FYI..........The Old Scam Has Returned

[Perry Werner]

Howdy:

Just looking at Ebay this A.M. to see that once again the tenor-treble linked here has returned to find a potential sucker.

PLEASE BEWARE and check earlier postings on this.

Have fun,

Perry Werner

 

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Wheatstone-Tenor-Treble-56-Button-Concertina-c1916-In-/380462987366?pt=UK_MusicalInstr_Keyboard_RL&hash=item58955c7866#ht_919wt_1009

[Don Taylor]

Howdy:

Just looking at Ebay this A.M. to see that once again the tenor-treble linked here has returned to find a potential sucker.

PLEASE BEWARE and check earlier postings on this.

Have fun,

Perry Werner

 

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Wheatstone-Tenor-Treble-56-Button-Concertina-c1916-In-/380462987366?pt=UK_MusicalInstr_Keyboard_RL&hash=item58955c7866#ht_919wt_1009

I know this is off-topic, forgive me, but how do listers like this guy manage to get such high satisfaction ratings from eBay buyers? Same thing with the folks selling Chinese concertinas, people like JimLaabs get 100% satisfaction ratings from eBay and yet there are numerous sites that have been set up to log the feelings of some really angry buyers of their instruments.

 

I suppose they are gaming the the eBay ratings system in some way? If so, then I guess all eBay ratings are suspect - which would be very bad for eBay itself.

[Latticino]

In this particular case to scammer appears to have stolen another person's account. That is why the listing requires the potential buyer to go directly to the seller not thru e-bay proper. As a general rule this is unsafe and certainly not encouraged by e-bay (as they don't get their cut). The real question is why they even allow this kind of a listing to be posted, though I guess it is just due to the huge volume of listings they have worldwide.

 

Jim-Labs is a whole different kettle of fish. They sell a pretty wide variety of instruments, mostly lower end I believe. There you get what you pay for, and their prices do seem relatively lower than the competition (though be aware that they often have used instruments that they take in as an exchange). I'm not sure that they are qualified to check out a used instrument (or do any repairs), so it is a caveat emptor with them.

 

In general I've had fairly good luck buying instruments off e-bay, once I educated myself on what to expect, but even better success going directly to previous owners or semi-professional repairers via sites like this one. The best guidelines I can give for e-bay purchases is: if the deal seems too good to be true it probably is...