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Joined: June 2006 Posts: 7307
Location: South of most, North of few | Many of you may remember the mystery man with 0 feedback, garonemartin, who seems to keep poping up and driving bids up on Ovations. You may also remember that I was bidding on an Adamas II 12 string when this guy showed up and started bidding. I bid one more time before the close, and then retracted my bid, leaving him as the high bidder when the auction closed. This was on Nov 4th, so I kept the auction in my "not won" section. Yesterday, I sent an email to the seller asking if he still had the guitar, as I still see no feedback for this guy. Just got an email back, stating that he (the seller) still had it and couldn't seem to contact the buyer, who still hasn't paid. Now he says he will sell it to me, no mention of price. Now my question is, don't you think this guy (garonemartin) should have gathered some neg feedback by now, or is this some kind of scam? Whats your take on it? |
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Joined: February 2004 Posts: 2487
| You do not have as much protection if it is not an Ebay auction. Paypal has some options for you. It seems to me the bidder you mention is the same person as the seller. In my mind this guy can't run a fair auction so that means he must not be a fair or honest person. I do not deal with people like this if there is the slightest doubt.
Perhaps there is an OFC member who can pick this guitar up for you and mail it off?? Of course you'd have to trust an Ovation Fan to not just buy it for themselves! ???
Randy |
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Joined: August 2006 Posts: 2804
Location: ranson,wva | i got a second chance offer of a adamas II last night for $750.00....i had the high bid over gonemartin but the reserve wasnt met...seems kinds fishy..jason |
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Joined: April 2006 Posts: 972
Location: PDX | on second chance offers: the number one scam.
Be sure you have the offer in your ebay messages, and reply from there.
_____
gh1 |
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Joined: August 2006 Posts: 2804
Location: ranson,wva | this one was legit,,but the bowl looks like it was set on fire !!!!! lol..im gonna leave it alone..jason |
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Joined: March 2005 Posts: 12755
Location: Boise, Idaho | I'd watch out for that guy. I didn't think he was a sham bidder because he bid on a lot of different guitars, but if he was getting the high bids and not paying, there is something fishy. |
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Joined: July 2002 Posts: 1900
| ..report garonemartin to ebay, maybe they will dump him.. |
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Joined: June 2006 Posts: 7307
Location: South of most, North of few | Supposedly thats what the seller of the 12 Adamas is doing now. We'll see what happens. |
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Joined: February 2004 Posts: 2487
| It happens to be very helpful if more than one person who was bothered by a bidder or a seller emails Ebay at the asme time. You'll see this user name eliminated for godd.
Randy |
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Joined: April 2004 Posts: 13303
Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | Unfortunately we all know to be on the lookout for garonemartin. Once he is deleted he will probably come back as another new nuisance but we won't recognize him for a few months or so. |
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Joined: August 2006 Posts: 3145
Location: Marlton, NJ | Another garonemartin bid:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=019&sspagename=STR... |
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Joined: July 2002 Posts: 1900
| ..and another garonemartin bid: Vintage Adamas II
ebayitem# 110062918383 |
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Joined: October 2005 Posts: 4044
Location: Utah | I came across a similar kind of bidder a few weeks ago trying to buy an audio recording card for the computer. This guy showed up in numerous auctions and seemed to run up the bid and then bail out as it got close to the historical selling price for those items.
For example, if the usual selling price were about $180, he'd bid up to about $160. I put in a max bid on several items that was a bit shy of the typical selling price. He came along and put in multiple bids under my max, driving it up. Then he'd bail before becoming high bidder.
It's like it was a game to him to see how much he could bid up an item without actually winning it. He was definitely not the seller trying to shill, but it had the same effect. |
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Joined: February 2005 Posts: 11840
Location: closely held secret | No, but he might be a seller trying to drive up the market price overall. |
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Joined: November 2003 Posts: 11039
Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | ...or purchase an item he knows he could resell at a profit, if he won at his high bid.... |
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Joined: February 2005 Posts: 11840
Location: closely held secret | ...except that to date, he hasn't actually bought anything... |
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Joined: November 2003 Posts: 11039
Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | well.... maybe he just really sucks at it. :rolleyes: |
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Joined: September 2006 Posts: 10777
Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | Originally posted by stephent28:
Unfortunately we all know to be on the lookout for garonemartin. Once he is deleted he will probably come back as another new nuisance but we won't recognize him for a few months or so. Better the Devil we know, than the Devil we don't. |
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Joined: June 2006 Posts: 7307
Location: South of most, North of few | I'm thanking God he didn't start bidding at the end of the auction for the UTE and make me pay hundreds more. He did bid on it at the early stages but seemed to drop off after about 3-400$'s. This guy needs to go away, maybe to overstock.com where the rest of the crooks are. |
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Joined: October 2006 Posts: 5575
Location: big island | http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230044325706
here's a foreign eBay page showing garonemartin winning the adamas II 12 string back in early november. (that guitar was recently re-sold on eBay). notice that garonemartin has 1 feedback
curious, huh? |
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Joined: October 2006 Posts: 5575
Location: big island | http://cgi.ebay.com/ovation-adamas-2-12-string_W0QQitemZ23005580211...
here's the more recent sale of the same guitar. |
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Joined: February 2005 Posts: 11840
Location: closely held secret | Interesting that the guitar was sold twice by the same seller, after giving garonemartin a "fast payer" feedback on the first sale. |
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Joined: January 2002 Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | smells like old fish |
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Joined: January 2005 Posts: 4903
Location: Phoenix AZ | Why's the guitar selling so cheap? Looks like a nice one to me.
Dave |
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Joined: October 2005 Posts: 5330
Location: Cicero, NY | Nothing about that entire scenario looks nice to me. |
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Joined: June 2006 Posts: 7307
Location: South of most, North of few | Yup, cod..... |
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Joined: August 2006 Posts: 2804
Location: ranson,wva | i was out bid on this one 2 months ago and recived a legit second chance offer from the seller for $750.00....jason |
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Joined: June 2006 Posts: 7307
Location: South of most, North of few | Originally posted by johnny cash 83:
i was out bid on this one 2 months ago and recived a legit second chance offer from the seller for $750.00....jason That makes two of us, Jason. When I declined, the seller said he was selling it to someone overseas. That guitar probably has more miles on it than my last Hyundai... |
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Joined: November 2005 Posts: 1126
Location: Omaha, NE | I don't understand what game geronemartin could be playing. It looks pretty wierd, but is he just goofing or is there some strategy at play here?
Here is the bid history from the auction on my Adamas a few weeks ago:
[list]
[*]e4bip1 US $1,000.00 (BIN price)
[*]bandit_won US $799.99
[*]velvis15yf US $750.01
[*]velvis15yf US $699.01
[*]bandit_won US $699.00
[*]garonemartin US $599.00
[*]bandit_won US $599.00
[*]yardfisch US $525.00
[*]bandit_won US $500.00
[*]garonemartin US $499.00
[*]o-bay-sales US $333.00
[/list]
garonemartin made two bids, and they both seemed "reasonable". My reserve was $800, so both times he knew (after his bid) that he was short.
I don't understand the subtleties of eBay that well. I don't get what is going on here. |
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Joined: January 2005 Posts: 4903
Location: Phoenix AZ | Omaha, Why does it look to you like garonemartin did anything strange? He bid 499 and didn't hit the reserve. he saw some more people bid so he upped it to 599. Still didn't hit the reserve. 3 other people bid higher and e4bip1 finally won it. garonemartin did nothing strange. bandit_one and velvis15fy did exactly the same thing as garonemartin. I see no proof that he has ever done anything wrong. Dave |
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