I'm done with this quest. In about fifteen minutes I accumulated >15 more bike scams. I copied the addresses to put them here and at the end I was just reviewing my work. All but seven have already been pulled down. Here are the remaining seven scam auctions:
All the others were from ACTIVE accounts with legitimate auctions running. I'm guessing A**tream auctions are just someone's attempt a branching out. How many times do they have to trick someone out of $5K to make 100 listings that get killed without results a worthwhile venture?
I'm done hunting, but be careful out there!!
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It's a scam! All the classic signs. 3 day aution, buy it now, ebay mail goes to junk mail, listed in some strange area (home and garden > pet supplies > horses) and a generic (hotmail) email acount. I sent a notice to ebay. The only thing this one did not have is free shipping. I wonder what it costs to ship a bambi from Nigeria?
There was an article in our Sunday Milwaukee Journal Sentinel concerning a law suit that Tiffany has filed against eBay. Tiffany maintains that eBay is encouraging fraud by not policing the articles it allows to be sold. They stated that three out of four items that they purchased which were reported to be Tiffany were not. eBay claims they are simply the agent and never handle the merchandise nor have any expertise in the fields.
I used to sell religious collectibles and collectible Bible and prayer books on eBay but stopped due to the large amount of fraud. There is virtually no protection for the seller nor the buyer. There is also a lot of junk being sold and falsely advertised which eBay does nothing about. They get their fees regardless of how the item is represented. According to this article about Tiffany it could shut down eBay if Tiffany would win.
I don't see how you could expect eBay to police the authenticity of it's auctions. It's buyer beware, just like buying something from the classifieds. Ebay, is just the method to get you in touch with the seller. It's up to you to determine if you want to buy from them.
Restoring my 74 Mustang would be almost impossible without eBay. But I still have to be very careful who I buy from and the quality of the parts I'm getting. But sellers who sell crap end up with feedback that indicates that, and their reputation preceeds them on the mustang forums.
Of course, it's all a completely different issue than the con men who are outright stealing by using other people's accounts and selling things they don't even have.
"They should be liable for losses via their conduit to "business". They should be ashamed that they can't screen and stop blatent scams .... or do more to enforce payment on auctions that they facilitate. They certainly have enough in profits to cover any losses that they are a party to. Any live auctioneer that allowed such crap would be out of business quickly."
There are plenty of other internet based "vehicles" to get parts for vehicles.
Our own little forum here alows us to purchase things from each other without fees. Steph .. you have mentioned in the past Mustang forums that I'm sure you have been able to get parts from.
With the proliferation of the internet and specialiy groups and Blogs.... in time we will be able to get select items from people with similar interests with confidence.
Ebay should shape up or ship themselves out ... to Nigeria!!
Unfortunately for the less popular cars, eBay is still the best way to find parts. It would be nice if the mustang forums gathered enough interest to be sufficient to provide everyone on the forum with the parts they need, but it just isn't. Perhaps many mustang people just aren't as forum-savvy as Airstreamers are! Mustang specialty stores only cover classics and late models, leaving the 74-78 group hanging. Until that changes, eBay is pretty much the only way to find parts for these cars, and even then I have things on my want list I'm still watching for. At this point I'd have to say without eBay I don't know when I would get the car done. With eBay, it will probably be finished this summer.
Lets face it, it's a good resource, but it's buyer beware.
I have the same issue with my vintage Yamaha RD motorcycle. Ebay has been the best source for NOS parts. There are RD forums but they are only for people that know what RD's are .... Not the guys that happen to buyout a warehouse of vintage bike parts, want to sell them ... and have little idea of what they are or their value.
I have the same issue with my vintage Yamaha RD motorcycle. Ebay has been the best source for NOS parts. There are RD forums but they are only for people that know what RD's are .... Not the guys that happen to buyout a warehouse of vintage bike parts, want to sell them ... and have little idea of what they are or their value.
D
Wouldn't happen to be a RD400 Laguna Seca would it one of my favorites, right next to my 72 Honda 350/4. Unfortunately I longer own either of those bikes.
Aaron
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Its a 1976 RD200C with 2100 miles on the clock ... former California bike ...
Restored to mint ... cherry ... concourse, of course. Fast little giant killer!!
I think any kind of scammer is basically playing a numbers game. With ebay the number of lookers are so high that it provides a place for scammers to look for "pigeons". There has and always will be fraud aimed at greed. If it looks to good to be true it might not be true. Remember all of the pyramid scams where you could get rich off of a couple of bucks investment?
Our AS came from the classifieds on this forum. I sent a deposit to an unknown party for something I had seen a picture of on the internet. It turned out to be a great deal for us. I did send the deposit with the self knowledge that there was a possibility I would lose it. I researched as much as possible and asked pertinent questions. If the deal had gone bad it would not have been the fault of the advertising media used.
I do agree that ebay should and could police their ads better. They are a huge money machine that could afford to check ads previous to posting. The AS posts that these forum members have reported and had shut down are blatantly fraudulent. With as few AS ads that come up on ebay per day they could and should at least check those keywords before posting.
There's other stuff that is blatently fraudulent that they let slide. Look at DVD collections sometime. When I was looking for an X Files DVD season set I found most listings were for copys from overseas. You can pay $80 for one season of real DVDs, or $80 for the whole nine year set - but they're copys. Even the feedback on the sellers say that the DVD are cheap copys with computer printed labels slapped on them, some even with chinese subtitles- what a deal. I'm amazed that the media giants who are sueing people for downloading movies aren't going after eBay for giving actual pirates an easy way to sell their product.
I saw this too - no plumbing it seems and lots of couches! For an office, it makes sense. Too bad its can't stay on top of some mountain and be an oxygen bar - i could use one when I'm on top!
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one of my favorites, right next to my 72 Honda 350/4. Unfortunately I longer own either of those bikes.
Fast little giant killer!! 
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