Topic: [WoodCollector]Nine Public Coin Collection Completed - page 2. (Read 3887 times)

I have just read through the whole thread. It was an interesting journey down the memory lane. I followed the drama closely back then - I did not take any side of this drama, since I am highly allergic to drama.

I knew Nubbins from the collectible community, many of the involved people was people I traded with, so I was mostly in the background an neutral.
However I chatted a quite a bit with WC on forum PM and then later on Skype.
He was mainly was he asking me questions / seeking information about different technical aspects of bitcoin, cryptography and blockchain.

I just found my old messages, starting at 2015-01-17, then my last forum message with him was 2015-01-20, from there the conversation moved to skype.

He talked a lot about this infamous "coin 10" ... I have no opinion if the coins exist or not.
I don't know if this info is even relevant?

Nevertheless I will not post a private conversation in public, but teeGUMES you are welcome to send me a PM and I will share those few details I know.

About the youtube video, the only thing I remember was that he smoked a lot of cigarettes while "carving"  
His appearance in the video and the surroundings did not give me the impression that he was one of the few grand master wood artisans.
But I know nothing about wood, so my impression is not really relevant.

I read through the WoodCollector threads referenced, and others, and I would say I am very happy there are so many experts in wood making. I don't think you needed to be an expert to see what WoodCollector was doing after certain facts were highlighted.

Fraudulent or not, the coins look pretty cool. Even as laser engraved, the coins would probably not be trivial for most people to design and make.

I can say, looking at his threads that WoodCollector was a very good salesperson who knew how to gin up interest in his products. Once his reputation was ruined, he used this ability to create interest in his threads and eventually started trolling. My guess is his primary trade is some type of sales, and maybe art was a hobby of his.

I don't know if the 10th coin exists, but as time goes on, it appears less likely the 10th coin will be available for sale after this public plea. Nevertheless, your collection is very nice and is a unique part of bitcointalk history.

Here's a collection of the better screen grabs from the video:






The completed coin was never seen as far as I know.

Bruce Wayne was a name - or pseudonym - he used that predates his time on this forum. I remember finding some of his work that he'd tried to sell elsewhere under that name.


To be honest to me it was more proof that he couldn't do what he was claiming. As far as I recall the intricate design was already done and it just showed him butchering the coin with a hand tool. A lot of people called him out on it so that's probably another reason he took the video down. I'm surprised he posted it at all for numerous reasons really.

I actually received a C.O.A. too, I put it away and couldn't find it otherwise I would have included it. It looks a lot like the one pictured on the "Culture Cultivation" version. I will take a second look for it.

Thanks for your detailed insight hilariousetc.. i'll answer what I know.


Though he claims each coin came with a CoA I only ever had it mentioned to me by one of the owners. I received pictures but once the package came the card was not included with the coin / CoA.
Edited: Going through a box of my paper collectibles I did find this CoA.



One of the last items I received was one of the three bitcoin BTC's that WoodCollector had made "Culture Cultivation" and I received a CoA with it.



The quality of the printing job match fairly well so I can assume the first picture was indeed the CoA for the coin. These were done with a home printer and signed off "Bruce Wayne". Although more of these would be nice to have for provenance sake even some of my biggest critics admit:
I also can confirm that these coins weren't just premade and ready to ship. Coin 5 had the Hand of Fatima placed on it as a direct request from the original buyer. The coins themselves are not physically numbered, only in the way they are listed in WoodCollector's quote in OP.


Regarding the YouTube video I did watch it back then without realizing the importance it would mean to me now. I do remember thinking that it didn't prove or disprove anything and I just disregarded it at the time. I believe he took it down himself for his own safety. It was brought to my attention some time in 2018 / 2019 when I was purchasing the wooden Scam Busted piece that there was a crackteam of forum members tracking WoodCollector through all the public information he was posting and everything else they could gather. I saw pictures of his supposed house and was given other links to very personal information. Along with the Culture Cultivation piece and the CoA I posted earlier I received the full packing slip dox of WoodCollector. The member that sent it had made it public but I asked him to take it down, though this wasn't the first time I had seen the same dox. I decided against my own investigation into the name on the packing slip but one day I probably will be bored and see what I can find.

First time I've seen this thread. Pretty cool that you collected them all. The WoodCollector saga was probably one of the first big dramas I think I witnessed or was involved in here. Shame he turned out to be such a scumbag.


I think the more realistical scenario is that this was all a load of BS just to attract mystique and intrigue to try give the coins some value and demand and pump up the price.  Wood Collector was a real shady dude and we probably only just scratched the surface of his shenanigans.


I think he created many different coins and it's probably not related to these. I think part of the scam would likely be that he kept the tenth or make out that he sold it to someone and thus that inflates the price of someone wanting to track it down. He's asking for a ludicrous amount below and states he's suggested he's made others the previous year:


teeGUMES, do they all come with the 'certificates'? Are they numbered at all?


It was very unlikely anyone would have bought it for anywhere near that. As far as I recall WC had a fair few alts so it wouldn't surprise me if he just "sold" or "gifted" it to one of those accounts then that person at some point offered to sell it for as much as he could get and that would have been part of the scam.


He probably took it down himself. It proved more that he didn't or couldn't make these pieced by hand by what he showed (or didn't). I remember watching that video and really wishing someone made a copy of it. It gave away a lot of information about where he lived or at least where he worked on his woodcarving because if I remember correctly it showed him coming out of his house and walking to his garage or something like that and I think you could see the street and possibly the front of his house/drive. I tracked down one of his previous addresses back in the day. Can't remember exactly how I did it but he'd posted pictures of some of his works with a lot of the interior and they were matched to a online house listing. Think his name is out there as well and last time someone contacted me about him there was some evidence that he might have died in a car accident or something but I guess that's assuming we had the right name/person.

Spoken like a true user who missed the bus.

 
I'd bet it was both cheap and easy.  Not like he had to leave his house and scour the countryside, there was a digital trail to each buyer and Bitcoin wasn't always expensive.

And he probably paid more than you hold total in your wallet. I am not going to get into specifics for privacy sake, but getting a hold of all of these was not cheap or easy.

   
You're holding a bag of laser engraved wood made by a scammer.  I don't think they are as collectible as you seem to think they are given the fact that you were able to obtain almost the entire supply.  Too funny.

Its too bad Hellot resorted to a passive aggressive personal attack rather than share his experience in the matter.

Hellot was around in the earlier days while the "hand carved" vs "laser engraved" drama was all going on. A quick review shows Hellot actually watched WoodCollector's supposed "proof of hand carving" YouTube video which was posted and then taken down (supposedly from WoodCollector's YouTube account being mass reported and suspended). Of course this video caused all sorts of further controversy and people were still split for or against WoodCollector. This also led to the start of WoodCollector's many alt accounts coming out in support of himself.

The thread linked has different factions championing for both real and fraud and it gets pretty heated throughout the 28 pages.. I actually didn't have the thread linked in my OP and its also a really great read.

I'd also like to add to anyone reading, my focus here is on the collection of these pieces and the preservation of one of the more dramatic pieces of bitcointalk's Collectible history. As shown in Hellot's reply we still have people with firsthand experience popping in and out, each having played a different part in this whole thing. If it weren't for both the naysayers and the believers these pieces wouldn't be nearly as collectible as they are now. I could give two shits if the treasure is real. The story is interesting, the coins are beautiful, and I'm happy with where I'm at right now in the tale. I'm not sure if I've ever taken a stance for or against WoodCollector himself yet, I'll have to review my own posts to see.. from memory the only thing I can think I've ever posted on the matter was that I am a 5% 5% 90% split with real/fake/curious.

Personal attack aside thank you for coming into the thread and reminding me about the WoodCollector YouTube video Hellot.

Some people are really gullible.  Woodcollector was a scammer.  There's no hidden treasure.  Enjoy your "hand carved" slabs of wood.

One year anniversary from my reveal post. Five year anniversary from WoodCollector's final post.
I decided to update the story in OP and fill in some more details. (WARNING - long read and probably filled with horrible grammar/paragraph breaks)
Original OP story Archived


Also a small update with this post:

We are nearing two months since he has last logged in. I haven't received a reply of any sorts back from him but if it is indeed the original ukcrypto I believe he may be in one of the more widespread Covid-19 affected areas of the world and I wish the best health for them and their family.

Wow shit just got exciting!

Very exciting. I have sent you a PM but I would like to keep most of this in the public. I am of course very skeptical and have been ready for somebody to approach me with a fake Coin 10 that they have crafted themselves/had made locally by a wood worker. I won't go into the certain things that I would be looking for on the coin but WoodCollector has a few "tells" when it comes to his coins that someone would only know about if they were holding multiples of them. No better person to be able to tell if it is actually his work or not than someone who has nine of them

First lets start with a definition from wikipedia.
"A lagniappe (/ˈlænjæp/ LAN-yap, /lænˈjæp/ lan-YAP) is "a small gift given to a customer by a merchant at the time of a purchase" (such as a 13th doughnut on purchase of a dozen), or more broadly, "something given or obtained gratuitously or by way of good measure."[2]"

Interesting name for the coin.. WoodCollector definitely used unique/meaningful names for each of his coins. He did say he was going to gift Coin 10 to a forum member of his choosing, 'lagniappe' seems to fit within this scope.


Now I pose a couple challenges to verify you are actually ukcrypto/litecoinaddict

1. Can you provide a picture on top of this blanket with the most recent block number and last 6 digits of the hash?


2. Can you sign a message from this bitcoin address 125gVqUrFqoa3yo1cBxWuiZZa9UNeFV6JH?

3. In private messages in 2017 you signed one of your replies with "Regards, xxxxxx" assuming your name in place of the x's what would this have been? (Answerable in PM of course) aswell you were working somewhere quite unique at the time of sending Unity/Black Swan to me.


I will add a few questions to this as time goes on, I am reviewing the conversations "we?" had back in 2017 to see if there are other defining questions I can ask that only you would be able to tell/show answers to.

I very much await February 19th and the pictures you can provide! Also the smaller coins that WoodCollector crafted would be pretty neat to see aswell.. not once has anyone mentioned ever having seen one in public or having purchased one.

You of course can provide answers to any of the questions I have posed here or simply tell me to F off it's up to you to further advance this tale if you'd like and I'm happy you found this thread.

 

First well done on getting 9!

I own number 10, i used to own Unity and the Black Swan... I was on this forum a lot many years ago - lost the email now - I also have some other smaller coin that he sent me thats somewhere in my house here.

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/auction-ends-1410-wooden-bitcoin-the-black-swan-by-woodcollector-2223623

PM me - I was sent #10 as an apology believe it or not in 2016 out of the blue, if i get into my previous account here i have a load of interesting PMs with WoodCollector.

I live in Asia and #10 named, 'Lagniappe' is in my deposit safe in UK (where previous were shipped from when i sold them) - its a 100 BTC on the front and purple wood (not sure name) - very shiny. Not sure but i also remember it being bigger than the other 2.

I will be in UK on 19/2 so gladly send you some photos soon.

Wow - to find this thread as well, i just popped in to see if he was still around! Has smoothie seen this thread ??

This is EXACTLY why I went public with this thread, I never even thought about this. Definitely need someone more tech-literate than myself to look into it.
It honestly makes me so happy to see other people get excited about this and share their ideas.. it's often months with nothing but every once in awhile someone with a fresh set of eyes comes along and drops a bombshell idea or new set of information. I absolutely love it.

When I get home to my notes in a few days I'll chime in with some thoughts/ideas with the blockchain analysis stuff and some WoodCollector timeline.

Thanks so much for the kind welcome! Crazy to see this come full circle (LOL).

So I ran some simple blockchain analysis on Blockchair, I was looking for (and I believe someone in the thread suggested this) 1000 unique outputs holding exactly 5 BTC (that are still spendable) that were created between July 2014 and April 2015 (I arbitrarily figured these dates may be when WoodCarver would have issued his coins), and I got 630-ish results;
https://blockchair.com/bitcoin/outputs?s=value(desc),time(desc)&q=value(500000000),time(2014-07..2015-04),is_spent(false)#
This means he probably didn't create them during this time, or at least not all of them at once.

Then I ran the numbers back to January, now we have plenty of results, about 1300+ 5 BTC outputs that are still spendable.
https://blockchair.com/bitcoin/outputs?s=value(desc),time(desc)&q=value(500000000),time(2014-01..2015-04),is_spent(false)#

I think we can narrow these results to see if maybe a batch of 1000 was created at once, (via script) it seems that would be the way someone would generate 1000 addresses, or no? Or...in essence we're looking at the funding dates of the addresses, not the creation dates. so how would you think someone would fund 1000 addresses? At once? over time?

That is a beautiful piece.

[BREAKS THE GLASS TO TOUCH IT]