The ebay rant.

[starfire700]

It sucks having to weed-out the scammers.

[Terry]

This guy is listing items that sold 4-6 months ago and triying to get buyers to do the deal off ebay.

I bid $10K on each of the trains listed below just to mess with them.

This is the Macy set I sold last fall:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/204213824268

A dark green 9 in poor shape:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/204213824224

And a hudson note different backgrounds in photos:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/195555707014

Here's the seller feedback:

https://www.ebay.com/fdbk/feedback_profile/onestopbuys?filter=feedback_page%3ARECEIVED_AS_SELLER&_trksid=p2047675.m3561.l2560

[starfire700]

I tried the links. All but the feedback link brings up an Ebay error page. Is he no longer a member???

[early0electric]

Is this the guy showing an auction but when you open and go to the pictures he says its only a buy it now? I looked at his other auctions and it was construction equipment. How did he get 4000+ feedback operating like that?

[Terry]

It looks like ebay has scraped off the scammers listings and left the seller's account. I saw this same thing about a month ago, but ebay removed the whole account.

This was a real common scam back when ebay started. List an item you don't own using pictures from other ebay items and then keep the money. There was an IVES 1694 transition set that was listed over and over again.

Next time I'll grab some screen caps.

[Terry]

I had a bunch of AF O gauge steam locos end last night. The little 0-4-0 and 2-4-2. They went cheap. One buyer sent me a message saying ebay was down and he couldn't get his snipes in. I know I lost money on a few of them, but overall I made a little money.

These weigh just over 2 pounds each when packed. The Priority mail regional A boxes are the cheapest way to ship them. Anything over 2 pounds that will fit in the regional A box  is always cheaper.

Actually I should say WAS always cheaper. The post office is discontinuing the Regional Boxes next week on the 22nd.  But ebay in their wisdom removed them as an option so they were not availible last night.

So I ended up loosing another $10-15 on shipping.

On a good note - I bought a DYMO thermal label printer. My 12-year old Brother died a while back and the Xerox I bought for color printing is Frustrating GARBAGE. The Dymo took 30 minutes to hook up, but
will pay for itself in 4-5 months based on a savings of about 18 cents per label.

[early0electric]

Terry, YOW! When I first read your post I thought how sad your 12 year old Brother died and then I wondered what that had to do with Xerox. Then I realized the 12 year old Brother was a print machine!

[Terry]

I had two brothers that have died. I still have a sister and a dog. Both are doing OK, but have issues due their ages.

I had two of the Brother printers - both lasted over 10 years and 1,000 of pages printed. This recent one the drum wore out - that's at least 80K pages, and when I put the replacement in the plastic insides broke. I paid $50 for the replacement drum, and threw the printer out when I couldn't install it. The last one also got a new power supply a few years ago because the fan became noisy and bothered me.

[early0electric]

I also have 2 brothers that have passed away and a sister with health issues...

[Terry]

Here's the scammer that I mentioned a few months back again. I did a video of his listings. They are the same as the last time around. He hacks or steals someone's ebay account and lists a bunch of items with instructions tyo email him to buy it now.

[early0electric]

Terry, I see all that train stuff was taken down. No more 55,000 items, now 21. Still a couple of outrageous items... Forklift and Boom Truck!

[Terry]

The scammers come and go. What's important is recognizing the threat.

There was a guy years ago in Henderson Nevada who sent an ad in to the TTOS exchange. He pocketed tens of thousands of dollars by advertising somewhat desirable trains at good prices. The stuff wasn't cheap, just really attractivly priced.  Lots of people sent checks.

Here's something I saw today:

 

I knew the box felt smaller. I think the medium flat rate got smaller too, but I don't have any older ones.

[starfire700]

How does that scam work for the hacker with all the Ebay "protections and rules"? A buyer would be protected if he paid for an item then never got it. The hacker might get away with it once, then ebay would shut them down. Maybe I am mis-understanding this, but I don't see how it can be successful for the hacker.

[starfire700]

If I had saved empty packages from everything we buy at Walmart, it would show that everything is getting smaller but more expensive.....shrink-flation.

[Terry]

Jim - the ebay scammer is asking people to contact him directly. Then he gets payment directly from buyers who are chasing the "too good to be true deal."

They create a sense of urgency and then try to get gift cards. Gift cards as good as cash.

It sounds weird, but ~Name Removed~ called me last year because the electric utility had called her and wanted her to get them a Walmart gift card to pay her balance due. She was calling me from Walmart because they wouldn't sell her a gift card when she explained what it was for.

To make this point even harder, she pays the utility 1/12 of her expected annual bill each month automatically from her bank account. Then once a year they reconcile the payments and figure the next year's payments.

With e-gift cards you get a code number that is valid, you need nothing but the number to use them. I get Home Depot gift cards from the coin machine at the grocery store. The machine charges 10% to cash in coins, but issues gift cards for no fee. The first thing I do is take a picture of the number so I don't lose it.

I had a collect call today from someone in jail looking for bail money. I didn't recognize the name so I just hung up. THis was a common scam a few years back.