Klarinet Archive - Posting 000735.txt from 2004/03
From: "Lelia Loban" <lelialoban@------.net>
Subj: [kl] Don't go to e-by, go here; was, EBay Dealer - ripoff?
Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2004 16:01:29 -0500
Sue Raycraft wrote,
>I just wanted to say (and this has been said before) that not
>all ebay sellers are dishonest (heck, there are list memebrs
>who sell on ebay, and that includes both Walter and I) but it
>is really important to read item descriptions carefully, email
>the seller and ask LOTS of questions, and if you have any kind
>of an unsure feeling about something, go with your gut and
>don't bid!
Good points, all. There's some psychology involved in the equation, too.
When I consider a clarinet for sale at a flea market or "junktiques" store,
I'm willing to buy an instrument with major problems, when I can see for
myself what I'm getting myself into. I don't stand there fuming and
wondering how this jerk has the nerve to sell a clarinet in that condition,
because it's entirely my choice whether or not to pay his price, and my
fault if I make a mistake. But, buying the same clarinet for the same
price, on the basis of a deceptive photograph that conceals the damage,
probably would bother me a whole lot.
I'd buy from a regular on this list or the regulars on other music forums,
but I'm not comfortable dealing with total strangers online for instruments
I can't inspect until I've paid for them. However, I know a local clarinet
player and collector who's done very well indeed as an eBay bidder. He
owns some fine instruments. Some were real bargains. I think that if I
were a serious collector, buying a lot of things on eBay, I'd figure that
the bad bargains and the good ones would balance out, eventually. Also, my
husband has done well on antique books through eBay, in part because he's a
book restorer who deliberately seeks out the disbound and otherwise abused
volumes and in part because the world of antiquarian bookselling is a small
world and a gossipy one, where most of the book guys use the same Internet
bylines year after year, know each other, talk about each other, and know
that if they play tricks, word will get around--as word has just now gotten
around on this thread about a certain eBay dealer. One more reason why
it's worthwhile to contribute to the ------.org fund-raising drives....
Lelia Loban
E-mail: lelialoban@------.net
Web site (original music scores as audio or print-out):
http://members.sibeliusmusic.com/LeliaLoban
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