G5 on Ebay

[amnesiac1984]

Hi all,

I've been looking at some G5's that are appearing on UK ebay site. Sometimes they appear to be a pretty sweet deal (I mean seriously sweet).

These deals seem have a bidder's approval list which means you have to email the seller to be put on it! Thing is when I email them, instead of putting me on the list they offer to sell it to me out of ebay and are keen to close the deal. I'm talking £1200 for a dual 2gig G5 AND a 23" Cinema display.

Some of these even have square trade on their listings.

Basically, is there a way to make sure this is good? I mean are some payment methods safe and others not? I know about western union and at least one of the sellers wanted me to pay western union and when i suggested something else (using the excuse that i wanted to do it online and not go to a bank) she stopped replying to the emails.

anyway, what are the tips for making sure ebayers are for real? How do I avoid scams?

P.S I know I'm only doing this in the distant hope that somebody will tell me its all elgit and i should go for it, cos man this is such a sweet deal, I would end up making a profit by selling my current g4!

 

[agreenster]

Absolute scam. Run away. There are more than a few threads about this here at Macrumors.

 

[jxyama]

if it's anywhere near "too sweet to be true," it's a scam.

if it has some sort of "approval list," it's usually a scam.

apple doesn't allow retailers to offer discounted prices. unless purchased under a special circumstances (edu/gov discount, employee discount, developer discount, etc.), if you see a price significantly below the apple's official price, that seller is more than likely eating the difference in prices him/herself.

why would anyone do that?

western union: you might as well stuff cash in an envelope and send it via mail.

 

[strider42]

one golden rule, if it seems too good to be true, it is.

The cinema display costs how much? 1600 pounds according to the apple UK store. the dual 2.0 G5 costs 2300 pounds. thats a total of nearly 4000 pounds and this guy is selling them 1200. Its a scam or they don't work, or they are stolen.

 

[amnesiac1984]

I figured as much becausae of the two I've done so far they have not replied when I mention an alternative payment method.

They both had yahoo or msn email addresses too so that is a bit sketchy.

Is there any way to get ebay to ban these people or do I actually have to be scammed for them to do anything?

here is the first ones feedback page, they are all really cheap items bought by people who only by and sell obscure cheap items and very often. Is this an example of a faked feedback?

the other one is strangely similar, here:

http://cgi2.ebay.co.uk/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback&userid=suehavinden76


I have their email addresses too, but I doubt that'll help

 

[gemio17]

I tried to do the same thing for a powerbook-then the guy started constantly e-mailing me and trying to get me to buy from him off the site-he had all sorts of crazy offers and payment schemes- it's not worth dealing with those scammers....STAY AWAY!!

 

[amnesiac1984]

You only have to do a little research and you discover that these obviously fraudulent listings are coming at the frequency of two or three a week.

Is there nothing you can do to tell ebay about obviously fraudulent members?