Oh no its not.....

Strat54

Fake Custom Shop Tele from newbie seller. Buyers Beware.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fender-Telecaster-Merle-Haggard-Custom-Shop/402273348422?epid=15034597370&hash=item5da95c2b46:g:qQYAAOSwwZpeyuuJ

Andy79

Gotta at least admire his detailed description and great photos 

DeeTee

Seller obviously misheard when someone told them that Tele was pretty f***in haggard.

TheMarlin

Honestly, I’m not good at spotting fake Fenders. 

What’s are the give-away signs?

other than truss rod hole looking scruffy....

Wazmeister

Reported to ebay.

Strat54

TheMarlin said:

Honestly, I’m not good at spotting fake Fenders. 

What’s are the give-away signs?

other than truss rod hole looking scruffy....

The truss rod hole is always the No.1 giveaway. This has dreadful heavy typeface  fake Custom Shop decals too. 

vanlooy1

He’s at least offering free postage, although I’m not sure you can send a guitar “Royal Mail second class’....

Jackobean

vanlooy1 said:

He’s at least offering free postage, although I’m not sure you can send a guitar “Royal Mail second class’....

Hey, it's a £5k guitar new - no expense spared!

Funkfingers

High value guitar, listed at a low start price that would only satisfy a thief or an addict, desperate for the next fix. The item is either stolen or a fake. 

Arktik83

It's risky enough to bid on something from a seller that has zero feedback. 

Also if they're gonna be selling a guitar and pretending it's something it isn't they could at least take a leaf out of Essex guitar Studio's book and give it a backstory of how Merle Haggard's tech purchased it for Merle who then proceeded to play it but decided he wasn't worthy and it should end up in the hands of some random on eBay because they would put it to better use than he could.

DB1

It's looking more 'Merde' than 'Merle'....

guitars4you

Bollocks !!!!!!!!!!!! - at that price I thought it was worth buying so I went for it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YellowLedBetterMan

Some poor sod has actually put a £600-odd bid in.

I pity the fool.

Pabcrane

If some poor sod buys this thinking it is a Fender Custom Shop, does eBay provide a good recourse for them to return and get their money back? (I've been fortunate enough not to have to go through this)

Jackobean

As an aside, it's interesting the fakers have gone for something so rare and obscure.
Banking on lack of familiarity working in their favour? I've certainly never seen one in the wild...

jellybelly

Jackobean said:

As an aside, it's interesting the fakers have gone for something so rare and obscure.
Banking on lack of familiarity working in their favour? I've certainly never seen one in the wild...

I noticed a few times the 'same' Bilt Zaftig popped up on eBay at about £500-1k less than it should have been. Almost immediately taken down again. Perhaps the idea is, if it's obscure, you sort of feel like the seller is in the know, which then becomes relatable and perhaps even trustworthy?

Strat54

The real headstock.....

ICBM

Everyone here with an Ebay account who views this needs to report it as a fake. Ebay won't usually do anything from just one report, but they will if it gets flagged enough.

TheOtherDennis

ICBM said:

Everyone here with an Ebay account who views this needs to report it as a fake. Ebay won't usually do anything from just one report, but they will if it gets flagged enough.

On that basis, I flagged it, too. The message I received was that due to their privacy policies "we cannot report the action that is taken."

So how do we know anything will get done? It's still up, which would suggest that nothing is being done so far, despite other flags, or is it still too early?

ICBM

Probably too early - it usually takes a couple of days.

paulnb57

Reported also