I just posted this over at mu-43, but thought I'd share over here too .. it made me smile ... in a wry sort of way
Idly surfing around eBay this morning, I came across a used, boxed Summicron 35/2 + all original accessories with a starting bid of £0.01 and located in the UK ... hmmm I thought this looks a bit too good to be true ... then I noticed it was a 24-hour auction ... hmmmm again ...
checked the account history ... all +ve but oddly also all in the USA, all in $ transactions and almost all domestic items (it looked sweet actually, there was a pregnancy testing kit bought in May last year and then increasing purchases of baby stuff since) ...
anyway, I thought I'd have a look at the other items for sale ... almost every single one (nearly a hundred of them) was a high-value electrical or electronic item or a bike or bike accessories, all listed with a £0.01 starting price and all on a 24-hour auction ... yes, funnily enough, all the sorts of things you could break into a house or a car or a garage and take easily ...
so I whacked in a bid on the Summicron of 6p
smile, and sent an email to the vendor asking for serial number and why, if the goods were in Leeds, was the account in the USA?
Astoundingly I did not get a reply, but I did get an email from eBay within about 10 minutes of my bid & question telling me the bid had been cancelled and all the items for sale removed ... I reckon had they set BIN prices they might have got away with this hijack ...
So, the moral, as ever, is: If it's too good to be true ...
Idly surfing around eBay this morning, I came across a used, boxed Summicron 35/2 + all original accessories with a starting bid of £0.01 and located in the UK ... hmmm I thought this looks a bit too good to be true ... then I noticed it was a 24-hour auction ... hmmmm again ...
checked the account history ... all +ve but oddly also all in the USA, all in $ transactions and almost all domestic items (it looked sweet actually, there was a pregnancy testing kit bought in May last year and then increasing purchases of baby stuff since) ...
anyway, I thought I'd have a look at the other items for sale ... almost every single one (nearly a hundred of them) was a high-value electrical or electronic item or a bike or bike accessories, all listed with a £0.01 starting price and all on a 24-hour auction ... yes, funnily enough, all the sorts of things you could break into a house or a car or a garage and take easily ...
so I whacked in a bid on the Summicron of 6p
smile, and sent an email to the vendor asking for serial number and why, if the goods were in Leeds, was the account in the USA?Astoundingly I did not get a reply, but I did get an email from eBay within about 10 minutes of my bid & question telling me the bid had been cancelled and all the items for sale removed ... I reckon had they set BIN prices they might have got away with this hijack ...
So, the moral, as ever, is: If it's too good to be true ...
