Guitars from China - Ebay warning

[Spudman***]

I have been seeing great deals on the *bay for new Gibsons, Epiphones, and Fender guitars. I asked one of the buyers if he did indeed receive a Gibson Les Paul for $3.50 plus $300 shipping from China. Here is his reply:

I didn't get exactly what I bid on. The pictures are just representations. Ten different sellers use the same picture. The quality is ok at best.
Be careful, these guys are getting kicked off ebay and paypal faster than you can blink. I committed to one a few weeks ago. Within hours of committing, the seller became no longer registered with ebay or paypal, and he had 100% feedback from about 50 people. My biggest fear was getting screwed. If you send them payment, and they don't ship, what can you do....pretty much nothing. Like yourself, I asked several buyers of these, and never got a single response.
Hind sight being 20 20, I would have bought a tried and true Epiphone les paul. Same price, much better quality. If you have to have one, all I can say is proceed with caution. Hope this helps. Brett

Apparently the guitars being purchased are NOT the guitars pictured in the auctions. BEWARE!

[Tone2TheBone]

I have been seeing great deals on the *bay for new Gibsons, Epiphones, and Fender guitars. I asked one of the buyers if he did indeed receive a Gibson Les Paul for $3.50 plus $300 shipping from China. Here is his reply:

I didn't get exactly what I bid on. The pictures are just representations. Ten different sellers use the same picture. The quality is ok at best.
Be careful, these guys are getting kicked off ebay and paypal faster than you can blink. I committed to one a few weeks ago. Within hours of committing, the seller became no longer registered with ebay or paypal, and he had 100% feedback from about 50 people. My biggest fear was getting screwed. If you send them payment, and they don't ship, what can you do....pretty much nothing. Like yourself, I asked several buyers of these, and never got a single response.
Hind sight being 20 20, I would have bought a tried and true Epiphone les paul. Same price, much better quality. If you have to have one, all I can say is proceed with caution. Hope this helps. Brett

Apparently the guitars being purchased are NOT the guitars pictured in the auctions. BEWARE!

I see that all the time too. I'm pretty wary of ads anyway and most likely would not even chance buying one from a quirky ad like those. I've also heard of people on the up and up selling some really nice Gibson, Fender, Marshall, (Boutique amp of your choice) as faithfully as they can only to have the shipping company (USPS, UPS, FED-EX etc.) smash them all to hell.

I buy my guitars and amps from the store.

[tremoloman***]

I had someone pull a bait & switch on me with a Standard Strat. Once I busted the guy and proved he didn't send the guitar I worked out a deal with him to get half my money back.

[Nelskie]

I buy my guitars and amps from the store.

Since I consider myself somewhat of an "experienced" Ebay'er, I can only say that achieving successful transactions does take a bit of know-how. But there's going to be some "gut instinct" involved, too. I've read several of the auction postings for these Chinese guitars, and although they were somewhat tempting - - there were more than enough red flags waving to steer me clear of them. If you've read an auction listing for one of these guitars, you know exactly what I mean. Try and imagine yourself buying a guitar in a shop with someone like that talking to you in the same way that the auction was worded. Get my drift? Not trying to be stereotypical or insulting here - - just realistic. Offers that are "too good to be true" are generally just that.

The "needle in the haystack" theory does still apply in an excruciatingly small number of these cases. But to find that stuff, you've got to be prepared. Know the right questions to ask, and the answers you expect to hear. If stuff doesn't jive - time to move on.

*Hello . . . China . . . this is the United States calling. Are we reaching?* Click.