| Author | Message | ||
| phylo
New Username: phylo Post Number: 2 Registered: 10-2005 |
Does this seem a little fishy? Wasn't this one recently for sale my G.C.? http://cgi.ebay.com/1999-Alembic-Mark-King-4-Bass_W0QQitemZ7393319542QQcategoryZ4713QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem 1-day lisitng? | ||
| pas
Member Username: pas Post Number: 62 Registered: 3-2003 |
Seems obviously fraudulent. This was last listed by G.C. for $3700.00 & went unbid upon...again. I believe the last auction ended a day or two ago. I hope no one gets burned on this. | ||
| glocke
Intermediate Member Username: glocke Post Number: 107 Registered: 9-2002 |
Here is what looks like the original listing.. http://cgi.ebay.com/1999-Alembic-Mark-King-4-Bass-Spalted-Maple-LED-MINT_W0QQitemZ7392523949QQcategoryZ4713QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem I contacted the bidders to gice them a heads up, and asked the seller about this also.. | ||
| pas
Member Username: pas Post Number: 63 Registered: 3-2003 |
I contacted the bidders as well - hope no one gets burned. I'm a natural born cynic, but it really IS nice the way Alembic folks tend to look out for each other. | ||
| glocke
Intermediate Member Username: glocke Post Number: 108 Registered: 9-2002 |
yeah, I just hate seeing somebody get conned out of their hard earned cash.... | ||
| bigredbass
Senior Member Username: bigredbass Post Number: 634 Registered: 9-2002 |
WHAT body shape is this particular MK? I noticed it in the GC post, and now in this one. The lower bout looks to narrow 'in the hips'; was this just a custom order or what? It's not a bad price (IF this is legit), but MAN is this thing gonna be a handful with 35" and that shape. Dave? J o e y | ||
| glocke
Intermediate Member Username: glocke Post Number: 109 Registered: 9-2002 |
its obviously a fraud, not only did they copy and past the pics from the GC listing, but also the description.. | ||
| ajish4
Junior Username: ajish4 Post Number: 35 Registered: 11-2003 |
I notified E-bay TWICE...They never pulled the auction! | ||
| yggdrasil
Member Username: yggdrasil Post Number: 98 Registered: 5-2002 |
Here's his reply to me - he claims Square Trade is an escrow service: In the auction he says: Important notice,PLEASE READ!!!! Please contact me before you bid at my business email address chriswormer@gmail.com for the Buy It Now price and the terms of sale,otherwise i will not concider your bid. His reply to my query of that statement: Hi, my buy it now price is $2,000.00.Right now im located in London,Uk with some business but the item is located at square trade in the states,the price included shipping .If you are interetsed we will use sqare trade and ebay to end the transaction.Ebay will confirm you the safety of the transaction and will confirm you that allow us to use the affiliate program of ebay named SquareTrade. SquareTrade will hold the transfer details until the item is received and inspected by you.After you receive the payment request from SquareTrade you will have to send the payment to SquareTrade. The transfer will be verified and SquareTrade will not reveal the transfer details to me until the item will be received by you. They will ship imediatlly as SquareTrade will confirm me that have received the transfer details from you. They will ship the item with a Return Policy for 14 Days. The Return Policy will work like this: Sqare trade will ship the item at your address, after has been received by you, you will have 14 days for inspection. If it will not be as you expected to be, or you will not be happy with the purchase,you can return it back via the same service that was shiped, without paying any shipping costs and you will get a complete refund back. To start the transaction you will have to mail me your shipping address and your full name to start the transaction with SquareTrade .After the payment is confirmed to SquareTrade by you, they i will ship the item.As soon as i will have your shipping details and your confirmation that you have the money cash in hand and you are ready to purchase it, i will pass to SquareTrade the transaction details,and SquareTrade will notify you with details. You'll receive important guidelines + instructions from them. That's about all. If you can buy it for my price, email me back so we can set up the transaction. I will wait for your reply ASAP. Kind regards. | ||
| davehouck
Moderator Username: davehouck Post Number: 3304 Registered: 5-2002 |
Joey; I don't know. It sure looks like a one-off. I see the auction has ended. Was the winning bidder one of the bidders that you guys emailed? | ||
| mica
Moderator Username: mica Post Number: 3101 Registered: 6-2000 |
I spoke with the high bidder, who received the same email as Frank. He's contacting Guitar Center in San Jose to see if they still have the bass there, and that will pretty much settle things. Luckily, he called here before sending the payment. The body shape looks like the 3/4 Omega. | ||
| davehouck
Moderator Username: davehouck Post Number: 3305 Registered: 5-2002 |
Thanks Mica!! I was just about to send an email to the bidder myself. | ||
| yggdrasil
Member Username: yggdrasil Post Number: 99 Registered: 5-2002 |
The scenario set out in the email is a total scam - Square Trade does not hold funds; it's an after-the-fact dispute resolution mechanism. I emailed him back with the appropriate ebay links,noting that he must really mean the ebay-sanctified escrow service and received no reply. Add to that his location in the UK, the solicitation of a purchase through a direct email link and a direct sale price outside of ebay - well, Square Trade couldn't even be utilized in a dispute. I'm amazed anyone even bid on this thing - or that it wasn't pulled by eBay. I'm also surprised that ebay remains the sole online auction marketplace of any consequence, considering that they do so little to police the scams on their site - where's the competition? | ||
| keith_h
Advanced Member Username: keith_h Post Number: 351 Registered: 2-2005 |
Well eBay now says the item has been removed and is no longer valid. Keith | ||
| yggdrasil
Member Username: yggdrasil Post Number: 100 Registered: 5-2002 |
That was after the auction ended, then - damage done! | ||
| ajish4
Junior Username: ajish4 Post Number: 38 Registered: 11-2003 |
http://cgi.ebay.com/1999-Alembic-Mark-King-4-Bass_W0QQitemZ7394982569QQcategoryZ4713QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem Here we go AGAIN! Just notifed Ebay at 6:51 pm EST. Let's see how long they leave it running..... This is really getting bad............ | ||
| olieoliver
New Username: olieoliver Post Number: 7 Registered: 2-2006 |
GC has it listed again too. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7394413594&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1 I contacted them and they do have it up for bidding. Thats a shame these idiots are out there. | ||
| davehouck
Moderator Username: davehouck Post Number: 3356 Registered: 5-2002 |
While were waiting to see what happens, here is a news story about fraud on Ebay. Interesting reading. | ||
| 88persuader
Intermediate Member Username: 88persuader Post Number: 179 Registered: 5-2004 |
Being a multi-Instrumentalist I also belong to a Roland V-drum forum and nightly check out e-bay for Roland V-drum items for sale and I have to say that the amount of obvious frauds for roland V-drums alone is amazing. On 3/1/06 (Yesterday) I counted 25 obvious ripoff auctions. A REAL good price for a new set of Roland td-20 V-Drums is around $4,400.00. That's a REAL good price. There are people with ONE DAY auctions saying the same kind of crap (e-mail me directly for my buy-it-now price and if you don't e-mail me directly I won't consider your bid) and they are saying they will sell you A BRAND NEW IN THE BOX TD-20 KIT FOR $600 US!!!! The module ALONE cost $1,800.00 and they'll sell you the WHOLE KIT brand new for only $600. US???? I don't think so! And the only thing that blows my mind more than how obvious these scams are is how many of them are on at one time and the fact people actually BID on them. Talk about lack of common sense! Still I feel bad for people who get ripped off even though i think they should know better and I really feel bad for honest sellers because all these scams will eventually cause more and more people to not use e-bay and eventually it'll shut down. Anyway I thought I'd share the Roland V-drum information with you guys so you don't think it's only alembic that's being attacked. Roland V-drums are being attacked MUCH harder. | ||
| bigredbass
Senior Member Username: bigredbass Post Number: 644 Registered: 9-2002 |
REALLY interesting article Dave. I have no faith in any kind of legal proceedings, but on one hand, I can certainly see how eBay could easily be considered to be 'facilitating fraud'. On the other hand, this is like downloading music: The technology is years ahead of the law. I broke down and bought an item on eBay last week the only way I would ever consider doing it: Drove 120 miles to meet the guy face to face, made sure it was as represented, and paid the guy. Not always possible, but works for the two times I've ever done an eBay deal, and would NEVER do it in any other fashion. J o e y | ||
| ajish4
Junior Username: ajish4 Post Number: 39 Registered: 11-2003 |
It's GONE! Speaking of fraud stories...... Man, have I got an EBay fraud story for you. It's amazing how many DIFFERENT angles there are out there! This one was really smart! The long & short of it is that I've been (actually, my wife has been) buying and selling on E-bay since 1998 with no problems at all. UNTIL.......... I've been looking for a certain Rickenbacker bass for about 4 years. In the rare instance one popped up, they were always out of my price range. Ric basses are my other love. ONE of these days, when I hit the lottery, I would love to have a custom, what I call, an "ALEMRIC" bass made. I've been dreaming about it for years, the basic RIC shape, but with exotic woods, Series 1 Electronics, two ebony and one purple heart stringer.....sorry.....I got lost daydreaming again!! Back to the story.... THEN it happened. A mint natural one showed up with a BUY IT NOW from a seller who had over 450 Positive feedbacks and was a seller for many years at HALF its normal value. The antenna went up so my wife contacted the seller. The part that was strange was that this seller normally sold antiques, and she was a POWER SELLER at that. Also, the basses that were for sale were PRIVATE auctions while the antiques weren't. She figured a stolen account. Nope, all checked out. She was selling the basses for a "friend". So, my wife purchased it for a surprise Anniversary gift. To make this story short, after almost FOUR weeks of BS stories, sick, out of town, computer down, etc, etc.....my wife brought me into the picture. I get an email about a truss rod breaking, and the neck warping making it "un-sellable". I offered to take it damaged, but she never replied. She offered a refund which took ANOTHER 3 weeks to obtain. BUT I DID GET IT! This was a $1200.00 sale. I mentioned this story on another forum and come to find out; this isn't the first time she has done this. After a lot of research, we found others with the same story with many different brand basses. It was usually an expensive one, selling from 1/3 to 1/2 the average price with a BUY IT NOW. Everyone got their refunds after WEEKS of waiting and for some reason; she was not and hasn't been getting negative feedbacks. Even if she did, being PRIVATE, you couldn't read them anyway! What we "unofficially" found out was that she was allegedly using these funds to finance her EBay business! Just a couple of sales, about 3 or 4 a month, enough to fund her purchase her antiques. She'd then sell her antiques make a profit, then refund the money to her bass buyers! One of the guys actually got her phone number and spoke to this woman. AMAZING. After this fiasco, I've really try to only purchase from board members, it is a much safer way to go. (Message edited by ajish4 on March 02, 2006) (Message edited by ajish4 on March 02, 2006) | ||
| george_wright
Member Username: george_wright Post Number: 76 Registered: 3-2005 |
Speaking of eBay.... Here's some material posted by an accounting colleague of mine. Two brothers have published a book of "true tales of treachery, lies and fraud" from eBay. "Dawn of the eBay Deadbeats" contains stories written by eBay buyers and sellers. From stories of disappointing purchases to out-and-out fraud, the book is a manual of what can go wrong when buying and selling on auction sites. Brothers Stephen and Edward Klink co-wrote the book, illustrated by Clay Butler. The idea for the book sprung from a website Stephen Klink had created. A New Jersey police office, he founded eBayersThatSuck.com - a site that aims to help people avoid auction scams - after he himself was ripped off online. Ina Steiner, "Dawn of the eBay Deadbeats: New Book Uncovers Online Auction Treachery," here, December 28, 2005. "Beware of eBay deadbeats, author warns," PhysOrg, March 1, 2006. Geo | ||
| davehouck
Moderator Username: davehouck Post Number: 3357 Registered: 5-2002 |
Raymond; thanks for the info on the V-drum auctions. That helps put things in context. Joey; I've completed three auctions where in each case I drove and met the seller half way. Not only does that help avoid fraud; it helps with the perils of shipping as well! Tony; you're right, that's a pretty interesting story! | ||
| lbpesq
Senior Member Username: lbpesq Post Number: 1048 Registered: 7-2004 |
Ed Roman's rant and list of eBay scams is quite entertaining. Scroll down past the paragraph about PRS 22 fret guitars to the "Nightmare on EBay" section. http://edromanguitars.com/rant/ebay.htm That said, I've bought numerous guitars on eBay without a problem, but you definitely have to be careful out there. Bill, tgo | ||
| bracheen
Senior Member Username: bracheen Post Number: 986 Registered: 11-2003 |
I've bought two basses, my Epic and a fretless Jazz Bass, my amp head, and a 2x10 cabinet from ebay without issue. I guess I've been lucky. The reason I no longer use it is Paypal's policy of wanting bank account information to extend the spending limit. That's not going to happen. Finding time to go get money orders, I'm at work from 6am - 6pm, is just not worth it to me. Sam | ||
| olieoliver
New Username: olieoliver Post Number: 8 Registered: 2-2006 |
Man, after reading all these horror stories I feel extremely fortunate that I have never been burned on eBay. I've purchased several instruments and have had great favor! | ||
| bigredbass
Senior Member Username: bigredbass Post Number: 645 Registered: 9-2002 |
I've said it before: If you've just GOT to send your hard-earned money out into the digital ether to complete strangers, pretend you're in Vegas. DON'T bet more than you can afford to lose! J o e y |
