Being curious about what the scam might be, I contacted the seller asking some questions about the item to see what sort of reply I might get back. The response:
I asked some pretty specific questions, which the seller did not answer, just responding with a generic reply. This is obviously some sort of scam, but what might the scam be? And how is this person pulling it off on Ebay?
When you buy something on Ebay if the item arrives not as described and the seller fails to issue a refund, Ebay will refund you for the item. In a nutshell.
On this auction, it’s very odd that the seller is running an auction without the option to Buy It Now, but is asking for potential buyers to contact him through email. Usually any messaging between seller and buyer is through Ebay only so as to have a record of messages and other reasons. Also, he is selling multiple vintage gear items of various values for the same Buy It Now price. It looks like essentially, a reusable template for his scam. I just haven’t figured out what the scam is.
It’s possible he’s just trying to cheat ebay. A seller lists their stuff on ebay, but with this kind of contact me off site bs in the listing, when you respond he arranges an off site sale and ebay doesn’t get their 3% or w/e. Were I you I’d have nothing to do with it, unless it’s something you can’t get anywhere else and you want it so bad you’re happy to assume the risk. Obviously a dishonest person one way or another.
What’s the listing? Just curious, I promise not to snipe.
fred_g, I’m definitely not touching it. It’s a scam. I just couldn’t make out what the scam exactly is. And being curious, I contacted him to see if I could get more info that might unravel it.
I was about to go ahead and post the link, but the listing is gone. It was for a vintage Marshall amp. He either hooked a fish or the listing was removed by ebay. And then I noticed something else interesting. I had messaged him through ebay. That auction eventually ended and then was relisted. When I looked at my message, the seller was a different seller for the old listing than for the second listing. And the seller for the original listing had over 600 positive feedback. The seller for the second listing had over 500 positive feedback.
“I have closed my business and I recently moved to Europe”
refuses to answer in any detail about the item
They get away with it because people are gullible and they hope to get the money before they’re booted off eBay.
Just google “eBay Buyer Protection scam” and you’ll get a lot of returns.
Couple of years ago I was shopping for a new Jeep and found one on eBay well below market price. Contacted the seller, and she had some story about being in the military and having to relocate etc etc etc. Typical.
I bet you can buy ebay accounts with 500+ ratings off people, same as you can find someone selling a daw+email addie account. Then you can use that rating to scam people.
Lolz. That for real?? 100% legal until assembled. What does the spring do? Doesn’t seem to me like there’s enough clearance to let the uh fuel through.
