Fake , fake gibson

[GTison]

THIS has to be a FAKE. el cheepo complete with a Gibson label!

http://cgi.ebay.com/GIBSON-A-5-A5-MA...3A1%7C294%3A50

[Mike Bromley]

Looks like it's gone already.

[GTison]

http://cgi.ebay.com/GIBSON-A-5-A5-MANDOLIN-TL_W0QQitemZ270316452313QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_Defa ultDomain_0?hash=item270316452313&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C 240%3A1318%7C301%3A1%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50




still someones gonna get robbed on this one, unless you WANT a fake.

[musicofanatic]

What kills me is most of these sellers honestly believe it is a gibson.

[GTison]

well if it goes for $ 300, I guess they won't be out too much. Perhaps it's worth about $300 since someone went to a lot of trouble and labor to make it a ###### FAKE. It might be fun to have at a jam just to see the look of wonderment on peoples faces.

oOOOoh a Giiiibson...

[David M.]

Yep, i saw this one yesterday. You can spot them a mile away.

[MikeEdgerton]

$300.00 for a $50.00 mandolin is still a bad deal no matter what name you put on it. Real sad.

[Ignatius]

I let the seller know that the instrument is a fake and provided a link to Gibson's official specs on the A5. We'll see what happens. If he or she is genuinely mistaken about the instrument, hopefully the auction will be pulled.

Ignatius

[MikeEdgerton]

The seller has been told several times and it has been reported to eBay as well. I wouldn't look for the seller to voluntarily pull it. We are telling them it's fake, others are bidding on it.

[Ignatius]

The seller has been told several times and it has been reported to eBay as well. I wouldn't look for the seller to voluntarily pull it. We are telling them it's fake, others are bidding on it.
I thought so, but I thought I would add my voice to the mix and let others know that I did so.

Ignatius

[Mike Scott]

Just sold for $425 - 41 bids. Yikes! No I didn't buy it!

[Bill Van Liere]

That was sad to watch

[MikeEdgerton]

It looks like they may have killed it before it ended.

[Ignatius]

It looks like they may have killed it before it ended.
Sadly, no. The second link above (in bowfinger's second post) shows that it sold for $464.99 plus $27.00 in shipping costs. Someone spent almost $500.00 on a fake today. Truly sad.

Ignatius

[MikeEdgerton]

That is a shame. You can't even contact the winner anymore to warn them. Oh well, I certainly hope they are happy with what they get.

[f5loar]

I hope it was not some father who got it for his son/daughter who wanted a real Gibson mandolin for Christmas. What a disappointment this would be to open on Christmas morning. $500 for a $50 mandolin and no recoarse for refund while the seller laughs all the way to the bank ! :))

[45ACP-GDLF5]

This Johnson mandolin sold for $464.99 with 43 bidders, or should I say "suckers" This must be the highest price ever paid for a Johnson!!!

[phiddlepicker]

It's a fake? Dangit, I wish I read this before I sniped in that winning bid.

[phiddlepicker]

Just kidding of course.

[buddyellis]

Ugh, a $50 rouge for 500.

http://www.music123.com/Rogue-RM-100A-A-Style-Mandolin-519193-i1150499.Music123#

[MikeEdgerton]

Hey, I had the price right :)

[f5loar]

So the fake is actually worse then a Johnson. Pitiful, just pitiful for that uninformed buyer.

[allenhopkins]

We sometimes don't know how fortunate we are, to have the specialized knowledge that protects us from being swindled in purchasing instruments on eBay and elsewhere. In 40+ years of buying instruments, I have seen innumerable mis-priced examples. In many cases, you couldn't even call it a "swindle"; the seller was essentially clueless about the value range his instrument could command in the current market. Looking at vintage instrument prices on line, I often find 100% differences between asking prices for essentially the same instrument, just depending on the vendor.

Now, this instance was a clear case of dishonesty, IMHO. I'm sure the seller knew that the mandolin wasn't a "real" Gibson. But maybe not; maybe he/she paid a "Gibson" price for a cheap Asian import.

Specialized knowledge doesn't always save you. Look at Mr. Madoff, who apparently cheated the financial world out of $50 billion, dealing in many cases with institutional investors who presumably had professional staff to evaluate his wares. But I'm just glad I'm not trying to evaluate jewelry or colonial-era furniture or vintage automobiles -- products about which I know nothing, essentially -- on an on-line auction site.

[f5loar]

I got an answer from ebay concerning this ebay fake Gibson. This is there answer:
Thank you for writing eBay in regard to your report on image and text
theft.
I reviewed all the information you sent, but I don't have enough
evidence to show that the seller violated any eBay policies.
Sometimes members allow others to use their images. It's also possible
that the seller got the photo from the same source or from a source we
can't verify. In either case, we can't remove the listing.
The only way we can take action in a case like this is if the person who owns the image or text writes to us directly.
If you feel strongly about this issue, I recommend that you contact the
content owner and suggest that he or she contact us. Once we hear from
the owner, we can respond appropriately.
It is my pleasure to assist you. Thank you for choosing eBay.
Again if Gibson don't care why should ebay or us?

[TomTyrrell]

I'm glad you got some more insight into the inner workings of eBay.

When a seller gets a message telling him his item isn't genuine he might ignore it if there are a lot of bids on the item. If the item isn't genuine why are so many people bidding on it?

If it makes anyone feel better, the "winner" sniped his only bid with 4 seconds to go in the auction. No way he could have been warned off. That bidder has a history of sniping mandolin auctions. With a feedback rating over 400 I doubt it was anyone who shouldn't have known better.

[phiddlepicker]

"Why should we care?"
Well, personally I really don't care all that much. I mean I've volunteered to leave my family and go into harm's way about things I genuinely cared about. I'm not packing my bags over this stuff. I just find it fun to banter about these things on the cafe with people that share similar interests in furthering the discussion. I didn't even really care that much when I bought a beautiful Gibson F-4 off of eBay and then found once it arrived that it had a serious repair done to the neck. This contrary to the fact the seller assured me in emails and a phone conversation we had that it was in excellent shape and had no repairs done. Sold that one for a profit anyway even though I was upfront about the repair btw.