B&W Speaker Listing (eBay vent)

[dan87951]

Venting initiated.… Yesterday my eBay auction for the 683s ends and at the last second a guy with 400+ feed back nabs them up and takes the high bid and I’m thinking I probably won’t have any problem with this transaction. So right after the auction ends I ask him if he’s picking the speakers up or if I need to mail them out and I get no response. I don’t think anything of it, then about an hour later I get a “account security warning” on eBay stating that there have been unauthorized bidders and they are working to restore the account to the rightful owner. I’m thinking huh? I haven’t listed much on eBay in the past few years and I gotta tell ya eBay has really gone down hill! I don’t think I will list the speakers again on eBay to much of a hassle. Plus eBay is still billing me for the auction THEY canceled. What a headache this is going to be to straighten out because I’m not paying the fees on it! Anyways vent off!

[Race Car Driver]

It can be a headache, however I saw an HTM2 go for $850!!! Made me wish I tossed mine up there...

[dan87951]

It can be a headache, however I saw an HTM2 go for $850!!! Made me wish I tossed mine up there...

Yea I know its crazy what some people will pay for used B&W gear. Look at the N805's they bring close to retail value. Makes me wonder how many of those sales are actually completed though...

[btf1980]

Yea I know its crazy what some people will pay for used B&W gear. Look at the N805's they bring close to retail value. Makes me wonder how many of those sales are actually completed though...

Not much I bet. Ebay is great for selling little things here and there, or hell, even a car, but high ticket electronic items....well good luck to you sir. I've been in a month long battle with ebay over a dell xps m170 laptop that I tried to sell, but some sneaky Nigerian scammer managed to win the auction. I'm trying to get my listing fees back, but off course ebay canceled the bid and deleted the auction, but still debited money from my paypal.

It seems scammers are just hacking into legitimate US ebay accounts, bid on that account in the hopes that they win, and then ask you to ship the item to another location, most likely to Africa or Europe. They have the fake paypal accounts and everything. One begs to wonder with such ingenuity and intelligence, why do they have to resort to stealing? It must be time consuming just sitting on a computer all day looking to rip people off. It's 10 times worse on Craigslist. Have you ever tried selling anything worth more than $100 there? They come out the woodwork with their laughable grammar, and they offer to pay you double what you are asking? Why not just buy a new one. :roll:

[c019740]

Yesterday I saw a pair of B&W 802N on ebay, bid starting off at 99cents. He had a few pictures and noted that there we're some minor dings here and there which is okay. He had a buy it now price on there of $1,340.00. He said if anyone offered a bid without emailing him first he would pull the auction. So I emailed him and he came back with this.

Hy,
The buy it now price is (1340$US) including shipping and handling.The deal will be made through an eBay program which will protect both of us. If you are ready for the deal let me know your full name,user ebay id,shipping address and i'll start the deal with eBay.
Let me know

Later I looked for the product on ebay and it was pulled. I since sent him another email to see what his response was and I told him this is too good to be true. Im not looking to upgrade from my 804's but wanted to see what this guy is up to. I was just looking for some used or new B&W ceiling speakers at a good price and saw this.

[Race Car Driver]

Yesterday I saw a pair of B&W 802N on ebay, bid starting off at 99cents. He had a few pictures and noted that there we're some minor dings here and there which is okay. He had a buy it now price on there of $1,340.00. He said if anyone offered a bid without emailing him first he would pull the auction. So I emailed him and he came back with this.

Hy,
The buy it now price is (1340$US) including shipping and handling.The deal will be made through an eBay program which will protect both of us. If you are ready for the deal let me know your full name,user ebay id,shipping address and i'll start the deal with eBay.
Let me know

Later I looked for the product on ebay and it was pulled. I since sent him another email to see what his response was and I told him this is too good to be true. Im not looking to upgrade from my 804's but wanted to see what this guy is up to. I was just looking for some used or new B&W ceiling speakers at a good price and saw this.

Yea, obvious scam there.

[Race Car Driver]

It's 10 times worse on Craigslist. Have you ever tried selling anything worth more than $100 there? They come out the woodwork with their laughable grammar, and they offer to pay you double what you are asking? Why not just buy a new one. :roll:

:rofl:
I know, not only that, but you get offered all kinds of things, like trade work as payment etc. Sob stories about how they dont have money but can build bathrooms/kitchens, im a roofer, sider etc.

Ive sold 2 cars and a few other things on CL. I actually love CL, just gotta know how to tell people how it is

Terms- Cash only
Price- Firm
etc etc.
I leave my cell # and dont leave my email addy.

[dan87951]

Update: Ebay has refunded everything for that auction. Man ebay has gotten expensive. Almost $50 bux to list those speakers.

[Race Car Driver]

$50? What did they go for?

My last few insertion fews were like $2.00

Guess we will see what the seller fees are after the auction.

[dan87951]

My 683's ended at $1350. It's the final value fee that gets you. The exact total was $45.87 that they refunded.

[imbeaujp]

I did many transaction on ebay with no problems, BUT the best way is to not allow international biders on high valuable items.

Always require paypal with confirmed address bidders.

JP

[audioqueso]

I did many transaction on ebay with no problems, BUT the best way is to not allow international biders on high valuable items.

Always require paypal with confirmed address bidders.

JP

I agree with JP. There is an option that you can check upon creating the auction page. I've been selling on ebay for years, and that option was the best thing to ever happen cause every single scam that I've had has been from some international account.

Did you pay the $25 front gallery listing? That's where they show your item in the random gallery. $50 seems pretty high for an item ending at $1300ish.

[btf1980]

I did many transaction on ebay with no problems, BUT the best way is to not allow international biders on high valuable items.

Always require paypal with confirmed address bidders.

JP

That doesn't prevent them at all. They are accessing/hacking US accounts and bidding with the hacked account. When they win the bid, they then send you a phony paypal payment and then ask you to ship it elsewhere. Sometimes they have accomplists stateside who will ship it to wherever they are. So shipping it wthin the US does not mean that you still are not being scammed. It usually takes ebay a little while to realize what has happened so they pull the auction, but that means nothing if you already shipped the item! You are not protected at all if this happens to you. The paypal payment they used was fake.

I'm sticking with Craigslist and Audiogon for getting rid of old gear or electronics. CL might be a hassle sometimes, but at least you get cash then and there and don't have to deal with as much BS, shipping costs, listing fees etc and you can tell upfront when someone is bsing you.

[Race Car Driver]

I will not ship until the money from my paypal clears INTO my bank account.

I have 1 bank account setup just for my paypal transactions.

I recieve paypal for whatever
I tranfer from my paypal to my extra bank account
This takes 3-4 business days.
After it clears that bank account, I do an instant transfer into my "other" bank account.

(my "paypal/extra" bank account has no money in it at any time, I only use it to transfer money into and out of paypal)

I take personal checks and money orders also, same rule applies. I dont ship until the funds have cleared. 4 day hold minimum before I ship.

After this is cleared, I will ship said item.

Even cash these days is getting trickey. In our state there has been ALOT of fake bills being pass, 100s primarily. Either photocopied, or Photo copied the number "100", cut and paste on a real "smaller" bill.

The best thing you can do is take as many precautions as possible.

-Dont ship overseas
-Wait for all funds to clear
-Ship to confirmed addy only

[Mark-n-b]

Yeah, the hacking isn’t that difficult.

I received an email a couple of days ago which was a scam. It asked to register a new credit card because my old one had expired on eBay. I did not, of course, but I realised that I had logged on using my eBay account name and password.

I immediately changed the password on the actual eBay site, but it would have been very easy to forget or not realise. The spoof website was a superb replica of the proper site.

[dan87951]

I agree with JP. There is an option that you can check upon creating the auction page. I've been selling on ebay for years, and that option was the best thing to ever happen cause every single scam that I've had has been from some international account.

Did you pay the $25 front gallery listing? That's where they show your item in the random gallery. $50 seems pretty high for an item ending at $1300ish.

Nope sure didn't the FVF was a little over $40 bux by its self.

[imbeaujp]

A friend of mine sold his computer some years ago using a newspaper add. He ask a certified check from the buyer because it was a lot of money (3000$). He came to his bank with the check and get the money cleard in is account immediatly (it was certified). A couple days after, the bank called him to tell that this was a fraudulent "certified check" ??? He protest and argue that certified is certified, they accept it and this is not his problem.... WRONG. There is fake certified check. The police did an investigation but he definitively lost his money.

In that way, PayPal is safer than certified check !

[dan87951]

A friend of mine sold his computer some years ago using a newspaper add. He ask a certified check from the buyer because it was a lot of money (3000$). He came to his bank with the check and get the money cleard in is account immediatly (it was certified). A couple days after, the bank called him to tell that this was a fraudulent "certified check" ??? He protest and argue that certified is certified, they accept it and this is not his problem.... WRONG. There is fake certified check. The police did an investigation but he definitively lost his money.

In that way, PayPal is safer than certified check !

Man thats a bummer! When ever someone comes to my house to purchase from me I only accept cash! No checks what so ever. I had someone purchase a car from me and his only method was check. I let him go with the car but I kept the title until the check cleared just in case it was fradulent. We really live in a world where you have to be one step ahead of these fools. Thank god these idiots aren't all that bright and are most of the time easy to spot.

[fvoufvou]

It's been tired to keep cautions from time to time...It could be glad to see what is less useful to ourselves to be more useful to the others, and realize its true value. But, we are kept busy for spotting scammer and investigating transactions...we already lose its fun...

Dan87951's 683s on ebay were monitored by me from the day when the price was $801. I am longing for this pair of speakers and its price for retail ones in my country is really high. I don't care if they are used or not, because from the pics provided, they are still quite new... but...I am not able to bit, due to my international idendity. I understand the risk you will take to sell this pair to international. I just want to say, the way we used to prevent scammer cannot really kill those bad guys, but block a buyer...I know it's not sellers' fault... I hate scammer...

[RNKC]

I never use eBay anymore for buying or selling audio equipment. I do all that on Audiogon. It's much better than eBay, but it's still not perfect. I got hit by a would-be scammer on Audiogon recently. Nothing happened becuase the whole transaction felt funny from the start but it was a waste of time for me.

[speakerboy]

Where's the best place to sell my pair of B&W N805 speakers with stands? Audiogon? How much do they charge? How about in The Pawn Shop? Any success stories from there? I've listed my speakers at one local website to sell it locally (in Utah) and within a day I had already gotten a couple of canned replies that said "I want to buy the item...can you ship to London/Nigeria?" Yeah...right! I'm thinking of Ebay...but after hearing scary stories, I'm not sure now.

[Race Car Driver]

They charge $6 to sell on audiogon.

I have sold N804s, HTM2, Rel sub, and Bryston amps on Agon.

I sold Rotel proc, aragon amp and other things on ebay.

[speakerboy]

Ok...after much deliberation, I've decided to sell my N805 speakers on Ebay. I actually have 2 pairs of N805 speakers with stands I used as rear surrounds that I'll be selling and am planning to get 4 DS8S speakers. Am I crazy or what!?

After reading this thread, it sounds like I need to make sure:

1. require paypal with confirmed address bidders only; do not allow change of address after payment
2. allow no international bidders
3. wait 1 to 1.5 weeks for the paypal funds to clear in the event the payment was fraudulent (stolen paypal account, stolen credit card, etc.)

Anything else? Hopefully, the buyer would understand the 1.5 week wait.

On a slightly different note, do speakers and stands sell better when sold separately?

[Race Car Driver]

If you are going to wait to ship, state that in the ad.