I realize many criminals aren't that bright, but these guys were at least bright enough to counterfeit cards and set up an ebay operation.

The story says they made millions. For someone who has nothing, it may be worth the risk to steal $2000 worth of goods. But once they were worth millions, do you think they'd be willing to risk what they'd accumulated in order to net another $2000?

Sure, I'm sure they spent money too, but presumably at least some of that was sticking around in the form of cars, motorcycles, televisions, etc.

At first this hybrid low tech/high tech scheme seems clever, but it is very dumb. When the typical burglar gets caught, which they inevitably do, the police have an easy time recovering whatever goods they have on hand. But by using ebay, these guys left a very clear digital record of their misdeeds, so they are on the hook for everything they've done.

http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:PS8rKsto-18J:stores.ebay.com/Nexus-Systems+Nexus+Systems+Computers&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=5&gl=us

A small sample of the merchandise.