https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/26263
It seems like every time this email gets brought up it is quickly hidden or dismissed. Am I the only one that thinks this is highly unusual or relevant? I own a business handling personal property liquidations and can say for certain that it would not be possible to sell a beanie babie for $20 each...
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bolus ago
there are several beanie babies which are worth hundreds to collectors, and a handful worth thousands. if his collection has a few 'rare' beanie babies, it wouldn't be a stretch to expect the collection to be worth several grand. he's just looking to sell the whole thing at once, instead of just making money by parting it out.
if this email were the only weird email in the whole group, i would completely discount it.
as it sits, it's still suspicious, and it may be code for something, but we can't ignore the fact that it's not unheard of.
SlackeryTurnBull ago
And why would he need to get rid of them because his parents are visiting? Even if they were on a bed and he needed to get them out of the way, he could just throw them in a plastic bag and put them in the closet.
bolus ago
i don't want to overjustify this, just looking to figure out the 'strength' of the lead.
480 beanie babies is a lot. if he has them all display-boxed, they could easily take up more room than he has closet space for.
but why sell them? why not keep at a friend's house, or...anything, really...
i guess it boils down to - he's asking $9600 for 480 of something, and he needs to unload it quickly.
Orange_Circle ago
The photo was a stolen photo.
bolus ago
no, i get that it's not his picture...but it's weird that he references 480 of the things - which matches the number shown in the pic itself. he was very careful to make sure that his numbers matched the picture...which makes it 1) even stranger if he's lying (which i suspect he is) and 2) harder to ignore.
Orange_Circle ago
I agree! It's a weird email!
NotAnIdiot ago
It's not his collection though. He put a random picture from the internet in the email. He literally just searched beanie baby collection on google and put the first image result in the email.
https://humorinamerica.wordpress.com/
bolus ago
another quick note on that pic - all the earliest versions i can find of that picture are the same size as the attachment. i'm pretty sure that steganography changes file size.
bolus ago
ok - i did a quick count, and there are about 480 bbs in that pic.
so either he had 480 of something else, and this matched up, so he used it, or he just needed 9600 and found a way to get there mathematically using this pseudo-random picture he found.
the stupid, most simple answer is that he really did have 480 bbs to get rid of, and the stupid most devious answer is that he needed $9600 to support something nefarious...and further, he needed someone to understand what he was really asking for.
if he needed someone to understand then either everyone he sent it to also knew the code (unlikely since we never see it anywhere else) or he had pre-discussed it with someone, and was just throwing up a smoke screen.
in any case, it's still just a ridiculous email...have we looked into the guy and what he was doing around the time he sent it?
Orange_Circle ago
That photo was one they sending stole off the web.
bolus ago
do we have the original, from the web? curious if it's the same size.
NotAnIdiot ago
But again, this isn't his collection. Which begs the question: if you have the collection, why not just take a picture of that?
I believe there is ample talk on voat of steganography in the emails.
bolus ago
well, yes, that's what i mean - if i have 480 of something to sell, in a nefarious way, in a hurry (assuming he's rushed), how easy is it to just find a picture of roughly 480 things worth maybe 20 bucks each?
It could be just a coincidence that they guy found a collection of things which could conceivably be worth $9600 AND was about the right number, and did it quickly, but that doesn't feel right...too many variables.
so i go back to the core, i think he either had (one illicit thing) he was selling for ($9600), and he was trying to do it quickly, or just didn't have time to take a picture of his embarrassingly large collection of bbs.
in either case, it's still strange. now i've seen two other theories - either a baby or xtc pills. if he's in a hurry to unload either, it's not because of his parents, it's because of heat. generating an email because of heat just seems extra stupid.
dunno, and that's all i can come up with. dunno.
NotAnIdiot ago
He's either selling something illegal or sending a coded message in the image file. I bet it's the first one though.
In terms of the possibilities you brought up I'd say a baby is more likely IMO.
bolus ago
sorry for the slow walk-through. there are days where the logistics of what that conclusion implies just seems overwhelming, and i can't seem to shake the cognitive dissonance.
where is this guy in terms of importance? has anyone actually worked that out?
bolus ago
yeah - that does it make it weirder. worth looking into further, then.
NotAnIdiot ago
So I guess the question is: is it just a coded message, or is this guy selling something else? And if so, what is it?