Ebay Scams

Susquehanna

Susquehanna

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Joined
Feb 10, 2017
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248
Not sure the appropriate forum for this post, so if I placed it in the wrong area please move.

I buy almost all my gear from local shops or eBay. I consider myself a connoisseur of vintage rods and much prefer them over the new telephone poles that companies make today. Every so many days I do check ebay for new listings and good deals and lately I have found some that I thought were the steal of the century, but being the cautious one that I am I did more digging. Someone or some party of multiple people are posting rods from multiple manufactures WELL under the market value. That sounds great and all but all of these rods have some commonalities:

1. All are in Hong Kong
2. All are well below market value
3. All are from different sellers that have never sold or bought anything
4. All the listings are formatted the same way
5. All only have one picture of the rod
6. All of these sellers have not responded to questions
7. All the listings appear to have descriptions that are very generic, copy and pasted type material and nothing specific to anyone rod.

I have contacted eBay and discussed with them the issue. I gave them some of the item numbers and they also find it very strange. Currently they are investigating and I am hoping the get to the bottom of the issue. I just thought I would throw out a warning to people here. I have watched a lot of these listings sell and in the past day and I think people have gotten taken for a ride.
I was ready to pull the trigger on 5 rods 100bucks and relist them to make well over 1000 :lol:

Example:
Bad Seller?
US Army Vet ? Selling all his new rods but Only has one listed?
Same guy? What you think?
Thats just a small sample of all these listings
 
For less than $30, it might be worth to see if they show up. Seriously, my guess is its a scam.
 
Not all "great buys" are bogus. Two years ago I happened to look in on an auction for an Orvis Helios 2 9' #4 tip fles. New rod. There was only 50 minutes remaining on the auction and there were no bidders. The reserve was $480. I bid that $480 and tied a few flies until five minutes before the close of the auction.

There were no other bidders and I got the $795 rod for $480 + $10 shipping. The rod arrived a few days later with the Orvis cloth sock, graphite rod tube, and warranty card.

Another instance was an auction for a new Lamson #1.5 Speedster in black. They list for $315 and I got the reel for $225 and free shipping. You might have to be cautious but great deals are there.
 
Paypal is your friend in these situations. If its a scam, you can file a claim through Paypal to get your money and dignity back.
 
I said I look for deals and buy most my gear on eBay. I am in no way insinuating that there are not great deals to be had on eBay.
In fact, I bought a Fenwick for 25 dollars on eBay and a Orvis Recon for a few hundred, it happens but this is likely not the case here. A rod sold at the value the shipping would cost from China should be considered unusual and critically analyzed. I would NOT recommend purchasing these rods.

Normally I would agree with you Steveo and it is a huge reason I use Ebay, however, it just isn't that simple.

Link

Is Paypal a secure payment method for buying from China? In my personal opinion no it is not a safe payment method for buying from China. First off, no legitimate supplier in China is going to accept payment via Paypal. Most will not have ever heard of Paypal and even those that may have heard of it will not use it as it can be difficult for them to set up in China and also unnecessary for them as they do plenty of business with the standard payment method of bank transfer so will have no interest in Paypal. Individuals and scammers will however be willing to accept Paypal as they will know that any buyer requesting this payment method is both new to buying in China and also looking to buy in small quantities - two keys that scammers look for when finding victims. Assuming that you do make a payment with Paypal then the only protection that you have is that an item will be sent. You have no real protection that the item sent will be what you actually purchased. So assuming that you use Paypal to purchase 5 pairs of 'authentic' Nike shoes yet you receive 5 pairs of unbranded shoes then you will be required to return the unwanted products via a track able method in order to get your money back from Paypal and here is where the problem arises. [color=003300] If the seller has already absconded with your money then there is nothing that you can do. Paypal may refund your money from their 'kitty' but that is unlikely. If you try to send the items back to the seller then first off it is going to cost you more than it is worth to ship international registered post.[/color] Secondly it is quite likely that your goods will be confiscated by customs in China and the seller will never receive the package as the goods will be considered a commercial import which is highly regulated in China. Even if the goods are to make it past customs it is most likely that the scammer has not provided accurate address details to Paypal so your goods will never arrive.
Click to expand...

Personally, I wouldn't ship back whatever was sent on a 25 dollar purchase that costs me 20 dollars just to ship so I can get back 5 dollars. Could be even worse.

Beyond that Ebay refunds only after a return is made if you received an item with tracking. Currently eBay does not handle international returns.
 
I have gotten some tremendous deals through eBay on lines, rods, reels, waders and Boots. My first rule when shopping there is to only select sellers from the US period I will not purchase items from China. I look at the seller rating and it has to be 99.7% or above. I read the feedback on recent orders. If the seller hasn't sold enough items or the feedback is sketchy, I bail. I'm skeptical and cautious but have purchased a boat load of stuff and never had an issue. Most of the time the item is better than expected and I save anywhere from 20% to 70%.
 
^Bingo.

If the seller doesnt have a rating, Ill stay away. I only use highly rated sellers. They are generally not in the business of scamming people and will do what ever to keep you satisfied / from leaving negative feedback.

Susquehanna wrote:

Link
Click to expand...

Well ****. I retract my statement. Ive never had an issue with anything from Ebay China so Ive never had to file a complaint. Thanks for the link.

 
First thing I do after a search is filter my search and change to "US sellers only" and "ending soonest". That weeds out a lot of these foreign scams.

I've gotten some great FF deals off there too. My Simms pack, New with tags, last years model, for $40 some dollars shipped. The seller "greatflies" has been supplying my dry flies for about .50 a piece shipped since I started and they've caught me countless fish. I've also sold some old ball things on there and made some money like recently my old college graphing calculator. I ended up getting $67 for it and I was going to throw it away.

I admittingly have bought some Chinese stuff off there. Mainly headlamps, phone chargers, and a red led light for walking to and from my tree stand. Never had a problem with any of it tho other than waiting a couple weeks.
 
Ebay is a great platform for buying and selling. I just bought a camera last week on ebay; my main focus was seller integrity. After reviewing their history and what other things they sell, if my "gut" tells me they are ok i'll make the purchase. there have been several times where a lot of the seller "facts" fall in line, but some feeling I get tells me to move on and wait for another day.
 
A couple of times I have ordered fishing hats, lights, small value items from third party sellers on Ebay and when the item arrives you can see it was mailed directly from China. It never even went to the Ebay seller for repackaging. One item in particular sticks out in my mind as being a great deal was a tan fishing hat with a fully removable neck covering and a fully removable fabric face protector that has a mesh panel at the mouth and nose area. I hate the Buff socks that slip over your head and cover portions of your face for UV protection. This hat/neck/face shield cost me a whopping $6.00.
 
Susquehanna wrote;

I said I look for deals and buy most my gear on eBay. I am in no way insinuating that there are not great deals to be had on eBay.
Click to expand...

Sorry there, I didn't mean to imply all items bought on Ebay are suspect.
 
I saw a brand new Winston TMF with a warranty card on ebay with a buy it now. Bought it to flip it. When I got it it had a name inscribed on it, but the grip was my exact preferred grip. So I contacted the guy, turns out that was his he "accidentally" sent me, but he offered me $150 back, so I kept it. Beautiful rod and a hell of a deal for these days.

I may send it back to Winston at some point to replace his name with mine.
 
If it looks too good to be true, it probably is. There's always a slight chance that you might be scoring a great deal - perhaps the seller had a typo that prevents the item from showing up in normal searches, or they listed it in the wrong category or they are a legitimate seller who is just getting started. But look at it as a gamble and be prepared to lose whatever you bid on the item. Or be prepared to receive a cheap piece of knockoff gear.
 
Probably my biggest scores:

New Lamson velocity reel with new Rio gold line - $145 shipped
Smith Optics glasses (lightly used) - $19.99 shipped
New Galvan reel (retailed for $360) - $199 shipped

I know someone on here that got a $2600 raft with a $1100 fishing frame for $700....just had to drive 5.5 hours to pick it up.
 
I think the OP is spot on here. There are certainly great deals on ebay but i just recently watched a documentary on copycats and scams and its getting very hard to tell the difference between an authentic brand and a name brand and there are tons of scams even on amazon. When i bought my drone i found one on amazon that was 1/2 price and contacted them and they admitted the price wasn't right but wanted you to buy anyway and then charge the full price. Sh%^ is getting scary out there now so i appreciate the heads up on stuff like that. If you know the seller and know what to look for like others said ebay, craigslist can be a good option.
 
Speaking of ebay scams, I came accross this today while looking at vises.

It looks much too new to be a vintage regal, red flags came up immediately, what are your thought on this, real? fake? I'm no regal expert...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Regal-Patent-Era-Fly-Tying-Vise-RARE-/122384697567?hash=item1c7eb248df:g:JOEAAOSwEjFXeV25
 
I remember watcing a video (now seemingly deleted) that showed all the iterations and the history of he Regal. Looks right to me - this same seller was also selling another older model last month or so... i was kinda-sorta interested in.
Mike B
 

Cool thanks, it just looks so new to me to be that old, the wood looks recently finished, you would think that the wood would be darkened significantly from hand oils over the year, but regardless I like the looks of it.
 
I saw those same listings this past weekend and immediately thought scam. Being in the market for a nymphing rod, I almost took a chance on this one:

Cortland Competition 10' 3 wt buy it now $28.15. Scott A4 9'5 same price. Both brand new rods with suggested retail prices 250 or greater.
On the other hand, scored a brand new Douglas DHF for $99 and a Sage 2250 for $89 (dent in box) Real deals are there to be had!
 
I sent the guy an offer of .99 cents on 5 rods that valued over 1250.
He deleted the listings :lol:
 
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