Amazing rip off on ebay

[Somnium]

i just came across some products being sold by ausriver on ebay. i wasn't familiar with them but they do have a good business model

step 1) advertise equipment on ebay for 2x retail price
step 2) take orders, buy the product then ship
step 3) roll around in the cash they just made

for example, they have a CGEM-DX 1400 14" Schmidt-Cassegrain computerised "Go-To" package which on sale for $21,266. Andrews coms are selling the same product for $9,999. They also have listings for lower end products which are 3X the price. they are taking advantage of people who don't have any knowledge of this equipment and think they are getting a good deal.

have a look at what they are selling for over $5k (with apparently 6 sold already)

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/MEADE-Astronomical-Star-Navigator-102mm-GOTO-Computer-Guided-Refractor-Telescope-/221293316879?hash=item33861c0b0f

[Terry B]

Click on the "6 sold" button and see what was allegedly paid. ;)

[bojan]

:jawdrop:!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[codemonkey]

Hmm, looks interesting. The sold history on that one you linked to shows they were previously sold for 377.99 - 454.99. Could their account have gotten hacked?

Edit: Terry beat me to it.

[LewisM]

Yeah, the 6 sold were several years ago.

I am willing to bet - seeing they list it as out of stock, it is merely a placeholder - you cannot even bid on it. why they put such a stupid price on it while out of stock is anyone's guess - maybe they will bother finding you another for $5K? :)

Their feedback is interesting to read. Seems like a peddler of defective Chinese goods. Kind of like Sam's Warehouse old rationale.

[raymo]

There seems to be a bit of a mix up somewhere, the vendor is shown as
"happymama_online", not Ausriver. I did buy one item from Ausriver quite a while ago, it was junk.
raymo

[dreamstation]

As did I. I promptly requested a refund and sent the item back. They refunded my money which was great but their communication was horrible. Steer clear in my opinion.

[MortonH]

Considering you have to be online to use ebay there's no excuse for not checking prices elsewhere.

And it's only a ripoff if you actually buy something at those prices.

[Peter Ward]

Seems some don't learn much from history

"A fool and his money are soon parted"

(an old English proverb apparently goes back to the 1500's ....)

[Atmos]

It doesn't seem like the right place to do that sort of "scam". I mean, think about it, you're putting the prices up on a platform where dozens of other prices show up to compete against your products! At least in a retail sense you may be able to con people into thinking that they're getting a good deal when they're not if they haven't done their homework.

[Somnium]

yeah i know ... but it is easy to set up and it is free money if you get a taker, it only requires a couple of people to not properly research and you make decent money ...

the do have scopes "in stock" which you can purchase.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Celestron-Astronomical-Telescope-CGE-PRO-1400-HD-Computerized-Telescope-11094-/191558950337?hash=item2c99cd9dc1

they do offer free delivery though !

[OzEclipse]

I was looking at tripods the other day and saw a Manfrotto 055 carbon fibre (worth around $400-$500) for $6000+.

At work, one of our turbo pumps blew a cooling fan the other day. These are $8000 high vacuum pumps. Nonetheless the cooling fan is just a 24V dc 60mm computer cooling type fan.

I got a quote from the supplier for the OEM part. They wanted $720 for it. I actually asked him if it had solid gold fan blades.

In the end I ordered an identical fan from Element 14 for $26 instead.

The replaceable valve seats on our vacuum valves are made of solid gold - but only about $25 worth. Cost of part - $520. I recycle the gold, cast it into small round bars and then get our workshop to machine our own. Cost about $50 ea inc labour.

Joe

[FlashDrive]

This guys having a lend of himself .....

Col.

[E_ri_k]

Wow, that's ridiculous! Sometimes I see items on eBay for crazy prices, like a lego sets for $9000. I recall reading somewhere a while ago about sellers jacking prices up to avoid ebay fees or something similar? Don't know why you'd bother though, a distracts from the sale....

[deanm]

This over-inflation of prices is rather like the Nigerian (or wherever) email scams: 99.999% will will be completely ignored/deleted/etc.

It's the 0.001% that do suck in some gullible mug.

Money for jam!

This one is a classic (and obviously relevant on this forum!).

The Stranded Nigerian Astronaut

Stuck on Soyuz. Send help. Quick

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/04/16/cosmic_419er/

Dean

[Somnium]

Wow, now i have seen everything !