Looking at new listings for contest candidates, spotted this only to find it is a 24 (1 day) auction? Why?
Started at $7.33 with no reserve and after 9 bids from 4 bidders, is up to $42.55. Huh?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/401323677160
( dead link 02-27-22 )
This a rookie error by a seller with over 1100 feedback, something dodgy or what?
The first image below is an image this is directly above his description in the listing - which does not make sense.
The description then reads: "You are watch on a hard to find early Chicago Telephone Supply Co. "potbelly" candlestick telephone. Chicago Telephone Supply Co started manufactured telephone as early as 1895, by 1901 Chiago Telephone Co had out grown there Chicago location and in 1902 moved it's operations to Elkhart, Ind. The Chicago candlestick was re-nickeled several years ago, because the old nickel had been removed by someone who thought solid brass was nicer. This is not a reproduction telephone. The receiver is a early Chicago OST. The receiver cord is new and the bottom plate felt has been replaced. The transmitter is a beveled edge Chicago Genuine Solid Back. The four exposed braided wires run from the stem perch to a hole in the back cup and to the exposed hookswitch contacts. This candlestick is over 100 years old and is not a working telephone."
. . . followed by pictures of the stick (2 attached here) along with the eBay listing screen capture.
A 24 hour listing for this phone, starting at $7.33?
Blink and miss it, I'd say. Certainly not under the radar with 4 bidders First time seeing something like this, at least for me.
Any thoughts?
There is a discussion on the lists that this is a fake and was listed a few times some years back, Also the instructions seem quite unusual.
Seller is registered in the United Kingdom and the item is in California. Notice seller requires contact only by his personal email. Be afraid, be very afraid.
Something funny here. Looked up his current auction listings (http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=&_sacat=0&_udlo=&_udhi=&_ftrt=901&_ftrv=1&_sabdlo=&_sabdhi=&_samilow=&_samihi=&_sadis=15&_stpos=53189-7373&_fss=1&_fsradio=%26LH_SpecificSeller%3D1&_saslop=1&_sasl=+theemporium22&_dmd=1&_ipg=200&_sop=1) and of the stuff I know, price is extremely low and shipping is free.
High seller shipping risk on this KAWAI US50 52 UPRIGHT Piano (http://www.ebay.com/itm/KAWAI-US50-52-UPRIGHT-/172666376299) starting at $12 with no reserve and 12+ hours to go with no bids. One bid supposedly takes it for $12 and seller pays how many hundred in economy shipping?
Or how about a Yamaha Baby Grand (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Yamaha-G2J-Baby-Grand-Piano-5-7-With-Ebony-Lacquer-Finish-/401323676840) for less than $10 with free shipping?
I picked out the pianos because I know what it costs to move one 10 miles, a couple of hundred dollars.
I don't get it. Almost tempted to bid or buy a piano and see what happens. Something dodgy going on here, I would say. Maybe I'm wrong but as Fabius said, a European selling shipping all of this stuff for free from California?
The provenance of the phones seems to be not much of a question when looking at all of the stuff the seller has for sale and it's price/shipping.
EDIT: And in addition, the seller has over 1,600 items for sale that all end in 15-16 hours as of this post. Seller as a bit more than 2,800 items for sale in open auctions with no reserve, free shipping and most starting well below shipping costs and all end in less than 3 days. How does one list 1,600 complex single items at one time (all those ending in 16 hours). What am I missing?
If you look at the items he has for sale, they all have a story. a lot of the items seems to have been owned by a family member.
Looking at his sold items I see low cost clothing and paper item that sold for British pounds. And they are located in the UK. While I didn't look at all sold items I don't see any expensive items like what is being sold now.
I'm almost positive I've seen those exact same pictures on a previous eBay listing a year or two ago. I also seem to remember there were seller issues at that time as well.
Jeff Lamb
Quote from: Fabius on May 09, 2017, 09:02:10 AM
Looking at his sold items I see low cost clothing and paper item that sold for British pounds. And they are located in the UK. While I didn't look at all sold items I don't see any expensive items like what is being sold now.
There are only 12 sold items, paper and clothes, that sold from $2 to $12 and ALL with additional shipping from $10 to $20, AND all shipped from the UK.
Using completed listings shows the same as above, no listings ended without being sold, no expired listings.
Now, here's an interesting listing started at $19.48, 3 hours and 8 minutes later r***l placed the first bid (a very high bid) so it would have shown 1 bid with the price at $19.58 until a minute and a half later when o***s placed a very high bid but one that did not exceed the first bid so r***l has the high bid with the eBay minimum increment of $100, the item sits at $50,100 with a bit more than 2 days left. With the tri-pod mount it might be worth 1/5th that.
The "Cloudy Nights" astronomical community had this to say about this scope 3 years ago
" Posted 19 January 2013 - 05:17 PM on ebay..there is a Astrophysics 6 f12 Superplanetary refractor on Losmandy Celestron G11 mount for $2000 free shipping. Too good to be true ????? yes it is. This is the same pictures and wording that hands on optic used to sell the same scope last month for $5000 . it went to a guy in the windy city. I contacted Gary at hands on optic and he said it was a scam. It already has about 25 bids . watch out. joe"I guess that could be said of all 2,500+ listings by this seller. I'd love to see what happens after one of those pianos sell for $65 with respect to purchase fulfillment and delivery.
I could spend hours debunking these listings but no point in doing that. Telephone listservs say scam, astro sites say scam, so I imagine other area sites would say the same thing. Just not worth it.
Oh, almost forgot, the seller has the same scope for same starting price and uses the same photo and that auction ends in 3 hours (http://www.ebay.com/itm/172666377724) and with 6 bids in this 1 day auction is now up to $50,000. Like that empty trash filled cardboard box that sold on eBay for big money a year or two ago, I get the feeling that the money will be paid but nothing delivered as in dodge money transfer.
If, as ktownphoneco said, these photos were used in the past, a year or more ago, I can see these "canned" listing being bulk loaded somehow whenever the money is needed. If you look at the sellers current listings from highest to lowest price, the seller will be in total receiving a lot of money today (as well as eBay and does that say anything) but who knows what will ship.
Finally, the seller's feedback shows mostly item sold for under GBP 10.
Well, the seller's 2,500+ active listing dropped mysteriously to 14 active listings but when you try to open a listing, eBay's "it does not exist page" shows up. So, somebody must have reported the seller and eBay removed/ended the active listings? The sold listings, some cheap clothes still show. Most were 1 day listings, some 3. I guess the scam was caught and that's the end of my input on this topic.
Okay, one more post. I went back to the page, refreshed it and that seller now has "0" active listings.
Good thing I grabbed those screen shots to show that what was written really did exit.
Yes it was definitely a scam. As Jeff mentioned earlier, a couple of years ago the exact same pictures were posted - multiple times with buy it nows etc. trying to get someone to bite. The auctions were quickly ended.
Somebody likely hacked the unsuspecting seller's account and put up a bunch of fake listings. I've seen that happen to other ebay sellers in the past. That's why they put up the information to contact them outside of ebay.
It appears to have been removed!
I contacted the guy when the listing first came out, and told the guy I wanted to purchase the candlestick. He finally got back to me with an Ebay invoice (so he says). I have not contacted Ebay yet, and does anyone know if it is possible to report him to Gmail to have his google account shut down?
Dave .... This is strictly my own personal opinion, but I think if you were to send Gmail an e-mail outlining all of the facts, they'd certainly have to take a hard look at the account's owner. But I also think the fraudster would himself, close the Gmail account once he or she are done with this particular scam. I'm assuming he or she wants you to pay by PayPal, and I think if that same information were forwarded to PayPal, they'd be compelled to close, or at the very least, freeze the account until they had time to investigate the matter. I would have to assume PayPal being a financial institution of sorts, would have to comply with U.S. laws under which they operate, and once the situation is explained to them, would be legally prohibited from assisting anyone perpetrating a fraudulent act, and would therefore, be bound by law to act on the information. Both eBay and PayPal should really turn this situation over to a law enforcement agency for investigation.
Jeff Lamb
Dave ... Sorry I missed the part about the "MoneyGram". Nix the part in my message about PayPal.
Jeff
It's Back !!!!
chicago (http://www.ebay.com/itm/152609801765?rmvSB=true)
And again!
eBay item number:263080250533
GONE!
Quote from: Fabius on May 08, 2017, 09:31:38 PM
Seller is registered in the United Kingdom and the item is in California. Notice seller requires contact only by his personal email. Be afraid, be very afraid.
Many items I see listed as in California, have actually been in China.
D/P
Like a bad penny, it's back, again. Different seller, again.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1900-Chicago-Telephone-Supply-Potbelly-Candlestick-/232511758575
I've attached a PDF of the eBay listing which shows the offer for a BIN in the description.
This seller listed 336 items in less than 2 minutes. All with the same offer to message seller and do a side deal.
bibi0430(876) 100% (https://www.ebay.com/sch/bibi0430/m.html?item=232511760214&hash=item3622c7e756%3Ag%3Aw90AAOSwBUVZ1Kyl&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562)
Obviously a hacked or scam account.
Amazing how someone put up 336 listings in less than a minute and it takes me a hour to do one listing. My new practice to is look at a seller's other listings to "verify" at least in my mind if the seller is legit. If still on the fence, I message the seller and see how quickly I get a reply, if at all.
That didn't take long. The seller is down to 0 active listings from the 336 of this morning thanks to eBay cleaning house.
He must be aware that the listing will be removed in a matter of hours once he posts them. He must be hoping for a victim to bit in that short window of time.
That guy goes to the go big or go home school!
It's like a bad penny in a Whack-A-Mole game . . . keeps popping up under a new seller handle.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1900-Chicago-Telephone-Supply-Potbelly-Candlestick-/162709365130
Seller with 42,557 feedback and 12,721 current listings, all the same.
I wonder how much money these hackers make before eBay has a chance to shut them down?
I reported the auction, AGAIN. I'm sure just about everyone at eBay who deals with these fraudulent listings, must know this image the second they see it, and I'm surprised that eBay doesn't have software that constantly scans new listings for suspect images, that keep re-appearing under different user names over and over again, especially in so frequent a time span. If Google Image search, and several other image searching web sites, can find a particular image on different web sites in a matter of seconds, I find it a little odd that eBay doesn't scan their listings looking for suspect images. Whoever the "person" is that's responsible, he / she is using the exact same images each and every time. How hard could it be for image recognition software to spot the thing ? I just used Google Image Search using one of the pictures from the listing, and it found it in about 2 seconds.
Jeff Lamb