...and another

[klaper]

OK, so I bid on that Sobell OM on Ebay, lost the bid, but the reserve price was never met, and soon after the auction closed, I received an email from the seller, asking me if I'd like to buy it as part of a 2nd chance Ebay Square Trade transaction. I emailed him back -- told him I'd pay $1,600 for the instrument -- he replied fine and sent me a very official looking Ebay Square Trade transaction invoice form requesting that I wire transfer the money to a bank in England -- to the account of a vaguely Russian-sounding name and they would hold the money until I received the merchandise and then release the funds to the seller.

So I contacted Ebay and they identified this whole sale as a fraud and scam. Obviously there was no "Early Sobell" and, whoever this guy is, he's very clever -- having set up an Ebay identity complete with hundreds of positive feedback hits.

So I'm still shopping around for an OM!

Be careful what you think you're looking at on the web.

Steve Klaper

[Dagger Gordon]

Are you sure? I think this guy in Isle of Wight has cropped up before buying and selling Sobells, although I've only vaguely noted it. Anyone else had problems?

Doesn't sound good though, I must say.

[Martin Jonas]

Most likely, the scam here is the second chance offer, not the original auction. The concept of the "second chance offer" does exist on Ebay, but it's very very common (and quite easy) for somebody who is entirely unrelated to the original seller to send an e-mail to the unsuccessful bidders pretending to offer them a second chance. If this happens, always contact the seller again through the Ebay website to ask whether it's a genuine second chance offer. Never reply to the e-mail that was sent to you, never click on any links in that e-mail, and never use any e-mail addresses given in that e-mail -- in most cases all of these are fake and go only to the scammer rather than to Ebay or to the original seller. It's very easy to mock up an official-looking form or web site. I get these "second chance" offers all the time, and ignore them routinely.

Martin

[Mandobar]

the ebay seller is someone that a few folks around here have dealt with. he owns several bars/pubs/restaurants on the isle of wight. i believe rich michaud has bought from him and several others who frequent the board. as for $1600, well, bells went off in my head over that. i believe martin is right, it was one of those second chance scams. those looking for a sobell om, contact brian wolfe at acousticmusic.org. he is stefan's only US dealer now and told me a few weeks ago that stefan had a "banjo" octave for sale.

[zoukboy]

Roger,

I see you still use goatskin on your tenor banjo. I was about the only guy I knew for about 30 years who still did that.

Yes, it works great in the Northern NM climate and sounds much better to my ear than calfskin. This banjo belongs to Chipper Thompson and I believe the skin head was on it when he got it and had it worked over by SOS. I'm in the process of maybe buying a 1967 Vega tenor, which is cool.

[acumando]

looks like it's been <a href="http://cgi.ebay.com/Stefan-Sobell-Octave-Mandolin_W0QQitemZ7420469045QQihZ016QQcategoryZ101 567QQrdZ1QQcmdZView
Item" target="_blank">relisted.</a>

[Bob DeVellis]

The link didn't work for me.

[otterly2k]

try this link:
<a href="http://cgi.ebay.com/Stefan-Sobell-Octave-Mandolin_W0QQitemZ7420469045QQcategoryZ101567QQssP ageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1Q
QcmdZViewItem" target="_blank">link</a>

[Bob DeVellis]

Not a bad price. If it were a short-scale and I had the money, I'd be tempted. But neither apply.