...or rather my PayPal account. I just thought I'd share yet another learning experience. A couple of weeks ago, I was excited to make a deal with an eBay seller to buy the item below for $2000. It was an original Star Wars soundtrack album from 1977 entitled, "The Story of Star Wars", signed by 9 cast and crew members including George Lucas, John Wiliams, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Kenny Baker, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and David Prowse. This was on January 2nd.
Looking through past sales, I saw that the same piece had sold (from a different seller) for $3250 on December 28th. Even the pictures were the exact same. So I questioned my seller about this, and he said he was the person who bought the piece on Dec. 28, but he had to sell it right away because he could no longer afford to keep it since his car broke down, and he needed the money for repairs. He therefore was willing to sell it at a loss to get the money quickly.
Even though the story didn't quite add up, I wanted to believe it, because I thought the item looked incredible. I mean why not just explain your situation to your seller and try to get ALL of your money back?
So I told my seller (the crook) that I was waiting on funds from a sale to clear PayPal in a few days and then I would get him the money. What a nice guy...he agreed! In the meantime, I asked the original seller for his phone number so we could talk. So he gave me his number, and I called him. He told me that he sold his item to a buyer in Germany for $3250. Well, the crook lives in Minnesota, so my suspicions were confirmed. And I messaged the crooked seller and told him I knew what was going on and that he would not be getting my $2000, and I recommended he cancel the sale, which he still has not done. However, eBay said it will eventually just drop off if he doesn't open a case. I've noticed that in just the last week, the seller has received 18 new negatives from buyers who said he took their money but sent nothing. Fortunately, I avoided that hassle. So, as has been noted before, what sounds too good to be true, probably is.
In the meantime, I have found another Star Wars signed soundtrack, "The Return of the Jedi", that I like a lot.