Another eBay fraud ??

[John Edwards]

Hello all,
Was sitting on the porch today minding my own business when this comes
beaming through AlGore`s internet .

Got this email from ebay today.

You expressed interest in an item titled:Hutchinson A11 Box Mitre Plane
***** Hand-made Norris style dovetailed plane ****** Item number: 6166206727
by bidding, however the auction has ended with another member as the high
bidder.In compliance with eBay policy, the seller is making this Second
Chance Offer to you at your bid price. The seller has issued this Second
Chance Offer because either the winning bidder was unable to complete the
transaction or the seller has duplicate items for sale. If you accept this
offer, you will be able to exchange Feedback with the seller and will be
eligible for eBay services associated with a transaction, such as fraud
protection. To purchase this item please contact the seller:
baietzii@aol.com To learn more about Second Chance Offer go to:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/personal_offer.html Thank you, eBay Inc.

Please respond to the question on eBay by clicking the button below.

Thank you,
castrat2

Now this plane ended last week with an ending price of $885.00. My bid was a
bit more then half that. Notice the sender of the email. I dont see him in
the bidder list at all.
This seems a bit fishy to me.....Something like a hide glue pot gone bad....
Sent an email to the original seller (Darryl Hutchinson of Classic Planes
.com) to ask if there had been any problems with the sale. Awaiting his
reply.

Whadda ya all think ??
Thanks much.

[Paul Prescott]

I have sold many things on eBay, and this MAY be legitimate. I've done the same when the high bidder was a fraud or else backed out. But be careful.

[Steve Cox]

Not sure about the e-mail address but the form of the offer is correct. I have received one just like it when my bid was below the reserve price and the seller decided to offer it to me anyway. I was supiscious also but it worked out just fine.

[Tom LaRussa]

Notice the sender of the email. I dont see him in
the bidder list at all.

More important, the sender of the email is not classicplanes.com, which was the seller of the item, and thus should be the one making the second offer.

Either Darryl Hutchinson has a second email address that he just happens to forget to mention either in the eBay listing or on his web site -- which is, of course, possible, however improbable -- or this is a fraud trying to happen.

Why don't you string them along and see what happens? Don't send any money, of course, but just see.

I predict that very soon they will want to hook you up with an escrow service they have used many times before.

[Mark Singer]

I saw a few of the same planes on Ebay some time ago....they are beautiful! I don't know about the fraud possibility?

[Michael Gabbay]

I'm not sure about this..... the signature is "Castrat2". I would not offer up any financial or personal iformation until you really confirm the source.

[Michael Cody]

Go back to the orginal auction and post a question to the seller using the build in link. Ask if he sent you a second chance offer -- that would be one way to confirm. I would be very suspect myself. The form is right but it should come from the same email address as it's generated on Ebay by Ebay's email software so the return address should be the same as the sellers. It's worth checking out, if it proves false, let Ebay's fraud division know .. probably won't help but it can't hurt.

[Corvin Alstot]

I would contact the seller only through the Ebay web page which would protect your identity, I would also contact Ebay to check if this is legit.
I do not know if this this Second Change thing is fraud or not, but given that you are contacting an unknown person it would be wise to be cautious.

Best of luck, but I doubt Hutchinson is offering his planes for half price (if he is, let me know). :-)

Corvin

[John Edwards]

Thanks for all the advice,
After studying the original message and reviewing eBay`s explanation of the "second chance offer" there are some things that dont add up. Least they dont seem right.
Got an email into Darryl to see if he knows anything about this. Looking forward to his reply.
In the meantime I returned the sellers email (through ebay`s forwarding system) saying that I would be intetested.
Based on my trustworthy feedback rating, you send me the plane and then I will send you a M.O.

Classic Planes at half price yeah right..........

Thanks guys

[Alan Turner]

John,
This is definitely a fraud. Same thing happened to me, on a large planer (sorry about mentioning it on this side of the Creek). But, I had been in phone contact with the seller, so just called him, and sure enough, the real buyer of the planer had already called him, made arrangements, etc. He said that he had seen this sort of thing before, and that it was definitely a fraud as he had not initiated any sort of action which might have caused this email to be sent.

[Andy Henriksen]

The other thing that doesn't add up is that if you were the second highest bidder, the original winner would only have had to pay a small increment above your max price. This is because ebay has the automatic bid increment system. The winner would have to pay only 5 or 10 bucks more than your max. The price never could have gotten up to double your bid.

[aurelio alarcon]

I had this happen to me. I was the second highest bidder but lost. When the original buyer didn't come through, the item was offered to me. I ended up not buying it after closer scrutiny to the item being sold. It was cracked. Maybe the original high bidder didn't see the crack at first. Possibly after he did see it, he refused to purchase it like I did. Then the offer was made to me.

[Clay Craig]

It is possible for the winning bid to be around double the 2d-highest, IF the winning bidder set a bid ceiling above the reserve, but you did not.

eBay will only increase bids by minimum increments, unless more is needed to reach a reserve.

Let us know the outcome ...

Clay