I almost pulled the trigger with a “Buy It Now” on this HP-35. Below the series of three photos is an additional, added, photo of what appears to be a red dot. A comment below the three photos, “PLEASE DISREGARD PICTURE ON BOTTOM OF PAGE” is easily overlooked. A mistake in listing or an interesting way of sucking a buyer in with “Buy It Now”? http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3034043964&category=11713
eBay Auction - Read The Fine Print
|
|
« Next Oldest | Next Newest »
|
▼
07-05-2003, 10:19 AM
▼
07-05-2003, 03:22 PM
I see that this auction allows payment via PayPal which offers a "buyer's insurance". To use this you pay PayPal a fee and if you do not like your item you can get the money you paid for the item back. I have not used this feature yet, but it looks a neat way to ensure that you do not get saddled with some mangled piece of hardware that was described as "in mint condition" on the auction page. Note that this insurance does not protect you against items lost or damaged in transit. If anybody has additional info/experiences with this feature, please write on. **vp
07-05-2003, 06:59 PM
Look... some facts. I suspect this was deliberate. He "added" the photo, using "add to description". If he wanted to change the photo, he could have just deleted it, instead of saying, "disregard bottom photo." You can edit and delete all you want, until someone bids. Now, if someone bid, preventing him from deleting the photo, he THEN would not have been able to change the original auction description. But he had that "disclaimer" in the original description. He could not have added the disclaimer, had someone already bid. So, it appears that he 1) had the disclaimer before he added the photo OR 2) he just added the disclaimer and left the photo in. Finally, you can check his feedback. He has more than 50 less than positive, including 27 negatives. I'm finding that there are more and more that are simply using deceptive selling tactics on eBay trying to leverage off of the higher value calculators that collectors sell.
He wound up selling a $50 for $150. I suspect that if you go back and read all his feedback, you will find other negatives because of deception. Edited: 5 July 2003, 7:00 p.m. ▼
07-06-2003, 01:48 AM
Mike wrote on 5 July 2003: Come on Mike, the guy has almost 3800 positive comments from unique eBay users. I'd think that it would be suspicious if he didn't have these negative ratings. **vp
07-06-2003, 11:37 PM
It certainly did look suspicious, especially after I used the "Buy it now" button and THEN noticed the disclaimer text! The seller was very accomodating, refused my transaction, and re-listed the calculator noting that it wasn't a red dot. I feel foolish for making this newbie mistake, though.
07-06-2003, 11:12 AM
Well, it appears that the buyer didn't complete the transaction. That HP-35 is back, photos and all, including the one with the serial number. But no red dot photo or disclaimer, and no mention of the last auction in either feedback.
▼
07-07-2003, 04:19 AM
However, the description says:
>In excellent working condition. THIS IS NOT RED DOT MODEL
So the sentence in capitals is ok. I once got a *mint* HP-35 (no red dot) in trade for a new TI35X, which cost about 35 DM (Deutsche Mark) at that time. That was fate:-)
07-08-2003, 05:04 AM
A red dot simply could not have a S/N starting with 12...
07-09-2003, 08:37 PM
Is that really an HP AC adapter? I've never seen an HP adapter built like that - it looks like a TI adapter to me. Did HP ship adapters that looked like that one? |