"Please don't buy it off him"

[Westenra]

So last weekend I was scooping out eBay and came across a lovely Yamaha BB1024 in caramel with upgraded tuners, real bargain at £350! Unfortunatly my phone didn't remind me and I missed out; it finished with a single bid at £350. 

Cursing my luck I searched eBay and gumtree the day after and low and behold the exact same bass was listed again, same photos, same description, the only thing that was different was the price which was now over double - £780!!  

I messaged the guy saying I'd buy it for £350, he replied "for you £790", to which I replied "Well that's what you bought it off eBay for" and surprisingly I didn't get a response.

I tracked down the original eBay listing and sent the seller a message asking if he knew the buyer was already flipping the bass for over double. He promptly replied thanking me for bringing this to his attention, said the buyer asked for a big favor, called the price rubbish and said he would contact eBay regarding the same photos and description being used without his consent.

On the off chance he hadn't actually posted the bass yet I replied back asking that I'd actually buy it off him and pick it up this weekend, sadly the buyer had already picked it up and replied with this;

"Yes, he's a crook. Too bad he's already got the bass. Please don't buy it off him"

Original ad - https://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/Yamaha-BB1024-Bass-Guitar-P-J-pickups-in-Caramel-Brown-immaculate/322893660632?_trksid=p2504926.m5232.l9681

The crooks ad - https://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/Yamaha-BB1024-Bass-Guitar-P-J-pickups-in-Caramel-Brown/282740010684?_trksid=p2504926.m5232.l9681

Edited November 25, 2017 by Westenra

[Muppet]

Can't work out what's wrong here? The guy bought the bass at the lower price, legitimately and is now trying to sell it at a higher price, again, legitimately. It remains to be seen if anyone will buy it at the higher price.  Why's he a crook? 

[nilebodgers]

Yes, what is wrong?

Looks like a smart buyer making a legitimate profit on the face of it.

 

[Dan Dare]

36 minutes ago, nilebodgers said:

Yes, what is wrong?

Looks like a smart buyer making a legitimate profit on the face of it.

 

Correct. The original seller should have done his homework.

[Westenra]

1 hour ago, Muppet said:

Can't work out what's wrong here? The guy bought the bass at the lower price, legitimately and is now trying to sell it at a higher price, again, legitimately. It remains to be seen if anyone will buy it at the higher price.  Why's he a crook? 

Well first of all it isn't worth £780 and it just comes across as greedy beyond belief. Secondly he uses all the original sellers photos and descriptions, posting the ad several hours after picking it up. It's just all in very bad taste to me. It's people like him that cause the price hikes on other second hand items, I've seen it happen with strymon pedals and now Korg minilogues. He's also taken the opportunity for an actual interested buyer who wanted to actually own the bass away at a reasonable price.

[Muppet]

I guess he spotted a bargain and thought he could make some money, that's all. It happens occasionally on here too! (as does re-using previous descriptions and photos).  If the bass isn't worth what he's asking then chances are no one will buy it. 

I can understand that morally it leave a bad taste in the mouth, especially if you were interested in the bass at the original price, but he's not really done anything wrong.

 

[Thaibass]

If you think that's bad, any serious review of Ebay these days will see Japanese "agents" all listing the same bass sometimes up to 4 times in one day with the price varying from US$50 to $500.   I once ( 15 years ago) enjoyed what was a daily 5 min. reviews of new Ebay bass listings but now there some 400+ new listings each day,  50% come from Japan and most basses have been "thru the Ebay wringer" at least 5 times.  Contact the seller with legit questions and only 1 out of 10 has a vague idea of the question let alone an answer or the ability to Skype a demo.   Buying  a US$4k bass just on the description of an unknown Ebayer.... "sure thang"

  Me thinks these sellers are more likely to be in a call center multi-tasking with refrigerator and white good sales than with than a guitar shop or pvte. seller 

When you consider the global impact that Japanese bass players have had on modern music  - I guess the volume of stuff up for sale only confirms that.

I've  owned and still play many old Matsumuko's,  CIJ US brands - it's a pity their skills in manufacturing good gear does not reflect my current opinion of their place in the Bass community.

Ask Ebay to proved a  new listing for non-Japanese sales (or any form of communication without a patronizing "stuff you" reply) and you will quickly learn what an anally retentive organization it has spiraled down to these days

[Hellzero]

If you find this behaviour a crook act, what about anything you buy each day, like that gasoline you bought for say £100 GBP when the real factory cost all included is £1 GBP... That's called in marketing language : (huge) profit and that's the world we live in.

The only illegal thing in what you describe is the use of pictures and text without permission, that's all.

The rest is simply a guy who have seen a good opportunity to make some quick and easy money.

Don't tell me you never done this as we are all chasing the good deal !

[binky_bass]

I do this on a semi-regular basis with lower end guitars etc. If a seller is happy to sell to me for an agreed price and I go and collect the item and give them cash and then I take the effort to restore/fix/clean up the item and re-sell it and make a profit the that's just business. Literally everything you buy has a profit made on it buy someone somewhere otherwise we'd all work for free and and the economy would collapse in a giant heap! 

The guy should of taken his own pictures and created his own description but other than that, he bought the bass fairly and is entitled to advertise it at what ever price he chooses!

Gotta be on the ball if you want to snap up those rare genuine bargans!

[Paul S]

I would say, with complete lack of sympathy, that your main concern is missing out.  If you had been that bothered, you would have remembered and the bass would have been yours.  Lesson learnt, move on.

[dannybuoy]

'Crook'

[Woodinblack]

Indeed - this is just normal capitalism. The original owner could have tried to sell it at £780, but he didn't. It was his choice.

[PawelG]

I once bought 3 basses for £450. Sold all of them over the next 6 months making around a £1000 profit. I've cleaned them, changed strings, checked, played and that was my bit of fun. Money was good too. I didn't use anybody's photos or description. I guess I'm not a crook then? :-)

By the way - nobody else called the seller, the deal seemed ''too good to be true''.

[Westenra]

3 hours ago, Paul S said:

I would say, with complete lack of sympathy, that your main concern is missing out.  If you had been that bothered, you would have remembered and the bass would have been yours.  Lesson learnt, move on.

 Not loosing sleep over it, just had to get on my hands and knees and look for my eyes after they rolled out of my head after seeing the second listing. I'm all for making a profit, but things like this grind my gears as it sets precedent. If someone was to list the same thing they would look at similar listings and set a price reflecting of that, now if the prices they see are hugely inflated theirs will be too. Then if a buyer decides to sell the item on they wouldn't want to loose any money on it so they'd ask the same price if not more. It just makes the whole second hand business infuriating for buyers when prices fluctuate more than bitcoin.  

[dannybuoy]

But ultimately, especially on the second hand market, buyers set the prices, not the sellers. Nobody will actually buy that used Yamaha for £780. He'll keep relisting it at lower prices until it sells, probably around the 400-450 mark (which the original seller could have got had he put it up as a buy it now item).

[Roger2611]

50 minutes ago, Westenra said:

 Not loosing sleep over it, just had to get on my hands and knees and look for my eyes after they rolled out of my head after seeing the second listing. I'm all for making a profit, but things like this grind my gears as it sets precedent. If someone was to list the same thing they would look at similar listings and set a price reflecting of that, now if the prices they see are hugely inflated theirs will be too. Then if a buyer decides to sell the item on they wouldn't want to loose any money on it so they'd ask the same price if not more. It just makes the whole second hand business infuriating for buyers when prices fluctuate more than bitcoin.  

I doubt he will find any takers at his new inflated price so he will end up selling it for less or just sitting on it, I have just brought a 1024X via Ebay, the seller listed it for too much money the first time around so I ignored it, he relisted it again least week at a far more sensible price, I bit the max I would pay and won the bass. From my research the £350.00 original asking price was a bit of a bargain (about £100 light?) the new sellers asking price is above what you could get a new one for so unless someone is desperate for one in this colour he will not get any interest......however, using someone elses images without their permission is unacceptable and, I believe is against Ebay policy

[grandad]

I've done a similar thing many a few times. 

I buy a bass at a keen price. I clean it up, oil the fingerboard, tighten all the screws, set it up with new strings, and noodle it for awhile, then eventually sell it on at a modest loss. It's easy.

[Geek99]

I had one @ £80 where I literally fixed the earth wire and sold it on for more (£130). Gave my partner the money to treat herself to something. Seller happy, buyer happy, partner happy. 

Yes he should have asked to re-use the photos in an ideal world but that’s life

Edited November 26, 2017 by Geek99

[Westenra]

45 minutes ago, Roger2611 said:

however, using someone elses images without their permission is unacceptable and, I believe is against Ebay policy

Using the original description is the bit that hit a nerve with me, the original seller did mods to it and the new seller claimed them as his own. Working in a bulding profession I'm all too familiar with people taking credit for my work and it rubs me the wrong way.

I've got nothing against people that buy stuff cheap, work on it and then sell it on for profit (done this myself), but when someone takes credit for someone else's it hits that nerve.

Anyways, the ad has now gone!

[karlfer]

If photos are in the "public domain" and not copy righted???   is it actually illegal?

How would that be policed?

 

[kingforaday]

oh dear, I do this all the time... and every time I dread the thought of looking in here and seeing that someone is slating me for it...

then I go back to counting all my cash and the feeling goes away 

[fleabag]

On 25/11/2017 at 22:00, Westenra said:

Well first of all it isn't worth £780 and it just comes across as greedy beyond belief.

. It's people like him that cause the price hikes on other second hand items,

 

Its worth £780 if someone is fool enough to pay

No it isn't people like him that hike prices. Its the people who blindly pay up who set second hand values

[tauzero]

On 26/11/2017 at 15:51, karlfer said:

If photos are in the "public domain" and not copy righted???   is it actually illegal?

How would that be policed?

 

If somebody's taken a photograph, they've created an original work of art which is automatically copyrighted. Just using those pictures on an auction doesn't mean the original photographer has surrendered his copyright, in the same way as just because you hear a record on the radio, the writer hasn't surrendered his copyright to it.

PS. And this is why the OP should start using a sniping tool...

Edited November 27, 2017 by tauzero

[Hellzero]

15 hours ago, fleabag said:

Its worth £780 if someone is fool enough to pay

No it isn't people like him that hike prices. Its the people who blindly pay up who set second hand values

Right, Slim Face!

One of my uncles who was selling second hand cars sometimes at delirious prices always told when I said he won't sell it because it was too high : "There's an idiot waking up every day, all you have to do is just wait".

And you know what, he was right, just f*cking right !

Edited November 28, 2017 by Hellzero

[lemmywinks]

On 25/11/2017 at 19:53, Westenra said:

On the off chance he hadn't actually posted the bass yet I replied back asking that I'd actually buy it off him and pick it up this weekend, sadly the buyer had already picked it up

So you tried to sabotage someone else's eBay purchase to snag it for yourself?

Wow.