I saw this powerbook for sale on ebay. It was a 15" g4 1.5 ghz 80 gb hard drive and 512 mb of ram. Although it was used I found it too cheap. It was only $255 current bid with one day left. The shipping was $50 and he only accepted paypal. I didn't see much suspicious except the price. There was a real picture and he had 12 good feedback 100%. Is the for real?
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Is this powerbook legit?
- Thread starter vipervette510
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if it sounds fishy, you should probably trust your instinct and not do it. why would someone sell such a nice machine for so little money? was it stolen or is it just a plain scam? think about how much a machine you're looking at is worth market price and give yourself a +/- range of reasonability. 255 is not reasonable.
i've looked at a lot of stuff on amazon (i know yours is on ebay) where people have feedback 99.7% with more than 2000 transactions but it was still a scam (because they wanted me to pay them directly instead of through amazon and because i googled the buyers name and found many people who were screwed by him/her).
i've looked at a lot of stuff on amazon (i know yours is on ebay) where people have feedback 99.7% with more than 2000 transactions but it was still a scam (because they wanted me to pay them directly instead of through amazon and because i googled the buyers name and found many people who were screwed by him/her).
A lot can happen in one day. It will probably soar up.
Anyway, are you saying the buyer started the bidding at $225, or that's what people have bid up to? If they started it at that, it's not really their fault if no one bid. Perhaps a link to the auction would help so we can see if it looks scam-ish.
Anyway, are you saying the buyer started the bidding at $225, or that's what people have bid up to? If they started it at that, it's not really their fault if no one bid. Perhaps a link to the auction would help so we can see if it looks scam-ish.
I wouldn't really buy a 15" 1.67 used though.. especially in light that the improved screen will really improve your computing experience.
Why not try a refurb if you are really hard up? I've had some experience selling some old laptops in the past before, and after all those ebays from various Italian/India/Nigerian/you name it buyers... I'm convinced that ebay is really not a safe place to buy high ticket items.
Just think of it like this, if you get burned this once, it will completely wipe out any savings you might get 10x over. Definitely not worth the risk.
Why not try a refurb if you are really hard up? I've had some experience selling some old laptops in the past before, and after all those ebays from various Italian/India/Nigerian/you name it buyers... I'm convinced that ebay is really not a safe place to buy high ticket items.
Just think of it like this, if you get burned this once, it will completely wipe out any savings you might get 10x over. Definitely not worth the risk.
We need the link to give any kind of educated guess. As ITASOR said, if it is an auction, the final price will vary on the bidding. However, it takes a brave seller to put an expensive machine up with a low starting bid and no reserve --- or a fraudster.
Here is my fraud checklist any three of the below, probably you don't want to take the chance, 6 or more, call the cops:
- Preapproved bidders only (so they can harvest emails and sell to multiple suckers off-ebay),
- Selling "New", high end product,
- No reserve or "Buy it now" far below wholesale value on high end product,
- Non-recoverable payment methods only (wire transfer, Western Union, certified cheque or money order),
- Individual selling multiple "new" products,
- No feedback history of selling this type of product, or long gap between the last feedback and the sudden appearance of expensive new items for sale (hijacked acct),
- Zero-feedback, cloaked or new account,
- No personal info, Copy and paste graphics and text (as in the only details were copied from Apple's site),
- Missing or absurd location,
- Free shipping and/or shipping from overseas (typical of "offshore supplier/Western Union" type scams)
- Country of location doesn't match account registration country of seller,
- Selling new product only available from authorized dealers,
- Short auction (to sell before EBay responds to complaints),
- Solicits direct contact by email outside of eBay (anonymous, throwaway email account),
- Says not to use the eBay "ask Seller a Question" link because of some problem (sure sign of a hijacked account),
- Clone of another auction from a different seller (same text, graphics and/or offer)
- Seller refuses local pickup offer, or refuses payment by a secure method like escrow, or suggests a non-mainstream escrow service.
- Seller approaches buyers with the offer of additional items ("you didn't win but I have more just like that one")
- Shipping is promised after a delay of some weeks (often the excuse is so the seller can make a bulk order from the manufacturer).
- Any delays that cause the buyer to wait until the complaint/refund period from PayPal and eBay have expired.
Here is my fraud checklist any three of the below, probably you don't want to take the chance, 6 or more, call the cops:
- Preapproved bidders only (so they can harvest emails and sell to multiple suckers off-ebay),
- Selling "New", high end product,
- No reserve or "Buy it now" far below wholesale value on high end product,
- Non-recoverable payment methods only (wire transfer, Western Union, certified cheque or money order),
- Individual selling multiple "new" products,
- No feedback history of selling this type of product, or long gap between the last feedback and the sudden appearance of expensive new items for sale (hijacked acct),
- Zero-feedback, cloaked or new account,
- No personal info, Copy and paste graphics and text (as in the only details were copied from Apple's site),
- Missing or absurd location,
- Free shipping and/or shipping from overseas (typical of "offshore supplier/Western Union" type scams)
- Country of location doesn't match account registration country of seller,
- Selling new product only available from authorized dealers,
- Short auction (to sell before EBay responds to complaints),
- Solicits direct contact by email outside of eBay (anonymous, throwaway email account),
- Says not to use the eBay "ask Seller a Question" link because of some problem (sure sign of a hijacked account),
- Clone of another auction from a different seller (same text, graphics and/or offer)
- Seller refuses local pickup offer, or refuses payment by a secure method like escrow, or suggests a non-mainstream escrow service.
- Seller approaches buyers with the offer of additional items ("you didn't win but I have more just like that one")
- Shipping is promised after a delay of some weeks (often the excuse is so the seller can make a bulk order from the manufacturer).
- Any delays that cause the buyer to wait until the complaint/refund period from PayPal and eBay have expired.
Heres the link
http://cgi.ebay.com/Powerbook-15-1-...823367559QQcategoryZ14909QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem. He does say I can contact him and in fact, I got an email back from him. There isn't free shipping and he takes paypal which is secure.
What about this on also, http://cgi.ebay.com/Apple-Powerbook...823963431QQcategoryZ14909QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.com/Powerbook-15-1-...823367559QQcategoryZ14909QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem. He does say I can contact him and in fact, I got an email back from him. There isn't free shipping and he takes paypal which is secure.
What about this on also, http://cgi.ebay.com/Apple-Powerbook...823963431QQcategoryZ14909QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem