Hello. I starated searching for laptops on eBay, and the following
caught my eye:

http://cgi.ebay.com/BRAND-NEW-Toshib...c mdZViewItem

Starting bid is $200.00 when the computer normally is priced at well
over $2500.
I figure it must be a hoax. So, I looked at all the buyers who gave
the seller good marks. I thought the login name-list looked suspect.
All of them appeared to be foreign and chinese looking. The seller is
also from China.

Is this a hoax?

I've never used eBay, mainly because I'm worried about the quality of
the product I get, and because of scams. But, I really do want a
laptop a 17" laptop at a very cheap price. So, what should I look out
for if I go the eBay route?

Anyways, any thoughts would be great. Thanks.

I was thinking the same thing and asked the same question on the eBay
forum (Australia).

I think you need to be wary when you find brand new items being offered
at ridiculously low prices. But also bear in mind that bidding sometimes
takes the item close to and sometimes well beyond the actual RRP. I have
seen this many times where a bidding war leaves the "winner" paying a
substantially higher price than retail. You'd think a little bit of
homework would be good advice. I was bidding on a "NEW" notebook and
stopped after receiving forum advice at AU$900. It eventually sold for
$2600, slightly over the retail price.

Watch the item without bidding and see where the price goes before you
consider making a bid. If it is anywhere near retail, it might be worth
paying a little extra to a legitimate store owner if only for peace of
mind.

Disclaimer: I have bought a number of items on eBay and the most I have
ever paid is about AU$50.

Peter - playing it cautious.


DaLoverhino wrote:

"DaLoverhino" <DaLoveRhino@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1137459091.313611.72790@g14g2000cwa.googlegro ups.com...

Just because the starting bid is $250 is no indication what the winning
(final) bid will be. The seller has a minimum he (or she) will actually
accept. So you are not going to get a brand new, $2500 laptop for $1000.
Trust me on this one.

Personally, I would only buy from a seller that has a mailing address in the
United States or Canada. I would not buy from anyone overseas. You can
email the seller with questions, so don't be afraid to ask anything.

Check out these sites for coupons that can be used on the Dell website. You
can get some really good deals. And take a look at the Dell Outlet, too.
Take a look at www.couponmountain.com and www.techbargains.com and
www.slickdeals.net.

Moreover, if you look at this seller's feedback, the 13 items for which
he/she derives %100 were all articles of women's clothing, each sold for
a dollar or two. Then all of a sudden, he/she has 4 brand new computers
to sell and no other items. These prices are ridiculous, and with only
15 hours left have attracted only a hand full of bids.

It's all a bit worrying.

Peter -

Pete wrote:

"DaLoverhino" <DaLoveRhino@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1137459091.313611.72790@g14g2000cwa.googlegro ups.com...
It's a scam. The seller has never had computers for sale before and now has
four one-day auction brand new laptops? Plus the bidders for the most part
have little or no track record - just hoping to bid some gullible soul up to
swindle him or her out of the maximum amount of money. Another big clue is
that the seller won't accept anything but wire transfers. If the seller
won't accept a credit card or paypal, then forget about it. I both buy and
sell on eBay but am very careful about the potential for fraud and this one
just SCREAMS fraud. The old saying holds: if it sounds too good to be true
it probably is.

Why won't the seller accept anything but wire transfers? Meaning, what
makes it more of a scam if someone uses a wire transfer? Won't the
seller run away with your money regardless of what payment method you
use?

DaLoverhino <DaLoveRhino@hotmail.com> wrote:
Ask your credit card company what good they are!

Peter

DaLoverhino wrote:
Starting bid is meaningless. I start most of my auctions - on
everything from cars to laptops - very low to encourage early bidding.

However this particular seller doesn't have enough feedback for me to
be comfortable making a purchase of this magnitude.

DaLoverhino wrote:
No, it's totally different. With a credit card you can have the charge
backed out and get your money back. Having to wire money overseas is
the #1 sure sign of a ripoff.

timeOday wrote:
That's the reason. Never buy anything on ebay unless you can buy with a
credit card. There certainly are honest sellers on ebay: they can be
recognized by the fact they use a payment mode that protects the buyers.
Stay away of all others and save your money for lottery tickets, your
odds of winning are higher!

--
John Doue

E-bay is an ok place to buy laptops if you know what you are doing, but
it's best for older, used laptops.

However, I would not touch the auction that you quoted with a 10-foot
pole for a number of reasons.

And the starting bid is not a valid measure of anything anyway.

Only buy from sellers who have ratings up in the 100's with high
positive feedbacks (certainly 97% or higher), and who have been on E-Bay
for years, and who are in the US.

While that auction could be legit, there are enough flags there for me
to avoid it (low feedback total (even if 100%), and seller is in China).


DaLoverhino wrote:

Kevin wrote:

I agree that if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is. However
just as a correction this particual sell does not appear to have a
reserve price.

Barry Watzman wrote:

Barry,

Ratings have a very relative value since perfect ratings can be
"fabricated" fairly easily from what I understand, as well as a high
feedback numbers. The only meaningful protection is the one you get
using, first common sense as you described and above all, a credit card.
Otherwise, it remains a gamble.

--
John Doue

"DaLoverhino" <DaLoveRhino@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1137506665.562954.136700@g47g2000cwa.googlegr oups.com...
It's more of a question of the seller not wanting to set up to use credit
cards because it would prevent him from retaining some degree of anonymity.
Ebay says that wire transfers make it far more difficult to recover money in
the event of fraud and the worst types of payment are instant wire cash
transfers such as Western Union offers and of course, cash.

"coorslte" <coorslte@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:h%8zf.292$7N6.238@newssvr31.news.prodigy.com. ..
That is true. For a legitimate auction of a laptop like this, most sellers
would either start with a low initial price but set a high reserve price or
start at a much higher opening price. The fact that this guy started at a
low price with no reserve almost certainly means he never had any intention
of delivering a laptop. He was simply going to take the money even if only a
few hundred dollars and disappear. BTW, the listing was removed without
being sold.

So pretty much, your sentiments about eBay when it comes to buying
expensive electronics is to avoid it, yes? Which is what I normally
do, but I just couldn't resist checking out he bid, since I've
salivated over this flashy laptop in BestBuy for over 10 times the
starting bid price.

A perfect (or even just 97%+) rating in the hundreds or thousands over a
period of 5 or more years cannot be fabricated with reasonable ease. In
this instance, yes, the rating was 100%, but it was based on under 15
auctions, and the seller was in China. That is enough information to
warn a wise buyer. And there is no reasonable way to fabricate a
years-long, hundreds of auctions record.


John Doue wrote:

No, I would not go that far.

If you deal with a seller who's been on E-Bay for years, with a 97% or
higher rating, over hundreds of transactions (over a period of years
..... not just the membership, but the transaction history), selling the
same kinds of items, and he takes Pay-Pal, and he's in the USA, then
it's probably ok.

But dealing with a seller in China who doesn't take Pay-Pal or Credit
Cards, and whose rating, even if 100%, is based only only a dozen or two
auctions .... then, avoid any transactions over $200.

[E-Bay has fraud insurance for transactions of $200 and less, so even if
you get defrauded, you get all but $25 back.]


DaLoverhino wrote:

DaLoverhino wrote:
purchased from in the past.

"Barry Watzman" <WatzmanNOSPAM@neo.rr.com> wrote in message
news:43CD7309.6020806@neo.rr.com...
the notion that you are going to get a brand new laptop for a small fraction
of its fair market value is ridiculous. You can find just about anything for
sale there and you can often get a decent deal but the possibility that you
could get a new Toshiba laptop for 1/10 its value is as realistic as
expecting the $50 watch you bought from a street vendor in some third world
country to be a genuine Rolex.