Good Thing for Ebay Buyer Protection

fronobulax

Bassist, GAD and the Hot Mess Mods
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TX, I remember that (multiple) listing for the Starfire II Bass, because it was owned by a friend of mine, and even had a picture of the receipt form Fixit when he did some work on it. Turned up in listings from Montreal, and a few other places IIRC, and they were usually deleted pretty quickly.

I remember that but I also remember the 90's reissue maple SF II with Dark Stars that was legitimately auctioned once by Justin Meldal-Johnesn (or someone connected to him). The scammers just kept reusing the pics from the original auction.

Anyways the scammer actually shipped them a piece of paper and had gone as far as sending them a tracking number for it instead of shipping the guitar so it would appear to Ebay that the item was actually shipped. Didn't find out how this one turned out but I hope they got there money back. Was the first time I had heard of someone actually shipping something to fool the Ebay system instead of shipping the item purchased.

Not quite the same kind of scam but there was a time when people in the Greater New England area who wanted better quality band and orchestra instruments than what the local shop carried would go to NYC. New York State had a sales tax and NYC added on a couple more points. People would go to a shop, play several instruments, pay for their choice and leave with it. The dealer would ship an empty box to New Jersey so there was a record of an out of state sale, not subject to tax.
 

SFIV1967

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Ralf, is this CITES thing real? Have you tried getting vintage guitars, how bad is it?
I have not bought any guitars anymore from the US after the new CITES regulations came in place. And it has nothing to do with vintage, even new guitars are regulated the same way! Customs here in Germany is very much checking each guitar, even stores have trouble to get them in. Many manufacturers removed rosewood (or even some kind of mahogany) from guitars and replaced it with for instance Pau Ferro in order to import them into the European Union. I hear the same when exporting to Australia, that they are not even leaving the US. So yes, it's real and a big pain. The shipper in the US would need to apply for an export certificate, while the buyer in Europe needs to apply for an import certificate. And that could take time...There are other discussions about the topic in LTG, just do a search for CITES.
Ralf
 

wileypickett

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The guitar I "bought" got listed again -- same ad, same price ($79.00 + $20.00), but different seller handle.

I reported it to eBay.

EBay also refunded my $99.00 today. No fuss, no muss.

Good ol' wishful thinking!
 

richardp69

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Yup, that's been my experience as well. As I said, I wish they'd change some things but overall, they take care of their buyers well and if you're a seller, maybe too well.

This same guy I initially mentioned listed two more guitars (Guilds) at the same price/shipping etc. There was a comment before that said Ebay could care less about fraudulent activity etc. I haven't found that to be true. I notified them of the last two listings and they were both taken down within about 3 hours or so.
 
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