Mac fraudulent eBay seller caught!

[moby1]

Article at The Register


Teresa Smith - I bought my first TiBook 500 from her! I bought it off eBay; she promised delivery in 30 days (she had 100+ feedback). I got the PowerBook 6 weeks later after several pleading emails.

The guy who bought a PowerBook 550 from me mentioned that he'd won an auction from Teresa Smith but never got his PowerBook.

She'd told me once in an email that she was raising money for an operation for her dad - I don't know if that's true.

I feel so luck I was one of the one's who got there PowerBook. I did use a credit card so I would've been able to recover the money but still...It's dangerous out there.

 

[The Shadow]

Some people are obviously willing to take more risks than me!

I would never buy any expensive hardware before testing it and having it in my hot little hands before forking out the dosh!

BTW, I bought a 20" TFT studio display the other day from a specialist Apple reseller shop in Sydney. I made the guy take it out of the box and connect it up to a PM on display, set the background to black and low and behold there were 4 blown pixels (or turned off, as they showed up green) in the middle of the screen. I ended up taking the one they had on display - I was willing to pay full price for it as it had no blown pixels.

So there's a long winded moral to your story and mine. Buyer beware!

 

[moby1]

I was lucky - I did save money.

I paid her about $2500 for the PowerBook G4 500. When I received it, there was an invoice from MacMall for $3200 - the price of the G4 500 at that time (July 2001).

I got the 500 just in time to get the promo free SmartDisk external firewire CD-RW drive - which I sold on eBay for $200.

So, I got my first TiBook for a net $2300 but yes, it is risky. I doubt I'd buy a PowerBook off eBay nowadays.

 

[moby1]

and then I bought a 550

I sold that same 500 three months later when I saw a Ti 550 for $1500 on eBay.

When the new 550 arrived three days later, the box had been opened but it was flawless.

I kept the 550 and sold the 500 because the 550's screen looked brighter. Unfortunately the 550's were a bit slower than the 500's and also had noisy fans.

 

[The Shadow]

Gotta be happy with the savings though!

I'm done, chow!

 

[cb911]

there were a few dodgy looking PowerBooks on ebay.com.au a couple of weeks ago... and 867 for way too cheap and i think there was also a new 1GHz model for really cheap as well.

i just kept clear of them & told myself that if it sounds too good to be true then it probably is.