Ebay "coincidence?"

[Northamusi]

There are several U47's for on Ebay sale, but two in particular caught my eye
as they appear to be identical (literally the same microphone and power
supply).

This one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2575217364&category=15198

is from a UK seller with no feedback.


This guy is in the US

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2575252910&category=15198

....yet the pictures are EXACTLY the same. Does this look fishy to you guys?
Does anyone know what gives with this? Is there something I am missing here
(maybe one is a broker) or does it look like a scam?

Curious to hear your comments
peace
Steve

[Richard Crowley]

"Northamusi" wrote ...
> There are several U47's for on Ebay sale, but two in particular
> caught my eye as they appear to be identical (literally the same
> microphone and power supply).

I get the impression that "borrowing" other's photos is a common
occurence on eBay. I've seen several postings that had special code
to prevent it.

I'd bet that BOTH of those sellers "borrowed" the pix from
somewhere else.

Note further that NEITHER of the sellers makes the slightest mention
of their actual unit for sale. I'd say from casual poking around that
BOTH of them stole their "descriptions" from one or both of these
websites:
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~gwagner/u47.htm
http://www.vintageking.com/u47.htm

I'd surely think 3 or 4 times before buying such a thing from someone
with (0) feedback rating. (32) isn't much better for a big-ticket item.

Both of these look VERY scam-like to me. It is possible that one or
both of them are legitimate, but neither of them took any steps to make
their postings look legit.

[ar3a]

"Northamusi" > wrote in message
...
> There are several U47's for on Ebay sale, but two in particular caught my
eye
> as they appear to be identical (literally the same microphone and power
> supply).
>
> This one:
>
>
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2575217364&category=15198
>
> is from a UK seller with no feedback.
>
>
> This guy is in the US
>
>
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2575252910&category=15198
>
> ...yet the pictures are EXACTLY the same. Does this look fishy to you
guys?
> Does anyone know what gives with this? Is there something I am missing
here
> (maybe one is a broker) or does it look like a scam?

It's not uncommon, infact it's really common, for people to sell an item and
just use someone else's photo. It doesn't mean anything...on it's own.
Well, it could mean that the person is flat out lazy and doesn't want to
take the time to take a photo of their item. Or, it could mean that they
just don't have the means to take a photo. Who knows. Now, the new seller
thing may be a little iffy. Maybe ask some questions and feel the situation
out.

[Mike Turk]

Both of those listings are almost certainly bogus. They both have ripped off
text from Gunter Wagner's site.

-mike

"Northamusi" > wrote in message
...
> There are several U47's for on Ebay sale, but two in particular caught my
eye
> as they appear to be identical (literally the same microphone and power
> supply).
>
> This one:
>
>
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2575217364&category=15198
>
> is from a UK seller with no feedback.
>
>
> This guy is in the US
>
>
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2575252910&category=15198
>
> ...yet the pictures are EXACTLY the same. Does this look fishy to you
guys?
> Does anyone know what gives with this? Is there something I am missing
here
> (maybe one is a broker) or does it look like a scam?
>
> Curious to hear your comments
> peace
> Steve

[Ben Bradley]

In rec.audio.pro, (Northamusi) wrote:

>There are several U47's for on Ebay sale, but two in particular caught my eye
>as they appear to be identical (literally the same microphone and power
>supply).
>
>This one:
>
>http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2575217364&category=15198
>
>is from a UK seller with no feedback.

"no feedback" rings a warning bell when he's selling something this
expensive.

>
>This guy is in the US
>
>http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2575252910&category=15198

And a feedback of 32 for chinalake21 seems rather low for selling
something like this, but it's a simple matter to check things out.
Clicking on "Read feedback reviews" shows there are only two recent
(within the last 90 days) auctions he was involved in - and in all
listed auctions, he's been a buyer. The last two auctions are:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=307&item=2563509447
DANIEL O'DONNELL**CHRISTMAS WITH DANIEL**CD Sold for: US $14.93 and:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=1217&item=2558095029
*PRIMITIVE Angel * NEW ORNAMENTS Winning bid: US $5.00

And so this guy is now selling an expensive mic? I don't think
so... chinalake21's ebay account has obviously (to me) been phished.
I'd report both of these sellers to ebay immediately. What's the
address? I'm trying even though I remember that not
being it...
The autoack said:
>Thank you for writing to the eBay SafeHarbor Team.
>
>The address you wrote to ) is no longer in service.
>Please re-send your email to us through the Contact Us page listed
>below.

> http://pages.ebay.com/help/contact_inline/index.html

So I went through their menus and stuff, and pasted my email into
the comment box:
> This seller appears to have a phished account - he's selling an expensive microphone with starting bid of $1,000.00:
>http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2575252910&category=15198
>yet all his previous transactions have been as buyer, and the last two were for less than $15 each:
>http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=307&item=2563509447
>DANIEL O'DONNELL**CHRISTMAS WITH DANIEL**CD Sold for: US $14.93 and:
>http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=1217&item=2558095029
>*PRIMITIVE Angel * NEW ORNAMENTS Winning bid: US $5.00

>Also, this seller with a zero rating is selling the same mic, using identical pictures and much of the same description text:
>http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2575217364&category=15198
>
>Pease investigate and take appropriate action.

While doing this, I noticed that 2575252910 is no longer a valid
auction, but 2575217364 is still valid. With my message they'll surely
investigate the other one as well, and my guess is they'll take it
down soon.

>...yet the pictures are EXACTLY the same. Does this look fishy to you guys?
>Does anyone know what gives with this? Is there something I am missing here
>(maybe one is a broker) or does it look like a scam?

As the other poster said, using identical pics doesn't neccesarily
indicate a scam, but there were several other red flags in these two
auctions.

>Curious to hear your comments
>peace
>Steve

-----
http://mindspring.com/~benbradley

[nmm]

On Fri, Nov 21, 2003 9:14 PM, Northamusi > wrote:
>There are several U47's for on Ebay sale, but two in
>particular caught my eye
>as they appear to be identical (literally the same
>microphone and power
>supply).
>
>This one:
>>is from a UK seller with no feedback.
>
>http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=
>2575217364&category=15198

>http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=
>2575252910&category=15198
>This guy is in the US



The US one has already been pulled..

Ebay feedback should give one point for every $100 of transactions, rather
than a point for every $4.89 thing you buy / sell.

[Mike Rivers]

In article > writes:

> There are several U47's for on Ebay sale, but two in particular caught my eye
> as they appear to be identical (literally the same microphone and power
> supply).

> This one:
> is from a UK seller with no feedback.
> This guy is in the US
>
> ...yet the pictures are EXACTLY the same. Does this look fishy to you guys?

Only that the picture can't be used as evidence that the seller
actually has the microphone in his posession, and that the microphone
pictured is the one he's actually selling. Often a seller will cop a
picture of the same make and model from someone else's sale, a
historic artifacts web site, or even the manufacturer's web site if
it's something that's current or on the "old stuff we used to make"
portion of the site.

Unless the seller posts a picture of him holding the microphone (and
you know for for sure that it's him in the picture) you really can't
get a lot of value out of a picture other than that the seller:

(a) - knows what the item looks like (or knows it doesn't look like
the picture but he likes the picture better than the actual
item for sale.

(b) - Doesn't have a camera but knows how to search the web.

(c) - Has read that you can't sell anything on eBay unless you put up
a picture.

Of course there is some value to a picture when it shows something
unique about what's being sold. For instance, if the description says
"Small dent in the grill" and there's a picture showing a dent in the
grill, you might get an idea of how bad the external damage is, but
you don't really know about any internal damage when the seller says
"but it works just fine."

eBay is for people willing to take risks. Either you like it or you
don't. I don't.


--
I'm really Mike Rivers - )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me here: double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

[Mike Rivers]

In article > writes:

> And a feedback of 32 for chinalake21 seems rather low for selling
> something like this, but it's a simple matter to check things out.

This is a pretty common attitude. Since I don't do eBay, should I ever
want to sell something there, I'd probalby go to one of my buddies
here who buys and sells hundreds of items a year, has a great feedback
rating, and ask him to sell it for me (for a commission, of course).

I've never sold anything, I've only bought one thing, and as far as I
know, I don't have a feedback rating. Would anyone buy a $1000 mic
from me through eBay? Would anyone buy the same mic from me if I
posted it here?



--
I'm really Mike Rivers - )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me here: double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

[George]

> eBay is for people willing to take risks. Either you like it or you
> don't. I don't.
>
>
I don't either it is a den of theives
sellers trying to pawn off a sows ear as a silk purse and buyers trying
to buy a silk purse but only offering the price for a sows ear
George

[John L Rice]

"George" > wrote in message
...
>
> > eBay is for people willing to take risks. Either you like it or you
> > don't. I don't.
> >
> >
> I don't either it is a den of theives
> sellers trying to pawn off a sows ear as a silk purse and buyers trying
> to buy a silk purse but only offering the price for a sows ear
> George

Well, no offence to anyone but it often seems that the people with the
harshest opinions against Ebay are those with very little or no experience
with it. I've made well over 200 transactions on Ebay over the last few
years and I think it's great and you can save yourself a lot of money over
purchasing new.

For instance I purchased two Neumann TLM 193 mics off of Ebay last year, one
for $635 and the other for $707 ( those prices include shipping which was
$11 and $9 respectively ). Both of these mics are in near mint condition,
sound great and sound identical to each other as far as I can tell. I also
picked up a brand new black EA-1 shock mount for $135 including shipping.

Often if you are looking for something that most people wouldn't want or
think of buying for themselves you can find the best deals. I picked up a
slightly used thermal label printer that normally lists for around $2000 new
for only $100 plus shipping of $30. ( it weights about 50 lbs ). And I also
got a brand new internal print server card for it, that lists for $500, for
only $29.

Sure, it takes a lot of perseverance sometimes to find what you want on
there, like looking two or four times a day for weeks / months until it
shows up, and you have very carefully consider many different aspects of an
auction to intend to bid on ( like seller's feedback, item description,
payment options, shipping costs, seller location, price of item and
availability of item new, etc, etc ). There are a lot of scammers
(gypsies,tramps and thieves) on Ebay but I feel that a majority of the
sellers/buyers are honest.

A couple times I've gotten carried away and bought something that I could of
gotten for slightly less else where, a few items I've gotten weren't quite
as new or perfect as the seller described and a couple times the seller took
so long to send the item it became a hassle and I thought they were going to
burn me ( but it worked out in the end ).


Ebay isn't for everyone but it has worked out well for me so far.

John L Rice

[ryanm]

"George" > wrote in message
...
>
> I don't either it is a den of theives
> sellers trying to pawn off a sows ear as a silk purse and buyers trying
> to buy a silk purse but only offering the price for a sows ear
>
My brother just bought a 1970 Super Reverb on ebay for $700, in great
condition. He's blackfacing it and doing a couple other mods on it now, and
he'll turn it around for $1000 either locally or back on ebay. This will be
his 3rd SR from ebay, one (a '68) he sold to my other brother at cost ($800)
after modding it, and the other (a '67) he traded for a Fender Tone Master
head/cab to a guy on ebay. He has also gotten a bunch of other cool amps
from ebay, mostly from people who either needed money and were selling great
amps for cheap, or from people who didn't know what the stuff they were
selling is worth.

Ebay is kind of like usenet, 90% noise, 10% value. I don't have the
patience and perseverance to find good deals and sort through the jack-ass
scammers on ebay, but for people who do, it can be a great place to find
semi-rare gear.

ryanm

[Rob Adelman]

George wrote:

> I don't either it is a den of theives
> sellers trying to pawn off a sows ear as a silk purse and buyers trying
> to buy a silk purse but only offering the price for a sows ear

A small percentage of users are thieves, just like real life. I have had
hundreds of transactions with no problems.

[Mike Rivers]

In article > writes:

> Well, no offence to anyone but it often seems that the people with the
> harshest opinions against Ebay are those with very little or no experience
> with it.

I've just never found anyting there on which I was willing to risk my
bid price. That says something there.]

> For instance I purchased two Neumann TLM 193 mics off of Ebay last year, one
> for $635 and the other for $707

That's the difference between us. I'd risk maybe $200 a piece for
those, knowing full well that either I'd be getting a heck of a
bargain or I'd be getting screwed for only $200. But I know that
there's no chance I'd get them for that, so I don't even try. If I
really needed one, I'd call my dealer, borrow it, and if I liked it
enough, pay his price for it, knowing that I have his, and Neumann's
full support.

I'll admit to having been tempted by a couple of items that aren't too
easy to find, but haven't made the plunge. I guess I just don't need
as much stuff as you do, or feel like spending that kind of money.

> Sure, it takes a lot of perseverance sometimes to find what you want on
> there, like looking two or four times a day for weeks / months until it
> shows up

That's too much bother for me. If I need something, I need it sooner
than that. And if it's just something I have a yen for, well I might
check occasionally (like the SMPTE time code display I've mentioned
here recently), but even when I see one up for auction, either the
starting bid is too high, it hasn't met the reserve and it's already
at more than I want to pay for it, or I really have doubts about what
will actually arrive if I were to buy it.

Also, I don't like playing the snipe game. I'd like to place a bid for
what I think it's worth, and if in a week I get an e-mail message
telling me that I've won, that's cool. But everyone tells me not to do
that, that I'll never win an auction that way, so I don't even bother.



--
I'm really Mike Rivers - )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me here: double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

[Mike Rivers]

In article > writes:

> My brother just bought a 1970 Super Reverb on ebay for $700, in great
> condition.

See, I'd NEVER consider making a purchase like that unless it was
local and I could go over and plug a guitar into it.

> He's blackfacing it and doing a couple other mods on it now, and
> he'll turn it around for $1000 either locally or back on ebay.

So he sells it for $300 more than he paid (how about shipping?) less
whatever it costs to make the "other mods" plus his labor. I'd rather
rake leaves. But maybe buying stuff, looking it over, and reselling it
is his hobby.



--
I'm really Mike Rivers - )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me here: double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

[Ben Bradley]

In rec.audio.pro, (Ben Bradley)
wrote:

>In rec.audio.pro, (Northamusi) wrote:
>
>>There are several U47's for on Ebay sale, but two in particular caught my eye
>>as they appear to be identical (literally the same microphone and power
>>supply).
>>
>>This one:
>>
>>http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2575217364&category=15198
>>
>>is from a UK seller with no feedback.
>
> "no feedback" rings a warning bell when he's selling something this
>expensive.

I'm not sure what's more incredible - that the above auction is
still up, or that there are now FIVE BIDS for the thing.

-----
http://mindspring.com/~benbradley

[John L Rice]

Hi Mike,

Comment inserted below :

"Mike Rivers" > wrote in message
news:znr1069536387k@trad...
>
> In article > writes:
>
> > Well, no offence to anyone but it often seems that the people with the
> > harshest opinions against Ebay are those with very little or no
experience
> > with it.
>
> I've just never found anyting there on which I was willing to risk my
> bid price. That says something there.]
>
> > For instance I purchased two Neumann TLM 193 mics off of Ebay last year,
one
> > for $635 and the other for $707
>
> That's the difference between us. I'd risk maybe $200 a piece for
> those, knowing full well that either I'd be getting a heck of a
> bargain or I'd be getting screwed for only $200. But I know that
> there's no chance I'd get them for that, so I don't even try. If I
> really needed one, I'd call my dealer, borrow it, and if I liked it
> enough, pay his price for it, knowing that I have his, and Neumann's
> full support.

Those are good points and especially important if someone is running a
mission critical operation with paying clients and a valuable reputation to
maintain. But I'm not presently in that situation. Another way to look at
this particular instance though is that I could of purchased a brand new TLM
193 from an awesome dealer with great support for what I got two used ones
for. If the dealer purchased one dies it's going to be a minimum of an hour
( if he's in town and they have them in stock ) to a week to get a
replacement. If one of the used ones dies on the other hand it would take a
minute tops to swap out the dead one for the other one I have sitting there.
So, for the same price, I can support myself better than any dealer could
ever hope to support me. ( within obvious limits of course. if the second
one dies I'm totally screwed. And in reality, since I'm using them as a
stereo overhead pair, if one dies I'm screwed too. Guees I'd better buy two
more used ones as backups! ;-)

> I'll admit to having been tempted by a couple of items that aren't too
> easy to find, but haven't made the plunge. I guess I just don't need
> as much stuff as you do, or feel like spending that kind of money.

Hah! If I could get back all the money from the stuff I bought on Ebay that
I DIDN'T really need, I'd be very happy! ;-) While I've made over 200 Ebay
purchases though, most of them have been fairly inexpensive things, like
cables, adapters, various things under $100, etc. Sometimes it's just stuff
that I wanted with a passion up to over 20 years ago and couldn't get, and
then I see it for a reasonable price that I can afford now and I jump on it,
even if I really have no practical use for it. But hey, everyone needs a
hobby . . . . .


> > Sure, it takes a lot of perseverance sometimes to find what you want on
> > there, like looking two or four times a day for weeks / months until it
> > shows up

> That's too much bother for me. If I need something, I need it sooner
> than that. And if it's just something I have a yen for, well I might
> check occasionally (like the SMPTE time code display I've mentioned
> here recently), but even when I see one up for auction, either the
> starting bid is too high, it hasn't met the reserve and it's already
> at more than I want to pay for it, or I really have doubts about what
> will actually arrive if I were to buy it.


It can be a lot of annoying work and I do buy a lot of stuff new from
dealers but I usually have more patience than I do money so it often works
out for me.


> Also, I don't like playing the snipe game. I'd like to place a bid for
> what I think it's worth, and if in a week I get an e-mail message
> telling me that I've won, that's cool. But everyone tells me not to do
> that, that I'll never win an auction that way, so I don't even bother.

Yeah, I know what you mean. I'm to a point where I mainly search for
auctions that have the Buy-It-Now option enabled. That way I can purchase
instantly if the item and price is right. I also search sorted by 'newly
listed' and if I see an item I really want that doesn't have 'buy-it-now'
and is hard to find, I'll write the seller and make an offer. More often
than not they'll agree and end the auction early and just sell it to me out
right so there's no biding or waiting. The down side with this is that you
have little or no protection from being ripped off so it's a much bigger
gamble that I don't take often. I also rarely bid on auctions that don't
accept PayPal payment due to the inconvenience of getting a money order and
mailing it etc. With a Buy-It-Now auction that accepts PayPal I can
purchase the item and pay for it all within a couple minutes, just like any
decent on line dealer.

Take care Mike.

John L Rice

[ryanm]

"Mike Rivers" > wrote in message
news:znr1069536613k@trad...
>
> See, I'd NEVER consider making a purchase like that unless it was
> local and I could go over and plug a guitar into it.
>
Hey pays with a Master Card and if it's not as advertised, he disputes
the charge.

> So he sells it for $300 more than he paid (how about shipping?) less
> whatever it costs to make the "other mods" plus his labor. I'd rather
> rake leaves. But maybe buying stuff, looking it over, and reselling it
> is his hobby.
>
It is, when it comes to amps. And he'll put it up for $1000, but usually
gets more, because he uses the word "vintage" in the auction description.
: )

ryanm

[Mike Rivers]

In article > writes:

> > That's the difference between us. I'd risk maybe $200 a piece for
> > those, knowing full well that either I'd be getting a heck of a
> > bargain or I'd be getting screwed for only $200.

> Those are good points and especially important if someone is running a
> mission critical operation with paying clients and a valuable reputation to
> maintain. But I'm not presently in that situation.

Neither am I, really. But if I really needed a particular mic, I'd
want to be sure that I got what I intended to buy. I'd rather have one
new, factory fresh mic than two that are of unknown condition. And if
I don't have a fresh one to compare them to, I won't even be sure what
I have. If I buy them and it turns out that I don't like them, it
could be that I don't like them, or that they really don't work like
they should. Not being familiar with that particular mic, I couldn't
say by listening to one or two that it's not what it should be. And if
it turns out that I bought two dogs for half the new price, what can I
do with them other than sell them to someone else who doesn't know
what they're supposed to sound like?

> Yeah, I know what you mean. I'm to a point where I mainly search for
> auctions that have the Buy-It-Now option enabled. That way I can purchase
> instantly if the item and price is right.

I've seen those, but usualy the price isn't quite tempting enough.
It's usually about right for a no-steal deal plus the eBay commission,
but I'd rather pay a little less on a handshake deal with someone
who's a regular poster in rec.audio.pro whose life I can ruin with a
single message if he screws me. <g>

> if I see an item I really want that doesn't have 'buy-it-now'
> and is hard to find, I'll write the seller and make an offer.

I suppose it's nothing to flaunt the rules and regulations, but when I
tried that, I got a message reminding me that it was against policy to
go around the auction. So at least they care "in print." Last time I
did that, I e-mailed the seller telling him that if he didn't get any
nibbles (for an item with no bids and what I thought was a too-high
starting bid, though I didn't say that to him) to contact me after the
auction was over. I haven't heard from him yet.

> More often
> than not they'll agree and end the auction early and just sell it to me out
> right so there's no biding or waiting.

That no longer sounds like an auction, it sounds like a classified ad.
But a lot of people use eBay just for that purpose. I'm sure that not
all "too high" prices are set because the seller is either greedy or
ignorant, they'd rather not auction the item at all, but would prefer
to take offers or even just collect names of bidders for future sales
of the same or similar items. Again, not the real purpose of a real
auction. But I guess that in reality eBay is something else, and
that's been accepted.

> I also rarely bid on auctions that don't
> accept PayPal payment due to the inconvenience of getting a money order and
> mailing it etc.

I don't have a PayPal account, so I wouldn't bid on anything where the
seller only accepts PayPal. I don't mind waiting for the mail and even
for the seller to get confirmation that my check has cleared, but if
someone doesn't want to take a check from me, I don't care about
buying from him. If it's on eBay, either I don't need it in a hurry or
I don't need it at all, so I have plenty of time to get it.

Of course there's the risk that I'll send the seller a check, he'll
cash it, and never send me the item I bought, but that's another
reason why I like to deal face-to-face. I can trust Swee****er or Sam
Ash to send me what I bought, but I'm not sure I can trust "Garage
Band Audio Co. - Click here to see our other auctions".



--
I'm really Mike Rivers - )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me here: double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

[Mike Rivers]

In article > writes:

> He pays with a Master Card and if it's not as advertised, he disputes
> the charge.

Has he ever done that? What happened?

> It is, when it comes to amps. And he'll put it up for $1000, but usually
> gets more, because he uses the word "vintage" in the auction description.
> : )

Yup, that works. But what will he call it when everybody has all the
"vintage" amps they need? "Brand new technology"?




--
I'm really Mike Rivers - )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me here: double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

[Rob Adelman]

Mike Rivers wrote:

>
>> He pays with a Master Card and if it's not as advertised, he disputes
>>the charge.
>
>
> Has he ever done that? What happened?
>

I have. I ended up with a problem buying some multi-day passes to
Disneyworld. I didn't get all the passes I was suppose to. It was with
Paypal. After working with eBay and Paypal they only refunded me part of
what I was owed. My Capital One Visa credited me back the rest. Paypal
threatened that I can lose my Paypal privileges for going around them
but this never happened. I guess my hundreds of perfect transactions
with Paypal must have helped.

I have had several hundred eBay transactions. I have had only a handful
of them that ended up with problems, and I have eventually had those
problems resolved in every case.

Even when my vintage Gefell UM70 arrived from Germany from a private
party not working properly, the seller paid to ship it back to him, sent
it right to Gefell and paid to have it refurbished, and paid to ship it
back to me. A bit of patience paid off big time. I think I paid 700
bucks for it and it is now one of my most prized pieces of audio gear.

-Rob

[ryanm]

"Mike Rivers" > wrote in message
news:znr1069593675k@trad...
>
> Has he ever done that? What happened?
>
I don't think he has had to (he's paranoid abouit sending money to
people he doesn't know, so he checks them out pretty carefully first), but I
know MC will refund *anything* if you're not satisfied. You can go eat at an
expensive restaurant and then tell MC that the food sucked and they'll
remove the charge. I know ebay also has something in their legal stuff about
the item not being as described.

> Yup, that works. But what will he call it when everybody has all the
> "vintage" amps they need? "Brand new technology"?
>
First of all, that'll never happen. There will always be someone that
wants to buy something because it's "*vintage!!!*". : )

He mostly does it just to get his hands on different amps to try out,
but occasionally he bids on something because it's just too cheap to pass up
(like the super he has now), and he ends up winning so he cleans them up,
mods them, and sells them for a profit. Most of the time, though, he tries
to trade the amps for another amp that he wants to try. You know guitarists
and that search for the holy grail of tone (they just refuse to believe that
tone is more in the hands of the player than the gear they're plugged into).
He's just found a way to do it without actually buying each amp outright.
Right now he's kicking himself in the ass because he bought the super and a
guitar that was ridiculously cheap and he couldn't pass it up, and suddenly
there's a Budda amp on ebay that he's been looking for, but he couldn't buy
the Budda without it coming out of his pocket so he's gotta try to turn the
amp and guitar around before the budda sells.

ryanm

[Mike Rivers]

In article > writes:

> know MC will refund *anything* if you're not satisfied. You can go eat at an
> expensive restaurant and then tell MC that the food sucked and they'll
> remove the charge. I know ebay also has something in their legal stuff about
> the item not being as described.

MC as in Master Card? My understanding is that they don't refund
anything. What they do is not hound you to pay that charge, and try to
resolve your problem with the merchant. If they can't, they won't take
the money away from the merchant, they'll charge you (including
interest) and say "sorry, we tried." It's better than nothing, but
it's not getting your money back from a third party.


--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me here: double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

[Analogeezer]

(Mike Rivers) wrote in message news:<znr1069507331k@trad>...
> In article > writes:
>
> > And a feedback of 32 for chinalake21 seems rather low for selling
> > something like this, but it's a simple matter to check things out.
>
> This is a pretty common attitude. Since I don't do eBay, should I ever
> want to sell something there, I'd probalby go to one of my buddies
> here who buys and sells hundreds of items a year, has a great feedback
> rating, and ask him to sell it for me (for a commission, of course).
>
> I've never sold anything, I've only bought one thing, and as far as I
> know, I don't have a feedback rating. Would anyone buy a $1000 mic
> from me through eBay? Would anyone buy the same mic from me if I
> posted it here?

Well I was a lot more of a skeptic until I started SELLING STUFF.

You might try getting setup to sell stuff, I have found it to be much
more fun to sell stuff than to buy stuff.

It's a pain at first but once you sell a few things that you figured
nobody would want then you kind of get more stoked about it.

Like I'm sure You DON'T have some stuff around just taking up space?

I've sold 24+ items in the last six months, mainly stuff that RAPer's
would laugh at if I posted it here FS...Quadraverbs, Peavey Bass
preamps, that kind of stuff.

So I took the over $3000 I made with selling that stuff which wasn't
that valuable (to me) and bought better gear with it (e.g. a pair of
Calrecs)...that seems like progress to me.

In general Ebay is much better for the seller, but there are some
things that you can't get elsewhere...e.g. I wanted to get a nice drum
machine (after selling my old crappy one).

The problem is all the new models have tiny buttons and are all loaded
with hip-hop and techno samples...the market no longer supports drum
machines that sound like actual drums.

You cannot buy something like that as new product anymore.

So I wound up figuring out what I wanted was a Roland R-70 (based on
sound quality, size of buttons, feature set, physical size,
etc.)...ever tried to find one elsewhere? They are next to impossible
to find.

Well there are at least one or two on Ebay everyday.

Given that Roland no longer makes the unit, and nobody makes anything
like it anymore, Ebay was the place.

Still I sell five things for every thing I buy from it, it is much
better for selling.

Analogeezer

p.s. A selling example...My truck died about six months ago and I had
the shop pull off the Weber Carb...it was only 18 months old (the
truck was FIFTEEN YEARS OLD).

I posted the carb FS on a USERS GROUP of people that own the same
truck and got one or two tepid offers which never panned out.

I put it on Ebay and sold it within two days at the "Buy it Now"
price.

I only got $109 for it, buy hey otherwise it would be sitting around
my garage for the next ten years and at least I got something back out
of what I paid for the thing.

[Mike Rivers]

In article > writes:

> Well I was a lot more of a skeptic until I started SELLING STUFF.
>
> You might try getting setup to sell stuff, I have found it to be much
> more fun to sell stuff than to buy stuff.

But I never get rid of anything. I have a bunch of broken stuff that I
could sell, but I doubt that anyone would pay enough to cover the cost
of packing it up.

> It's a pain at first but once you sell a few things that you figured
> nobody would want then you kind of get more stoked about it.

Who wants a Beta VCR with a threading problem? I have an excellent
Conrac black-and-white video monitor that doesn't work. A couple of
telephone answering machines. A '486 computer. No $3,000 worth there.
I probably have some reel-to-reel recorders I could sell, but I
wouldn't want to sell them for what anyone would pay and I don't want
to get ridiculed for asking a minimum of $100 for a recorder that cost
me $700 whenever I bought it (no matter how long that was). It's just
a matter of principle with me. If I actually had to get rid of this
stuff, I'd probably just posts a "come and get it" here rather than
bother with eBay.



--
I'm really Mike Rivers - )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me here: double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

[George Gleason]

"Mike Rivers" > wrote in message
news:znr1069695013k@trad...
>
> In article >
writes:
>
> > Well I was a lot more of a skeptic until I started SELLING STUFF.
> >
> > You might try getting setup to sell stuff, I have found it to be much
> > more fun to sell stuff than to buy stuff.
>
> But I never get rid of anything. I have a bunch of broken stuff that I
> could sell, but I doubt that anyone would pay enough to cover the cost
> of packing it up.
>
> > It's a pain at first but once you sell a few things that you figured
> > nobody would want then you kind of get more stoked about it.
>
> Who wants a Beta VCR with a threading problem? I have an excellent
> Conrac black-and-white video monitor that doesn't work. A couple of
> telephone answering machines. A '486 computer. No $3,000 worth there.
> I probably have some reel-to-reel recorders I could sell, but I
> wouldn't want to sell them for what anyone would pay and I don't want
> to get ridiculed for asking a minimum of $100 for a recorder that cost
> me $700 whenever I bought it (no matter how long that was). It's just
> a matter of principle with me. If I actually had to get rid of this
> stuff, I'd probably just posts a "come and get it" here rather than
> bother with eBay.
>
>
Thats what I do about once a year,gather up stuff I don't want and give it
away
though If you take it , you keep it
I will not ship any of it, but it is free as is where is
just gave away two large transport cases
George


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[Erich]

(Mike Rivers) wrote in message news:<znr1069536613k@trad>...
> In article > writes:
>
> > My brother just bought a 1970 Super Reverb on ebay for $700, in great
> > condition.
>
> See, I'd NEVER consider making a purchase like that unless it was
> local and I could go over and plug a guitar into it.

My man.. obviously YOU would never do something like that. This guy
did and made $300 in the process. Say for instance he makes only $150
after putting parts and 8 hours labor into it. He's at close to $20
an hour, part time and our uncle Sam really doesn't have to know about
it. Beats the stock market, or second shift at Wal-Mart. <And _fun_
for a gear head.>

Why would you NOT pick up a big ticket item on eBay for significant
savings? Say you won a $15,000 on a RUNCO projector for your fancy
assed home theater. (Demo Model) The thing goes for $30k locally. Pick
up your Mastercard and buy a first class airline ticket to see it in
person. Inspect. Write a check, enjoy a 5 star dinner in a new city
and invest the $11grand you saved.

eBay WAS better 3+ years ago. (More a flea market.) But if you do
your homework, deals can be had. I have had only one instance where I
pursued a chargeback. (And got it.)

Erich Smith

sorry to butt in but... I'm like that.

[xy]

if something is current and completely duplicatable, for example a
mackie 1604 vlz-pro, i would say a factory photo and a description of
the condition is fine.

but a U-47 is decades old, lots of money, and can vary a lot. i would
include many actual pictures of the mic, including pictures of the
inside of the capsule, as well as the cable and power supply.