cheap xl2?

[bluestar]

a guy is selling me his xl2 for 350, sound a little odd? and if its true should i buy this camera or the dvx?

[Shaw]

Uh yeah. Do you know this guy personally?

[Isaac_Brody]

Tell him that's a good joke.

[J.R. Hudson]

If you have to ask...

[David Jimerson]

$350? Or $3500?

Even the latter is too good to be true, but it's more believeable.

$350? Four possibilities:

1) It's BS. This is the most likely.

2) There's something seriously wrong with it.

3) It's stolen.

4) This guy is a complete moron and you shouldn't take advantage of him.

[Rick_Rock]

True Story:

This younger guy I knew, who was in High School TV Productions at the time, seriously wanted a new camera. Around the same time, I was selling my XL1s and a bunch of stuff to go along with it on Ebay and I mentioned it to him. He asked me how much I was trying to get for it and told him my reserve was about $3,200.

He offered me $400 as a joke and I replied with an enthusiastic, but blatantly sarcastic, "SOLD!" and we talked a little bit more about the cam and filming in general.

Get this: A week later, we're talking on the phone and as we're getting ready to hang up, he said he was getting off work early and wanted to know when a good time to pick up the cam would be. I asked him what in the world he was referring to and he replied, "Well, I got the $400, so I wanted to swing by and pick up the XL1 and..."

And I just busted out laughing. I didn't mean to damage his pride or anything, but I told him that was ridiculous of him to take that seriously and that $4,000 would've been a more appropriate offer.

"Oh...uhhh...whatever then." is about all he said as he hung up. Classic.

[bluestar]

I am told to go through an escrow service and wire transfer the money, although she has a positive 41, and no negative, its still a little weird, she wrote me an email telling me it was her husbands(ex) camera and she is selling it. But im not really lenient without having any pictures and wire transferring, unless this is a terrorist fund, in which i should notify the authorities, but I don't see any negative under this person's account with the escrow website

and if it's the stolen case, who knows, and i could care less ::)

[David Jimerson]

Well, receiving stolen goods is a crime.

Escrow. Big indicator of a scam. Ebay. Big place for it.

[scharky]

Bluestar, don't get fooled. *Ebay accounts get hijacked all the time. * Anytime someone sends you a private email saying, just wire transfer the money and it's yours, you are guaranteed that it's a scam. You will never see the camera, and they will have your money.
If you want a good laugh, google (p p p powerbook) and see what you come up with.

[Shaw]

Wire transfer is also a good scam inidication.

[J.R. Hudson]

Damn people; quit looking for the magical price and goto evs

[bluestar]

lol, ok yea, i know i always investigate and make a fool out of them before they do of me, I logged each person's IP of who I recieved emails from and reported it lol. And thanks, I didnt know anything about escrow. :o

[Rush]

Dang bluestar that was pretty close! :)

I got ripped off in the early days of ebay by a lady selling 7 "lots" of gear. Never got any gear, and she disappeared with my $1000. >:(

[icicle22]

In all fairness some of these escrow services are legit and they protect the buyer and seller. You deposit money into an escrow account. The seller verifies that the funds are there. They ship you the item. You verify that everything is as they described to you. At this point you authorize the escrow service to release your funds to the seller. However the seller has to authorize the escrow account for you to get your funds back. So you are out the money either way. The seller will not relinquish the funds back to you unless you return the equipment.

It seems like a win win situation. HOwever just like everything else I am sure people have found ways to abuse it.

I feel fortunate that I have sold both a DVx100 and an Xl1 on EBAY and the buyers just paypaled me the thousands of dollars. Of course I would never screw someone over but I can't say the same for everyone on EBAY.

Electronic escrow is designed to safeguard your funds. But never wire anyone money directly.

[Barry_Green]

Genuine escrow is a great thing.

But the ebay scammers have taken fraud to a new level -- they design totally legitimate-looking escrow sites which are absolute frauds, designed to lure you into thinking you're getting a safe transaction, when all you're getting is robbed.

Only ever use a legitimate, established, independent (non-fraudulent) escrow service. If the "seller" insists that you use a particular escrow service, that is an almost absolute guarantee that they're trying to scam you.

[strancali]

The only online escrow company that i will ever do business with is www.escrow.com. They are the ONLY one licensed as an online company by the state of California. There's over 650 escrow companies in California alone but only one is licensed as an ONLINE escrow company and its WWW.ESCROW.COM! Whatever you do, NEVER fall for a seller wanting you to use Western Union!