# General Mandolin Topics > eBay, Craig's List, etc. >  Cheap mix mandolin?

## gwalt

I googled Mix mandolin and found a F5 at Hot Deals for $1824.30 or make offer. I tried to paste the ad here but couldn't get it to work. Wish I had some spare cash.

----------


## gwalt

For those that can't find this mandolin. If you have Google, type in "mix mandolin" click on the top product search bar, then scroll down. there is two different ads. One from Hot Deals & one from Daiana Store.

----------


## MikeEdgerton

Caveat emptor.

If something looks too good to be true it probably is. If I'm wrong somebody gets a heck of a deal.

----------


## JHo

They also have a Collings MF listed at $1372. Dibs on both!

----------


## Jim Garber

Boy, I can't find that link anywhere. Anybody have a direct link?

----------


## allenhopkins

Here's  the Hot Dealz link, and here's  the Daiana Stores link.

F-style Mix mandolins for $1,800? #"If it's too good to be true..." #Maybe they're not in stock:

"How much for that Mix F-5?"
"I'll sell it for $3,500."
"3,500? #I can buy it at Hot Dealz for $1,800."
"Why didn't you buy it there, then?"
"They were out of stock."
"Well, when _I'm_ out of stock, I sell 'em for $1,500!"

----------


## MikeEdgerton

I'd be more concerned that the seller was actually phishing.

----------


## atetone

If you follow the links through it leads to ebay listings by "flip it fast" and both mandos went for very much higher prices than advertised.
You be the judge of what is going on. Trickery.

----------


## Martin Jonas

Probably no involvement by "flip it fast", though. There are lots of site out there that simply take a chunk of Ebay auctions without the knowledge of either Ebay or the sellers, put them on their site in a store front format, and when you click through you end up on Ebay. I'm not entirely sure how it works, but I think it's basically a means of generating advertising revenue. They can take their impressive, if fraudulent, hit tallies to Google or other advertisers and get lotsa money for the ads they put around their second-hand auctions.

Martin

----------


## Bernie Daniel

eBay is becoming too good to be true!

!@#@$%^&*(

----------


## Keith Erickson

There is all sorts of scams on e-bay. #

Foxnews just did a story about a little town in Romania where the unemployment rate is 70% but everyone is driving around in nice new cars and wearing fancy clothes courtesy of the e-bay scams that are being pulled off.

----------


## steve V. johnson

"Flip It Fast" seems to be a service that sells stuff on eBay for individuals (and some shops, and they've figured out how to get their links to be featured on the Google and Gmail ad links.

So this happens a lot with the Google/Gmail ad links, that someone will advertise a -very- low price for an item (irresponsibly, it seems, almost always...) and google will 'feature' it.

In my experience, they're seldom 'scams' in the true sense of the term, and seldom phishing, but always 'bait & switch' ads that pull folks with a falsely low price. I don't know what good that does the vendor... it just wastes our time and, for my part, convinces me -not- to do business with 'em...

stv

----------


## allenhopkins

To quote Moderator Mike Edgerton (from another thread on eBay mandolins):

_"Flip-It-Fast is actually Mitch Simpson, a member of the cafe. If you do a search here on the cafe you can find where Mitch answered questions regarding these allegations. If someone has actual experience, not hearsay, please feel free to discuss it. If you don't have actual experience please excercise some restraint. Thanks." 

--------------
Mike_

I talked to John Bernunzio today about the cheap Mixes, and he said that dealer cost for one of them is within hailing distance of $3K. #So no one other than the deluded would retail them for $1,800.

----------


## MikeEdgerton

Your quote is from a different thread but since it's here I'm more than happy to discuss it. The Google Listing is to an ongoing or completed eBay auction. Chances are that Flip-it-fast isn't even involved in the link. 

If you follow the link you'll see a variety of instruments listed, including an F style mandolin for 169.00 as well as books software and some less than family oriented stuff as well. The site owner is making his or her money on the click through. They probably don't know who Mitch Simpson is.

Here's an interesting thing to look at. This is the "Who Is" report for reklamnistudio.net (the first website listed in your post). The company isn't even in the US. They have nothing to do with the hundreds or maybe thousands of listings they are showing.

----------


## steve V. johnson

I think I've been a bit scolded here, so....

Sorry, I changed subjects without notice. 

Flip it Fast is an auction service that gets notices on google, where I see them. I've never seen a bait and switch from any Flip It Fast outlet, nor anyone associated with Flip It Fast, nor did I mean to imply any impropriety on the part of Flip It Fast. 

How FIF gets in front of me on the google text associated ads is a mystery to me, but If I were FIF, I'd be happy about the frequency of google's passing on of those notices. I respect FIF's ability to be seen so much, whether it's by design (good online advertising work) or by accident of google, more power to 'em.

This:

"In my experience, they're seldom 'scams' in the true sense of the term, and seldom phishing, but always 'bait & switch' ads that pull folks with a falsely low price. I don't know what good that does the vendor... it just wastes our time and, for my part, convinces me -not- to do business with 'em..."

is different, was meant to be about others, and not about FIF.  It was about ads similar to what the OP mentions, those who advertise low prices -just- to get in those google (and other search engines') notices and who, by showing an extraordinarily low price, often do bait and, in my experience, then do a switch.

I've done searches using google "products" search, and found some amazing, but plausible prices. Sorta like what was mentioned above ('when I haven't got them in stock I charge $1500...') I've gone to check out these prices to find that
the advertised price is no longer available but that I can have the item for lots more.

I find this to be a more common result of the sort of ad like the cheap Mix mando one than any sort of scam resulting from that sort of ad.

Whew... I think I got that right...

Sorry.

stv

----------


## MikeEdgerton

No reason to be sorry Steve, this is pretty much uncharted territory for most of us. I have a feeling that Flip-it-fast is an unwitting actor in this play. The websites that you end up going to are obviously pulling information from a lot more eBay sellers than just Flip-it-fast. He just happened to be the one that came up on this mandolin search. If you go to either of these sites listed (I can't even get to one of them right now, it may already be down) you'll see an entire list of items (see the image). I'm guessing those are all eBay auctions.

----------


## atetone

Steve, nice (unnecessary)explanation but if I were you I wouldn't be getting down on myself too much.
Who knows what is really going on?
Some retailers would think that any exposure is good exposure but if it were me I would be doing my best to stop having those deceitfull links going to my sales items.
Maybe you can't stop them even if you wanted to and on the other hand maybe you might not want to, all depending on your personal sales philosophy.
As a prospective buyer it turns me off dealing with any and all parties connected to the whole link.
I don't want to deal with any of them.
There are plenty of straight shooters in the mando-retail world who are not linked to this kind of techno-jumble tactic. I prefer to deal with them to avoid feeling like I got sucked up into the #hype.
I hate hucksters trying to toy with me.

----------


## Charles Johnson

Not trying to hijack the thread, but it is somewhat related. Occasionally one of these scammers will swipe the pics from my website and put up an eBay auction. I then usually get numerous emails about it. Unfortunately, there is nothing I can do about it except complain to eBay. 

Charles Johnson
Mandolin World Headquarters, Inc. 
www.vintagemandolin.com

----------

