Odd eBay auctions
 

I keep seeing full vintage Dura Ace groups for sale from China BIN for <$40 + free shipping. They must be a scam. Anybody else have any insight?

Here's a link to a recent one: https://www.ebay.com/itm/252789169766

This one doesn't have pictures, but others do. Doesn't mean much as pictures can just be lifted from anywhere, but I'm certainly not buying anything without photos.

Yeah 4 or 5 months ago I bit on a Ofmega Groupo like this for $46 out of China. Seller had 0 feedback, but price was cheap, I figured it might have been a scam, but risk wasn't that much. I eventually got refunded by ebay.

Unfortunately I don't think ebay has been able to stop this one. It has become more rampant, and I see it with regularity in ebay CV bike ads and parts. It kinda sucks that someone has decided to target the CV bike market enthusiasts. You can do Adv search of sold CV listings and spot the ones where someone got scammed.

The ones you have to watch out for are the good but not outrageous deal. The scammer/s are getting smarter about what CV eye candy they to try to reel you in on. They probably figured out no one will bite on a $46 Colnago C-Record bike, but might on something else a little more down to earth, but still good deal.

There's been a couple threads about these deals over the past year...I think I recall reading some people waited awhile and just ending up getting their money back when nothing came. Not sure about all of them, but I wouldn't personally bother.

Also seen someof these C&V bargain auctions from China, but I did nnot bite as I felt the components being sold seem to be a bit out of place originating from China, specially from a time when the country was still deep red and still not so open to world markets that would have sold the components. Only instance that I might believe the auction could be possibly legit if there is evidence provided by the seller that the racing grade conponents were maybe sourced from old spares/supplies from the national team.....but then anyone can fabricate such information/evidence these days........ JMOs

Please such an amateur scam, vintage Dura Ace from the People's Republic of China, $40 for $300+ in parts, the same photo of used parts as seen on an add posted from San Francisco or elsewhere, ZERO feedback, month+ delivery times, all I can figure is that these so very gullible buyers must forget to apply for a refund every once in a while.

What's the purpose of the scam? How are these people gaining anything since the buyer is protected through PayPal? Am I missing something?

Its been taken down, once again. A pox on these low lives.

Bill

Yes they scam pics from legitimate sales, often will take the exact title too. Someone must be making some profit from it because it has become more common.

I bet if eBay would charge a fee for ad insertion from overseas it would cut down on that stuff.

I'm not sure what folks are thinking-- for years upon years, you could not import bikes or parts into the PRC. There was nothing there but Flying Pigeons. It's unlikely there are stashes of vintage bike parts lying about in China.

If it seems too good to be true...it's being sold from China! :roflmao2:

This is why ebay fees keep going up, it's us, the people who use ebay legitimately that end up paying for these scams.

The sellers may be getting paid somehow regardless of PP protection and there's probably a certain number of buyers who forget about it and don't go after a refund.

What is the old saying....If it sounds too good to be true then......we know the rest.
Sometimes trying to get a killer deal from a "uniformed" seller is when one gets stung. It happens all of the time and not just from "sellers" in China, buyer/s beware.
Best, Ben

Hmmm.... Curious. I don't doubt at all that these listings are a scam of some sort... But just what sort provokes my interest.

We should remember that China has notoriously scant respect (if any) for international copyright & patent laws, as well as cheap manufacturing. Couple the above with unscrupulous 'third shift' production and you have a ripe environment for knock-offs. So- who knows? Maybe some very industrious group of thieves copied some older parts? I don't think it likely, considering the expense that would involve, but... ?

In this particular instance somebody was probably testing the situation to see if they could just take the money & run, but we might see other types of scams emerge further down the road.

I don't mean to impune China, the scammers who were most obvious just happened to be in China. This doesn't need to become a political thread. Other scammers around the world seem to be a bit more savvy... but scammers will learn.

It wasn't my intention, either. I just wanted to make the point that it's a part of the world well-known for producing fake products. ;)

The parts could indeed exist-- and they could also be counterfeit: Louis Vuitton & Gucci handbags, iPhones... they've all been copied, and although I can't see how producing fake bike parts could be profitable, I've heard of stranger things; organized crime can be quite inventive.

I have stopped using Ebay for years now. I find the prices on that site not really cheap. The cheap ones are likely to be fake.

No, these are complete cut and paste from legitimate auctions. Pick one and then search through completed listings and you'll find the real ones. These have been popping up IME for about a year and becoming more and more common. I wonder if they are a vehicle to get account or paypal info.

Same people are probably running this scam also. A Campy Super Record 11 speed group for $47.

Looks like the listing was copied from Velo Mine.

2015 Campagnolo Super Record 11 Speed Group Groupset 6 Pieces 172.5mm Crankset | eBay

Here's the real listing from Velo Mine:

I haven't seen any whole group sets that were knock offs copies but I have seen some cheap crank sets that were copies of DA some branded and some unbranded likely from China. They had OK finish on the front but were rough on the backside looked like they just took a OLD DA crank used to make a mold and cast some cranks out of cheap alloy.

This is probably not the same scam, but does show how this sort of thing could work:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local...=.0d284ba763a7

"Law enforcement officials said the conspiracy began in 2010 with bogus online advertisements for cars, motorcycles and boats on websites such as eBay.com and Cars.com. Buyers were lured with photos and highly detailed descriptions into transferring money, for example, to purchase Mercedes-Benz vehicles that they never received, according to court filings."

I bought some cheap shifters. figured if they were real, i'd save $15. If they werent real, it was only $15 more for real ones.
They werent real.

I got my money back 48hrs after requesting it from paypal.

the seller had already gotten their money(not sure why since the status hadnt changed to delivered) and the seller then deactivated from ebay.

So basically paypal swallowed the costs, to eventually be passed on to all of us thru transaction fees.

I figured it would have to be something like this.

Another one popped up yesterday. I discovered it was a simple copy of an active auction - the real auction was listed right below in the "you might be interested in this" section! The audacity!! I can't imagine that eBay isn't already working on this already.

At a different price point altogether, I was looking at an S Works Tarmac (yes- I ride late model stuff too) - for $2600, which seemed like a screaming deal, then later on down in the listings saw what looked like the exact same ad but with a different location for $4800, which was closer to what I would guess to be the right price :crash::crash:

I just shook my head, closed the cover on the iPad and went to bed