.0071

I have also been receiving that error for a few days now. I have emailed support, hopefully they will fix it soon.

Shouldn't be a problem for me. How much XMR is in escrow with him?

Paid. Will send my shipping information later when I am able to send PMs again.

0.00175

That is indeed a good way to authenticate these coins and verify your ability to liquidate them. Another alternative (If you wish to hold on to these tokens personally) is to use the MetaMask wallet and visit a decentralized exchange like IDEX or EtherDelta. The coins will appear in your balance of tradeable tokens, but only you have access to them (you have to send them to the exchange with your own gas to make a trade).

Tough lesson, but you did help the community by sharing this. I'm sure both lenders and escrows will be careful to avoid this scam going forward.

I think the Raffuction format is excellent, actually. It's a great way to let the market gauge the value of an item and have some fun during the process. Looking forward to (hopefully!) seeing more of them in the future.

The only time it's worth buying a lottery ticket is if you can turn a profit by buying every single combination. Granted, that's not the only way to play, but it's a good rule of thumb that will indicate whether or not buying a ticket is a positive decision or not.

Of course, there is a factor that turns what would be simple mathematics into an uncertain poker-esque calculation and that is the chance that the jackpot could be split. If you could buy every single number and turn a profit, a few different billionaires might get that brilliant idea, and end up splitting the pot which would result in a net loss for each of them. It is this uncertain aspect that causes me to reject the lottery entirely - I don't think it is ever a good idea to buy, and if it is, it should be marginally so.

I get that for some people think that the lottery is their one shot to "make it big", but there are other gambling avenues that allow you to do that (i.e. constant doubling up on baccarat, buying bitcoin to play dice, or high leverage margin trading) that are much less vicious than the lottery when it comes to the house edge that it typically has. Especially if you're buying it off of third party sites like the one promoted in the OP that charge a commission for the luxury of being able to do so.

I can fill the other half, or the loan in its entirety, but you would have to pay the escrow fees.