Phatmon

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...762951344&rd=1


Does this auction look legit? I question the 0 feedback from both buyer and seller. Mabey just paranoid.

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Tootsall

Nope, not paranoid at all. The guy has a 50/50 feedback. The negative came when he refused to deal with a seller who has over 600 positive feedbacks and a 100% rating.... somehow he "just decided" that the seller (a large retailer in Australia) wasn't legit and refused to work with him so he got a negative feedback. Yet it says that there is "0" feedback.

Also note the actual bids received, from whom they were received (all the same person), and the timing of them (within seconds of each other and waaay early in the auction).

Anyway, if you aren't interested in buying a Holton Firebird... why bother?

stewmuse

Not that I'm a horn specialist, but by looking at the engraving on the bell, I very much doubt this is made by Holton. The "MFirebird" on the bell looks like a junior high schoolers first engraving project...

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Dr. Michael Stewart
Lead Trumpet, Chicago Grandstand Big Band
www.stewmuse.com

nieuwguyski

Oh, it's a Holton all right. The bell engraving on the MF trumpets was traditionally pretty cheesy looking. A while back I had a Holton "Banana Horn" trumpet. I liked how it played, but hated the bell engraving. I finally paid a repair tech to set the horn up for interchangeable bells so I could switch between the banana bell and a straight, unengraved Holton bell.

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John N. Nieuwguyski

MUSICandCHARACTER

This is common with auto bidding. The first bidder has a rating of 80 something as I recall. The zero bidder out bids him. The either the first bidder or someone else makes a bid, but not over the zero bidders maximum. It looks like he is bidding six times, but really he made 1 high bid.

That is a strategy used by some on eBay .. bid high early. People may get discouraged and leave the auction alone. Sometimes works better than sniping ... especially on high ticket items.

If I wanted that horn, with that kind of rating and that price, I would ask for escrow. Paying a percentage for escrow would be worth the peace of mind. If they didn't want to use escrow, that would tell you something.

Jim

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Dr. Jim Fox
Licensed Mental Health Therapist
Mouthpiece chart: www.ibowtie.com/tmptmpccharts.html