I came across this auction on ebay today. For a CD player. Seems straightforward enough, until you read the (really fine print) item description, which also looks fairly typical at first blush:
My emphasis added, of course.
The winning bid was $152 US.
I gotta say it sure beats that Karyn chick.
I just can’t get over this guy’s inventive money-making strategy, and I thought I’d share it with you all. I guess it won’t work too many times, and the negative feedback would start to pile up. But as a one-off method of making a quick buck, I like it a lot.
Not only that, but since the number of such auctions he can run at once isn’t limited by his resources on hand, he could presumably have a whole bunch of such auctions going at once. I was surprised to find out he didn’t currently have anything else for ‘sale’.
IANAL, but my uneducated take on this is that he’s engaging in fraud if he actually tries to collect the money and doesn’t provide the CD player in question. The banner at the top of the page, where the item for sale is listed, clearly says, “Pioneer CD Player DEH-P7300”, not “Opportunity to buy seller a Pioneer CD Player DEH-P7300”. And further down, in normal print, he describes it as “Great CD Player overall. Works and looks outstanding.” That certainly suggests he’s got a specific Pioneer CD player, and his wording implies that he’s attesting that it’s in outstanding working condition, and ditto for its appearance.
Given all that he’s done to suggest that he’s selling an actual CD player, I can’t see the fine print getting him off the hook, if he got dragged into court.
I also see that, so far this year, he’s got as many complaints as positives in his feedback - four of each. Even if he hadn’t included that bit of fine print, I wouldn’t risk doing business with him. 50% positive is a piss-poor “batting average” on eBay.
No question about that, and neither would I, but it was good enough to net him $152 this time. It’s pretty risk-free though, the chances of him getting dragged into court are about nil. I know people with stories about losing thousands on EBay items that were never delivered, and having no recourse but to eat the loss. A silly thing like this wouldn’t get anywhere near legal ramifications, IM(IANAL)HO.
I had a look at the bids for this item as well as his mixed feedback, and somebody even warned (on an explanation for a retracted bid) that he was a ‘crook’. He’ll still make the cash. Unless somebody takes the time to email the guy that won the auction and tell him not to pay. I wonder why I never thought of that till now.
Ah well. I just watched Rounders again last night – ‘It’s immoral to let a sucker keep his money.’