Hi,

I'm having a bit of a dilemma and need a collective opinion from the forum. I "won" an auction on eBay last night for a set of Track wheels/tires. That is the good news. Here is the dilemma. After I bid, I realized the description and pictures were nearly identical to an auction I lost several weeks ago. Here are the two links:

Losing Bid:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...tem=2438445943

Winning bid:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...tem=2442945173

About the only difference in the listings is the name and the payment instructions. Notice the same $1,600 is listed as the reserve but the final winning bid was only $1,075.

I contacted the seller and revealed my concerns. Since the seller is located in California, I asked about the availability of a pick-up (agreeing to which would alleviate my skepticism). I received a very short response with no reference to my concerns, only requesting a payment be sent with a name and address. To top it off, the name did not match the name on the e-mail address.

I want the Track rims so bad I can taste it but this "deal" seems almost too good to be true. However, if I refuse to send payment, I will be putting my perfect eBay rating in jeopardy.

Any opinions would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

contact ebay.

 

Do not pay this guy until you are 100% certain that he's legit!

It could be that he was just too lazy to take his own pictures and write his own description so he "borrowed" somebody else's. Then again, since he'll only accept a money order or check, you have to be very careful. I should note that if you look at his other auction items, he does accept Paypal and therefore must have a Paypal account. So, why wouldn't he accept payment via Paypal for the wheels/tires? It looks like he's trying to make sure that you can't get a refund (or am I just being paranoid?).

Don't worry about any negative feedback from him. If he does post negative feedback, I'm sure that all you'd have to do is e-mail eBay and explain the situation (and send the links to both auction items). I'm sure that they'd remove the negative feedback.

Hope this helps and good luck!

 

Contact some of the other people who have purchased from him. I've done that when I purchase some of the more expensive stuff from ebay.

 

The guy may not want to pay the 3% PayPal fee and he's not allowed (as per eBay and credit card merchant rules) to advertise that he is charging extra to cover it. He may also have two email addresses. I'd give him the benefit of the doubt before running to eBay.

However, if you are near enough to the guy to be able to do a pickup I would insist on that. Tell him you'll meet him at a public place (Taco Bell parking lot or whatever) and hand deliver cash to save him the trouble of having to try to ship those puppies. If he won't agree to that then you should RUN, not walk away from the deal.

The other option is to tell him you'll pay the fee to use escrow.com. That way you're entirely protected against not just fraud but also something wrong with the tires.

There's nothing you can do to stop someone from giving you negative feedback, but your response can always be "seller attempted to defraud me" if that becomes obvious.

--Steve

 

contact/ email him again about if u can pick the rims up instead.
as far as having identical items, i know that there r some people that have quantities of stuff and they sell them under diff. user names.

if u decide not to pay him, don't. who cares about 1 neg. feedback, u can always give an explanation on it.

 

You are straight up crazy to bid on an item being sold by someone not offering to accept paypal. That probably has alot to do with the first auction going for about 700 bucks more. Did you notice this is the only auction by this seller that does not offer paypal acceptance?

The guy actually has decent feedback. I couldn't find anything else he sold for near that price though.

Why didn't you ask these questions before you bid?

You could ask the seller to let you out of the auction if you pay the auction fees.

I personally wouldn't pay. if you do accept the fact now that you may loose your money.

 

Thanks for the input. The seller e-mailed me back and seems willing to allow a pick-up. That's an encouraging sign.

SlamMan - I usually only bid on Paypal auctions but as I said, I really want the Track rims.

I'll keep everyone posted on the transaction. Appreciate your thoughts...

 

I never trusted someone who won't accept Paypal, especially on something expensive.
But, hope you're just being lucky and got a sweet deal~ good luck! Hope you'll get them!

 

Good luck, I do alot of junk with ebay, mostly selling though.

I have had some people contact me about track wheels, they had one ebay auctions and one of the wheels "got lost in the mail" which is not a good sign. Makes you wonder if it ever got sent at all.

Make sure you do a cash thing in trade for the wheels, dont send payment and then pick them up.

You can get the Nismo LMGT4's from us for $1850 now if you decide not to go through with this deal.

Good luck! I hope it works out for you in your favor.

 

Tim Congrats!!!!!!!!

 

Thanks Karl....I was hoping you would respond. What is your take on this transaction?

 

I had no idea that potenza re040s came on F50's. I always thought it was the performance tire p-zeros... o well...

 

Actually, that would be seeler misrepresentation yet again on ebay... F50's came with specially designed Goodyear F1 Fiorianos

"The F50's single-piece Speedline wheels were made of a special magnesium alloy with single-nut central attachment. The choice of a size of 18"x81/2" at the front and 18"x13" at the rear, was dictated by the choice of large brake discs and low profile tires. Goodyear designed a special racing-based "Fiorano" tire specifically for the F50 in 245/35ZR18 front, 355/30ZR18 rear."


As for the austion...PICK UP only !!!! That is alot of money to loose in the mail. although, if you mail it, and he does not deliver the auction item...MAIL FRAUD.

 

It worries me. I noticed this right away. If he is allowing you to pick up and then pay Cool. I would not do it any other way. Karl

 

Thats good that he's gonna let you pick them up. Now, are you gonna take him up on the offer? $120 is called, getting gouged, to ship in the same state.