Willow eBay Extravaganza

[CMK1887]

A 'Willow Figure Set' is being sold on eBay. It contains the following:

S1 Willow
Red Pants Willow
S5 Willow
Vampire Willow (carded and boxed)
Doppelgangland Willow (carded and boxed)
Transformation Willow
Dark Witch Willow
White Witch Willow (carded and boxed)
World Tour Willow
Willow's Spellbook

This is A LOT of Willow merchandise. All of it is at a start price of $50.00. I wonder how much it'll end up going for...

-CMK

[Jack Panix]

This is tempting, but a brand new seller running only private auctions and only accepting money orders are usually warning signs of a scam.

There was a seller earlier this year who started out selling DVD box sets then quickly switched to the rarer action figures before being shut down by eBay.

But who knows, the person might be legit. Caveat emptor though.

[hurricane]

i dont like how the carded white witch willow card is white-ish

[werewolf]

why would someone sell all of their willows?

[Raven]

And they don't even offer shipping insurance? Run, run far away from this one.

[ajmets]

Something definately fishy about this auction.

[bettycooks]

ajmets said:

Something definately fishy about this auction.

Right, this guy was just kicked off ebay under another ID.

Check out their previous huge lot of Buffy figures "auction" here

cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3190643851&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT


Item number 3190643851 in case the link doesn't work.
They also use the same wording in this listing as the last:

"As an added bonus you will receive the..."

I kept my eye on that one because it was interesting and now he/she's doing it again.

It's bogus, don't waste your money.

[abcfan]

i feel kinda sorry cause you can gaurantee some one will be sucked in by this idiot who keeps selling bogus stuff

[bickle]

How can you tell that those two auctions are from the same person? (I'm not disputing you - I'd just like to know how to research sellers better.)

[Chaos]

Hmmm I wonder how he got several PPWWWs unless he decided to buy some jsut to resell, same with the boxed vamps. I think this is his third scam too. There was one auction for all the carded figures that had PP versions, and their boxed PP partners. Its a diff ID each time but they always looks the same. SAMMEDY SCAM SCAM! And when I find out Im wrong, Im gonna cry that I didnt bid. WILLOW RULES!

[prophecygirl]

hurricane said:

i dont like how the carded white witch willow card is white-ish

that's what mine's like, lol. i never understood it. it's like that and also has no bar code on the back. hmm.

[CMK1887]

prophecygirl said:

that's what mine's like, lol. i never understood it. it's like that and also has no bar code on the back. hmm.

That's what you get from MAC when they frantically try to get one figure out on time...

-CMK

[bettycooks]

bickle said:

How can you tell that those two auctions are from the same person? (I'm not disputing you - I'd just like to know how to research sellers better.)

There are alot of similarities between the 2 sellers:

1. Private Auctions

2. both used the ebay design features.

3. both are relative newcomers with low feedbacks with horror movie associated names "childsplay" and "horrormaniac"

4. both are interested in the "Living Dead Dolls" figures, you can tell this by other items selling on under the "horrormaniac_1" ID and the items bought feedback for "childsplay6669"

5. both have had dealings with another ebay ID "demonboi42" who is also NARU (Not a Registered User)

This was probadly shill bidding (using one ID to up the price of your auction. (this is usually done on private auctions where you cannot tell who's bidding on the item)

5. both ID recently joined, the latest AFTER the date of the other NARU

6. all have had dealings with another user ID "toymania" (who have alot of NARU buyers, about 8 which is weird)

7. the wording is similiar in both auctions (as noted in my first posting)

You can research alot by just looking at their feedback, checking who they deal with and seeing if 3 or more names add up. This is usually a fishy sign.

I learned the hard way to do my ebay research. I was almost out $500 on some Buffy autographs but I tracked the person down and got in touch with the local police dept in Australia and got all my money back.

I'm much more careful now.

Hope this helps.

[bickle]

That's some pretty good detective work. Thanks for the info - I'll keep it noted for the next time I'm looking at auctions.

-Dave

[bettycooks]

You're welcome, I'm glad I could help.

You gotta be careful when sending your money to strangers.

Also the auction has ended so now we can keep an eye out for what happens next.

You'll note that they also ended 4 of their other auctions early to avoid having their items sell for the opening bid amount.

ebay doesn't allow this, it's a violation of their rules, and will kick you off if you do it too many times.

[VKMax]

bettycooks said:

You're welcome, I'm glad I could help.

You gotta be careful when sending your money to strangers.

Indeed you have! i once send money (granted it was only £8 but still) for a vampire angel and got nothing. Yet when i bought a human angel, because it took so long to send they included thier vamp angel with it - thats good people.

[bettycooks]

VKMax said:

Indeed you have! i once send money (granted it was only £8 but still) for a vampire angel and got nothing. Yet when i bought a human angel, because it took so long to send they included thier vamp angel with it - thats good people.

That's great. The same sellers or different?

[VKMax]

different seller. My best deal ever was Xander and MAC Buffy for £23 and they threw in a spare Buffy 2 because MAC Buffy had no accessories.

[bettycooks]

bettycooks said:

Also the auction has ended so now we can keep an eye out for what happens next.

Ok, this seller is now at a feedback rating of -1 with 3 negatives in the past week.

feedback.ebay.com/ws1/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback&userid=horrormaniac_1

I feel awful for these people who bid.

[bloodyhell]

That why he has his feed back as private, he doesn't want anyone to read the negative feedback the customers have posted about him. Poor bidders feel sorry for them.