply a bad buy. $2500 gets you 10 star notes. They are all in the valid serial number range, but NONE of them have a serial number match in my database, so they are very much single bills that will have to wait for the potential of a matching bill to be entered into the 2013B database... just like every other serial number currently there. These bills aren't even in pristine condition to boot. It might take some time, but you could probably find 10 individual notes for about 1/10th the price.

Next up is a slightly 'better' deal of 10 for $2300. But, take a better look at the serial numbers...

... one of the 10 bills has a serial number that is higher than 09600000. This bill is NOT in the valid serial number range for the Duplicate Serial Number Error!

Here is a pair for a mere $900 in pretty ROUGH condition. Did you notice something out of place? One bill has an 'L' seal (the district seal for San Francisco). For a note to be a valid 2013 Duplicate Serial Number, it has to be a 'B' seal (the district seal for New York). Unsure if this was an oversight or intentional..... nah... let's go with intentional.

Why buy two for $900, when you can get ONE for $900? But....

... zoom into the serial number, and we have one that is invalid. Sure it is less than 09600000, but it falls inside the serial number gap that runs from 00250000 to 03200000 which were NOT part of the duplicated serial number run.

Remember: the valid serial number range for the error notes is

B00000001*-B00250000* or B03200001*-B09600000*

I give the next guy props for marketting. Both bills have valid serial number, one is a DC note and the other is a FW note, but they are not matching serial numbers. The first 4 digits matching does get your hopes up at first... but nope. .....and $500, double-nope.

Current bid for these 10 banknotes is $51 with 4 days to go. Seems reasonable compared to what we have seen so far, but.... wow... 8 of the 10 notes are not in the valid serial number range.