Single post in Disallowing "Grab Bags"

For those who are unaware, Grab Bags are something of a recent trend in the Trades forum. Most operate in a way similar to the following:

• The content of a "Grab Bag" is often some kind of shiny, legendary, exclusive, or item, where the contents drastically vary in value.
• There are certain 'tiers', where the rarer 'tiers' give 'better' prizes (supposedly).
• The contents of a Grab Bag is subject to the seller's discretion, even if they claim that they are using a random number generator.
• Those who sell Grab Bags are not obligated to give out any rare Pokemon that they claim they do-- they often have "prize pools", but no one can check exactly what they give out to everyone to make sure they own up to it.

(I'm not going to link threads publicly to give examples, but anyone who's still curious can PM me.) I don't think I'm alone when I voice my skepticism of this form of trading (proof: 1, 2). Overall, PFQ tends to enforce a stricter form of trading where you get what you paid for, and nothing less. By participating in a Grab Bag, a user has great potential to find their money wasted, and there is a large risk of scams. While I'm sure many Grab Bag sellers are sincere in their Grab Bags, it only takes one bad seller to screw someone over. Now, I understand that there are drawbacks to disallowing this: some people genuinely enjoy it, it seems, judging by the popularity of those threads. However, I can't help but feel that it also encourages a gambling-like behavior amongst those who buy them. Some people offer it as a genuine service without intent to scam, and that's worth something as well. However, I believe the harm that may result from it outweighs these benefits.