tomcaster
Halfnote
Posts: 91
Formerly Known As: strat-hacker
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Post by tomcaster on Aug 25, 2022 12:43:44 GMT -5
I have an ebay alert for a specific strat-one of the old growth redwood models. Not very common. I get an alert-4 listings for the same guitar(has some specific dings etc) on the same day. The sellers are 4 different entities all located in Japan and have good ratings. All the pictures are clearly the same-taken in a music store. The baffling thing is the prices are different. The range is $2,152-$2590. What's the reasoning behind this?
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Post by Leftee on Aug 25, 2022 14:27:24 GMT -5
Sounds like a scam to me. You can’t list the same item under 4 different accounts.
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Post by Jim D. on Aug 25, 2022 15:05:09 GMT -5
It is not necessarily a scam. It is fairly well known that in Japan creative sellers find items, especially instruments for sale in shops or by private parties. They advertise such items for more than it would cost them to buy it. They make a living doing this. They have zero inventory. If purchased off their post on a website, they buy it and resell it at a profit. Often, they have so many items for sale (resale) these items have already been sold before they can purchase them. They cannot keep track of all of them. Now you are into a situation of expecting a refund from a foreign seller. Not good. Many resellers deposit the funds prior to attempting to purchase the item they advertised. Many, as you have stated, have very good ratings and are simply opportunists.
Now it could be a scam involving falsified proof of delivery and with a foreign shipment it is extremely difficult to receive resolution.
There are methods to limit ebay searches to the US only.
Current advice on this is to only purchase instruments, new or used from outside the US, from legitimate shops.
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Post by Leftee on Aug 25, 2022 15:20:53 GMT -5
If they aren’t in possession of the item they’re selling, that’s a scam.
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Post by themaestro on Aug 25, 2022 15:23:05 GMT -5
You will notice that the prices listed by the Japanese sellers are significantly higher than similar listings for the same item. Like Jim D said, these sellers are nothing but speculating (potential) flippers who only buy said item after someone buys it from them.
I would never do business with them.
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tomcaster
Halfnote
Posts: 91
Formerly Known As: strat-hacker
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Post by tomcaster on Aug 25, 2022 15:46:55 GMT -5
Thanks Jim-That makes sense. And yes they shouldn't be listing something they don't own, but how would ebay know? There were enough red flags here to move on. Thanks
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Post by Leftee on Aug 25, 2022 16:00:37 GMT -5
The reused pictures would be a start.
eBay used to have a user/auction reporting feature. Not sure if they still do. I bailed on them for Reverb years ago.
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Post by Jim D. on Aug 25, 2022 16:16:20 GMT -5
Well, I will add to this. Is it illegal? Probably not. Many sellers on Amazon, for example, are resellers of merchandise and have no actual inventory. Even Walmart does this. Now the reason you can't find the original seller of such things as guitars from Japan most often is because if they are in fact listed for sale by the actual owner, the listing is likely to be in the Japanese language. You can't find it. In any event, you are wise to move on. Who knows if their descriptions of conditions are fully accurate. Most of the time they have never actually seen or touched the guitar. There are at least five (maybe more) very active, known resellers of guitars in Japan and the reason their prices are different is because they compete among themselves. I read a really interesting article on this some time ago, but I am sure I could not find it now. Here is something close: troglysguitarshow.com/this-is-not-a-scam-multiple-ebay-listings-of-the-same-guitar/This site/topic pretty much addresses the whole concept regarding brokering guitars-both good and bad. |
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Post by Leftee on Aug 25, 2022 17:26:43 GMT -5
What has been described is still a hokey practice on eBay.
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DrKev
Wholenote
It's just a guitar, it's not rocket science.
Posts: 418
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Post by DrKev on Aug 25, 2022 22:09:31 GMT -5
Do reverse image search on the photos. If you get a result that's significantly older than the auction, it's a red flag. Also, I would ask the sellers for a photo of the guitar with todays date on a piece of paper next to the guitar. if they have physical access to the instrument to do that, it's less likely to be a scam.
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tomcaster
Halfnote
Posts: 91
Formerly Known As: strat-hacker
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Post by tomcaster on Aug 26, 2022 13:58:58 GMT -5
Found it! Used reverse image search and it comes back to a guitar store in Tokyo that has it listed for much less-$1,600. Thanks for the lesson.
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