Am I going to get ripped off (Ebay)

[normthesamurai]

Ok this was My first time ever buying something off ebay so I have no idea what its really like. I was bidding on a Korg Triton extreme and was outbid. The seller mentioned that he had a few tritons which he got from Japan. However today I got an email from someone else who lives in texas (The seller lives in Australia) saying that if I wanted to buy one at the price of my highest bid on ebay I could! It was sent by ebay under the Questions from ebay customer -- respond now title. That was all fine except at the top of the message it said

++Do not reply to this email. Contact the seller at this e-mail
address: ***** ++You expressed interres on a simillar item titled as ++Korg Triton Extreme - brand new!++ Item 7377485595....

Ok does it usually ask you not to reply to ebay?
If you accept this offer, you will be able to exchange feedback with the seller and will be

"...eligible for eBay services associated with a transaction, such as fraud protection. To

purchase this item, don't reply to this mail, just contact the seller at *****
Thank you,
eBay, Inc "

OK that sounded cool until I got another email From ebay saying:
Subject: Notice: Ebay communication Partner Warning

"Sometimes eBay accounts are used to send email solicitations for transactions outside of eBay, or to send unrelated questions in an attempt to discover your email address. We wanted you to be aware of the potential fraud risk these solicitations pose and encourage you to ignore the email you received from this member. Sales that take place outside of eBay are not eligible for any eBay or PayPal protective services and you run the risk of losing your money or your item if you complete these transactions.

We would encourage you to review the eBay pages related to Fraud Protection at the address provided below for information on steps you can take to ensure that future transactions are completed successfully:"

That doesn't sound good.

So I'm guessing that unless I want to lose $1500 I shouldn't take up the offer. IS that right?

[hostVentura]

Well - usually offers outside of an auction are scams - usually.

The reason eBay is so anal about not letting people do sales outside of auctions is because that is how they make their money - off of commision for each auction listed and sold...however, like they mentioned in their email, you also loose the security provided by goign through eBay. If you get totally screwed by going through eBay and PayPal officially - they can either help you track down or offer some sort of refund, although, not always.

So, your high bid was $1500 - for which Extreme (keys - ?) Do you think that someone could realistically sell you one for that price? If you think he is for real, reply to him and tell him you'd be happy to purchase it, but you would feel safer by going through eBay - have him post a Buy It Now auction for you, to be legit. Chances are a scammer won't even bother replying.

No matter what, some people just have bad intent and will screw you the first chance they get - so on the other hand, even if they post a Buy It Now auction for you, theres still a chance you get screwed - but that chance is about the same on any auction, I mean - this guys feedback will probably give you some clues, but then again, I got $2000 stolen from a guy whose account got stoled (he had 1600+ positive feedback, but that meant nothing once it got into a hackers hands).

No matter what happens, just make sure you aren't doing anything stupid. The fact that you are a little suspicious already is good - always be sure to keep your guard up, and be sure to tell us what happens :)

[normthesamurai]

Yeah the fact that the auction still had a day left when he sent me his offer was odd considering it sold just then for $2225. I stopped at $2000. Man sorry to hear about your loss Hackers suck. As if we don't have enough reason to despise them already. I think unless the guy is based in sydney like he said - In which case I can fly over and pick it up in person, I'll stick to buying my Karma locally.

[Cary]

To me, it's worth paying a few extra bucks to buy locally/regionally instead of over ebay or any internet site for that matter. Don't get me wrong, I love to buy things over the net, but major purchases like that I feel are best done in person. When I bought my Karma, I drove 90mi one way to go get it, but it was a store that I had done business with in the past. I knew that if something went wrong with it, that the store would take care of me. And even if they didn't, they'd have to tell me to my face.

[Thefunkygibbons]

on things like that

I take the view, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck

Then

Its a duck



I go outside ebay on collecting sometimes, but that is rarely more than $40

[Liquid Shadow]

Or if you get an offer outside of ebay, ask them to set it up on ebay so that you can just do a BIN at their asking price. So long as the person making the offer is willing to do that and lists in the description that nothing is wrong and it's fully functioning, you're protected. If they still want to do it outside of ebay then it's a scam and just ignore it.

[Awake]

Usually, if an offer is too good to be true, it isn't true; but that having been said, I got my K2000 on ebay for a ridiculous price, around $200 IIRC, shipped from California.

[hostVentura]

Or if you get an offer outside of ebay, ask them to set it up on ebay so that you can just do a BIN at their asking price. So long as the person making the offer is willing to do that and lists in the description that nothing is wrong and it's fully functioning, you're protected. If they still want to do it outside of ebay then it's a scam and just ignore it.

...Strange Deja Vu.

[ChrisMcCoy]

Don't trust any of those sidebar e-mails.
I got one on a JD-800 auction and the sender was using some one else's ebay id !!
The guy used a seller ID from Texas, yet he was in Romania, which statistically has the highest internet crime rate in the world right now. If the seller is willing to try to steal you away from ebay using ebay's technology, that's fraud. If he/she was making a legitimate offer to you they'd simply start another auction. That's why there are e-bay stores and power sellers. The other thing is NEVER EVER use Western Union or ANY DIRECT WIRE SERVICE to pay an auction or any item purchased online for that matter. Those services have been tied to numerous scams too.

Hope this is useful information.

Chris

[gusjdt]

I've noticed something on ebay regarding synths. When I was searching a while ago, I was looking for the big 3. Roland Fantom, Korg Triton, and Yamaha Motif. I noticed that there are A LOT of too-good-to-be-true auctions. You'll see 1 day listings of Triton Extreme 88s for starting price $0.01 USD and then the description will almost always say contact at this email before bidding, or contact to purchase for only $1000, or you'll see, like someone else said, the item is in California, but the seller is on the other side of the world. I have seen that so many times its not even funny. Same thing happens with the Roland Fantoms and some Yamaha Motifs, but it mostly happens with the Triton Extremes.

I have reported close to 15 of those auctions and all were shut down, only to find that the same item was listed again by a different user. (hmm.. stolen IDs anyone?)

I even saw an extreme 88 going for 7000-8000 USD WITH bids on it! WTF??

I just checked ebay and found nothing like that so far, apparantly ebay noticed it, but if you see something like that, it most definitely is something to avoid.

Hope that information will help out.

[karansaraf]

DON'T trade with this guy outside of ebay.

Send him an email saying that if he wants to offer you the deal, then to set it up via ebay like he would a normal auction, and to set a buy it now price of whatever your highest bid was, and to tell you when he's putting it up on ebay so you can get it, before anyone else. Don't trade outside of ebay.

[normthesamurai]

Yeah I kind of figured this guy was gonna be a freud but you know, I'm new to ebay so I just thought I 'd ask. However I may actually be able to buy another triton from a guy in Sydney and since I'm going up there soon I might be able to arrange to pick it up and pay for it personally and so being able to avoid the internet altogether!

[synthz]

Yep, i'd buy locally for something that expensive.. you're gonna get burned with the custom tax mate..

Anyway.. the auctioneer said he's got a couple of those.. why don't you just give him a call and ask for buy it now? I don't think Triton Extreme's worth more than $1750 if it's not new.. and you said he was able to sell one at $2500.. that's pretty ridiculous... isn't the price tag in Allans for 61 key is $2900? And you're likely gonna get more discount for the net price...
and it's using different voltage as well. dunno if we're gonna have problems with that..

[Michael Troy]

For the most part...When in doubt....BAIL OUT!