Buying an amp from Ebay?

TeleMaster

Dave_Mc said:

snowblind said:

TeleMaster said:

I was selling a Switch game the other day and someone wanted me to take a picture of the tiny serial number on the cartridge. I sell a lot of games and I've never heard this before, and I'd taken about 5 pictures already, all on the listing and I had packaged it up ready to go, so I said sorry no, it's packaged already. The guy went mad, telling me I should be ashamed of myself, calling myself a seller blah blah. Like, what? Lol. 

Indications of a scammer at work. Probably didn't really want the game but did want a serial number. These people tend to get really irate when their potential marks won't play ball. It's like, how dare you have the effrontery not to be a complete sucker?

It really is bizarre, isn't it? No-one can do "indignant" like someone who's been trying to do something illegal!

Yea. I have little time for nonsense. If it feels unreasonable, or it doesn't feel right I'll just say no. There's always someone else who'll buy it, and is normal. 

TheBigDipper

Rightly or wrongly, I take the approach that the eBay buyer needs to pay for their amp and come and collect it. Therefore, when they inspect the amp, they're checking it's as per my sales description/pictures, but they are not auditioning the amp to see if they like it or not. It's already theirs. We're both just making sure it works before they take it away.

But, if it starts making funny noises, or they really don't like it within a few minutes of playing through it, I'd be OK about cancelling the sale. The point (for me) of getting them to buy it before turning up is to make sure they're serious - otherwise I might as well be running a shop with people wandering in and trying stuff just because they're curious. 

I suspect none of this would apply if I was selling something vintage or unique. But I've never owned anything like that.

nero1701

TheBigDipper said:

Rightly or wrongly, I take the approach that the eBay buyer needs to pay for their amp and come and collect it. Therefore, when they inspect the amp, they're checking it's as per my sales description/pictures, but they are not auditioning the amp to see if they like it or not. It's already theirs. We're both just making sure it works before they take it away.

But, if it starts making funny noises, or they really don't like it within a few minutes of playing through it, I'd be OK about cancelling the sale. The point (for me) of getting them to buy it before turning up is to make sure they're serious - otherwise I might as well be running a shop with people wandering in and trying stuff just because they're curious. 

I suspect none of this would apply if I was selling something vintage or unique. But I've never owned anything like that.

I really like that as an approach amd may adopt that.

Dave_Mc

TeleMaster said:

Dave_Mc said:

snowblind said:

TeleMaster said:

I was selling a Switch game the other day and someone wanted me to take a picture of the tiny serial number on the cartridge. I sell a lot of games and I've never heard this before, and I'd taken about 5 pictures already, all on the listing and I had packaged it up ready to go, so I said sorry no, it's packaged already. The guy went mad, telling me I should be ashamed of myself, calling myself a seller blah blah. Like, what? Lol. 

Indications of a scammer at work. Probably didn't really want the game but did want a serial number. These people tend to get really irate when their potential marks won't play ball. It's like, how dare you have the effrontery not to be a complete sucker?

It really is bizarre, isn't it? No-one can do "indignant" like someone who's been trying to do something illegal!

Yea. I have little time for nonsense. If it feels unreasonable, or it doesn't feel right I'll just say no. There's always someone else who'll buy it, and is normal. 

Yeah definitely. Some questions are perfectly reasonable, but some definitely feel a bit fishy... whether you're a buyer or a seller, if something doesn't feel right, walk away.

Alexlotl

Only valve amp I ever bought from eBay was in the depths of lockdown, just within eye test distance. Did a sort of distanced masked handover on his doorstep and I took it home, hoping it worked. Everything was fine, fortunately.

Dave_Mc

Alexlotl said:

in the depths of lockdown, just within eye test distance.

LOL

Yorkie

Dave_Mc said:

snowblind said:

TeleMaster said:

I was selling a Switch game the other day and someone wanted me to take a picture of the tiny serial number on the cartridge. I sell a lot of games and I've never heard this before, and I'd taken about 5 pictures already, all on the listing and I had packaged it up ready to go, so I said sorry no, it's packaged already. The guy went mad, telling me I should be ashamed of myself, calling myself a seller blah blah. Like, what? Lol. 

Indications of a scammer at work. Probably didn't really want the game but did want a serial number. These people tend to get really irate when their potential marks won't play ball. It's like, how dare you have the effrontery not to be a complete sucker?

It really is bizarre, isn't it? No-one can do "indignant" like someone who's been trying to do something illegal!

I once ignored a send-my-cousin scammer on Facebook and the bastard littered all my public posts with ‘fuck you scammer’ kind of messages. I didn’t even know I had public posts! 

Dave_Mc

Yorkie said:

Dave_Mc said:

snowblind said:

TeleMaster said:

I was selling a Switch game the other day and someone wanted me to take a picture of the tiny serial number on the cartridge. I sell a lot of games and I've never heard this before, and I'd taken about 5 pictures already, all on the listing and I had packaged it up ready to go, so I said sorry no, it's packaged already. The guy went mad, telling me I should be ashamed of myself, calling myself a seller blah blah. Like, what? Lol. 

Indications of a scammer at work. Probably didn't really want the game but did want a serial number. These people tend to get really irate when their potential marks won't play ball. It's like, how dare you have the effrontery not to be a complete sucker?

It really is bizarre, isn't it? No-one can do "indignant" like someone who's been trying to do something illegal!

I once ignored a send-my-cousin scammer on Facebook and the bastard littered all my public posts with ‘fuck you scammer’ kind of messages. I didn’t even know I had public posts! 

Wow that's ridiculous. You couldn't make it up. If it was on TV or in a book you wouldn't believe it!

Yorkie

Dave_Mc said:

Wow that's ridiculous. You couldn't make it up. If it was on TV or in a book you wouldn't believe it!

The only explanation I can find is that the scam itself wasn’t the goal. Perhaps they were using a stolen account they wanted to discredit? 

Dave_Mc

Yorkie said:

Dave_Mc said:

Wow that's ridiculous. You couldn't make it up. If it was on TV or in a book you wouldn't believe it!

The only explanation I can find is that the scam itself wasn’t the goal. Perhaps they were using a stolen account they wanted to discredit? 

That is weird... I have no idea. 

hollywoodrox

thermionic said:

I recently tried to buy a Marshall combo off facebook marketplace. I had cash waiting and tried to arrange a convenient time to pop over (it was about ten minutes away). I would have been happy with five minutes to eyeball the general condition and plug in a guitar to check that all the knobs and switches worked. It fell through because the seller didn’t want to give me her address!

That’s bizarre ,how is she expecting to sell it

Yorkie

I've bought lots of cheap digital amps from eBay and it's always been fine. 

Life as an amp seller can be really hard though (don't open if you don't like fleas, lies, spiders or fictional quality American valves): https://thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/254663/f-ing-ebay-w-ers/p1