Potential SCAM Alert on ebay Sterling Euphonium

[euphdude]

Hi All,

This looks a bit fishy to me....

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-Hand-made-ST...QQcmdZViewItem

Not only are there no pictures of the item (and the seller has kept his feedback private), but he also used Dave's name in the description.

I'd stay away from this one.

Hey Dave, why don't you create a sub-forum entitled "Misc. Ebay". This can be used to alert the readers of scams, or very funny auctions that come up from time to time.

[davewerden]

It looks like most of the description was pulled directly from Sterling's website, which is where they got my name. I just sent an email to the owner to see if it is a real deal.

The seller says the winner will be put in the front of the production queue, which means he/she must have an association with the factory (or perhaps has an existing order in the queue). If I get an answer soon, I'll post it.

As always with eBay, eBeWare!.

[davewerden]

THIS PARTICULAR EBAY OFFER SEEMS TO BE JUST FINE.

According to Sterling's owner, the seller is a Sterling dealer who sometimes uses eBay for creative marketing ideas.

So if the price is right, ...

[euphdude]

Thanks Dave. You can't be too careful out there.

There was what appeared to be an excellent condition Willson 2900 on ebay last week that had a low bid on the last day of the auction and in view of how impressed I was in my most recent playtest, I took a stab at it. Unfortunately, I got outbid by over $1000. I got an email this morning from a "Carlos Hermes" who offered me a second chance offer. I immediately suspected fraud and contacted the seller. Sure enough I was right!