Online buying from a private seller

[photo]

Originally Posted by rj.phila

in fact, in my field, the uber-high end stuff RARELY changes hands in an established marketplace.

You don't understand. If an item has a long wait list from a legitimate dealer, why would the same item suddenly become available at a competitive price?

[rj.phila]

Originally Posted by photo

You don't understand. If an item has a long wait list from a legitimate dealer, why would the same item suddenly become available at a competitive price?

no, i fully understand. OP never said "competitive price". you seem to be saying that the existence of something rare on a secondary market is somehow contributing to its likelihood as a scam. i have not found that to be true. the only correlation ive found between price and scammy-ness is when the price is EGREGIOUSLY low.

rare items "suddenly become available" all the time in my field of interest. occasionally, they are even available AT competitive prices. i bought a 3500 synth last week for 2200. direct from seller. no ebay or paypal. it was in mint condition. the guy basically wanted a QUICK sale at a discounted price, rather than a PROLONGED sale at fair market value. and that's exactly what we both got.

look, we can debate this til our eyes turn blue, and really i dont even know why im still blathering. here's my point:

LOTS of sellers have abandoned ebay because it frankly sucks as a marketplace now for lots of things. its a new era.

[photo]

Originally Posted by rj.phila

you seem to be saying that the existence of something rare on a secondary market is somehow contributing to its likelihood as a scam.

Here is a quote from the OP: You cant just buy them in a shop you would have to go to a reputable uilleann pipe maker and jion his waiting list which could be from 1 year to 10 years.

The part you keep ignoring was the waiting list. Something that has a waiting list of 1-10 years that suddenly becomes available (in a foreign country, no less) sounds fishy to me. I could not in good conscience advise anyone to go for such a deal, and you obviously think otherwise.

[rj.phila]

photo-again, ALL i buy is electronic instrument esoterica. i have bought many many many things direct from seller that were either "out of print" or long since out of manufacturing, or things that have a "long lead time". alot of them were only made in italy, or russia, or japan. i'm not saying the OP should have bought the item in question. i AM saying that the criteria you have put forth should not be the top priority deciding factors for the OP in the future, IMO. make sense?