"Vintage" Guillow Lancer on Ebay

[Wildpig]

guillow lancer.jpg

Check out this auction. This person is all wild about finding a well preserved 1966 vintage Guillow kit.
Asking, of course, an appropriate price for an item in such great condition.http://www.ebay.com/itm/230974192195?ss ... 1423.l2648

Couple of problems with this auction: There is a web address on the box and a bar code on the side of the box.
I think they are seeing the copyright date and then seeing dollar signs.

[Phugoid]

I felt sorry for this guy and hinted to the issue via eBay. I've seen this a lot before, vintage kits with bar code on them that is.....

Andrew

[Wildpig]

He/she ought to know better. They have a 18,000+ rating at 100%.
It appears they deal regularly with vintage and antique items. I wonder if it's deliberate. I noticed that all their plastic model airplane kits are listed at $39.99, too.

[Wildpig]

He revised the auction to indicate that it is a 1990's era kit. 5/05/2013

[Bill Gaylord]

He/she ought to know better. They have a 18,000+ rating at 100%.
It appears they deal regularly with vintage and antique items. I wonder if it's deliberate. I noticed that all their plastic model airplane kits are listed at $39.99, too.

That's where I'm at. The ".com" makes it obviously non vintage. The Ebay sellers wanting inflated prices for Guillows kits have just pummeled the site with equivalent of spam. Even with the availability of Guillows laser cut kits, these sellers still try to get more than laser cut prices for the old, die-cut kits. I now only search model brand titles now, although that can limit search results, which makes the whole thing frustrating. I try to add those sellers to the "do not do business with" list. It's one thing to try to make money from rare, vintage kits, and another to overcharge for currently available kits.

[ah2630]

The ad on ebay is now titled "NEW 1994 REPRO OF 1966 GUILLOW'S LANCER"

[Steve Blanchard]

Aren't there rules about lying about a product? The main complaint is that it is listed as RARE. Besides the fact that it is so over priced. I find it irritating that people are allowed to list like that. How do you get a note on there letting people know they can buy it brand new direct from the manufacturer for less than $14.00?

Steve

[Phugoid]

Caveat emptor.....

[BillParker]

so I sent the guy a note, thru E-Bay Channels:

Dear s$sautographs,

I'm going to guess you don't know that that kit is neither rare or vintage,
and that it can be purchased at A/C Supply:
http://www.acsupplyco.com/aerospace/gui ... series.htm for less that 10
dollars?

Just sayin'...

bp

His first response: (apparently the system sent him multiple copies...)

Dear billparker777,

Who Cares? Buy it from them then! We have turned you
into eBay for harassment. eBay has a anti harassment policy. Do not contact
us again. Your emails are not welcome.

Sent from my iPhone

2nd:

Dear billparker777,

How many times are going to send this? Buy the model from the website for
$10.00. I COULD CARE LESS. Since you have a lot of free time on your hands
I suggest you read the eBay policy on harassment because we will be
forwarding this and your precious emails from you to eBay and filing a
harassment case against your account. Your emails are not welcome here. Any
additional emails from you will also be forwarded to eBay for harassment.

-s$sautographs

3rd

Dear billparker777,

It is a free country and we can price our items however we want. Obviously
you have a lot of free time on your hands so please harass other eBay
members and do not email me again.

-s$sautographs

So, I had to poke the bear one more time...

Dear s$sautographs,

Sorry, didn't mean to cause you problems. I've just sent the one mail thru
the ebay system, so if there's more than one the system is where your
issue is. Very often bad pricing on items is due to poor research, and or
ignorance, rather than fraud and profiteering. Or mayhaps a bit too much
caffein...

-billparker777

bp

[Wildpig]

Bill..... you stinker.

My, my, what nasty responses from SSAutographs. I thought about buying the kit (at $40, forget that) and then giving him negative feedback for falsely representing the item. But, no, I politely informed him of his error via email. How that person got to an 18,000+ rating at 100%, I have no idea.

[BillParker]

I is a stinker, ain't I?

[Phugoid]

Bill you are a very naughty person indeed!

Why don't you really wind him up and offer $1 for it?

Andrew

[Steve Blanchard]

I am very happy that you did that Bill. It's funny how when someone knows they are guilty of fraud they instantly get defensive. Posture: Back UP! I still think there should be some way to openly comment or offer links to real information on ebay. That is the biggest flaw there. I could rant and rave about how rare or vintage something is and snare someone into blowing their hard earned cash. Lying about a product by calling it rare when it isn't, is fraud and that is still illegal as far as I know.


Good Job!
Steve

[Wildpig]

Steve,
I've thought about that, too. Some way to post comments on Ebay auction items.
Yahoo News has that feature. They post a news article and down at the bottom people can post their own comments. Sometimes the comments are more interesting to read than the news.

Or a separate website that persons could look up the item they want to bid on Ebay and see what, if any comments have been made about it. Many times I've seen "collector" car auctions on Ebay and seen things that I wish I could communicate to potential bidders.

[Bill Gaylord]

I have to work hard, to refrain myself from sending messages to some of these outright Ebay kit scammers. Got a kick out of Bill Parker's post. I'm sure everyone by now has seen the Sterling glider that has a bunch of junk in the box, without a single part appearing to actually be from the glider kit. See the photos for yourself:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Sterlin ... 5d3f1ad261
There should be some way of public posting for these auctions. Not as bad, but just dishonest are adds like this one, that show the Guillows P47 as being very rare. You would thing that everyone knows that there are more of them available than you can shake a stick at, but they still try to lure somebody into the sale with dishonest comments.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Very-RARE-Guill ... 35c7b68f90

There was a guy recently who was trying to sell some vintage Guillows kits that actually had some value. He was getting no hits, due to his refusal to show photos. I PM'd him about it, and he responded with a bunch of excuses. One of them was that he didn't want to "disturb" the contents or lose any of them. Well I never asked him to do that. Simply removing the lid and taking a photo would be a big help. As for his rating defense, I've seen folks with higher numbers than his and near perfect 99.9% ratings, that still sell the occasional "burner box" kit.

My message:
"I would never want to ask for a refund on a kit. Modelers want to see a photo of the box contents, since the plastic has been removed and it has been opened in the past. We've learned not to take the public's word for things. Kit auctions showing the box contents draw more money. Some pro kit sellers like PVHC think that they don't have to, but even they would do better if they did."

The response:
"Hi, I received your message and your point is well taken... I understand, but with all due respect I'm not sure that I totally agree! I have a few reasons for this. First, I hesitate to disturb the integrity of a kit when upon careful inspection I am as certain as I can be it is complete. My reason being, many of the parts in these vintage kits are loose. By removing the contents to photograph them, I risk accidentally loosing a part(s). Additionally, I've earned my excellent seller rating thru honesty, good ethics, and excellent customer service. This is not easily done and requires a committment to making every effort that each transaction is a positive experience. I would hope that this would afford my potential customers a certain comfort level and trust in me as a seller. Thank you for your understanding."

The bottom line is that his Buy It Now prices were quite fair, and he did not sell the kits for quite a while. In an auction, he would certainly draw even more from the kits. I think he eventually realized I was correct about showing photos, but still refused to. Hopefully the Ebay consumer public will teach these people what the best practices are, but there is often somebody that still buys a less than 100% clearly or honestly represented sale.

Some other laughable sales are ones like this so called Rare Graupner B209 kit. The seller's been trying to sell this kit forever at high dollar. Regardless of whether it's rare or not, it's beat up and not a high value kit. The kicker is that he includes a Guillows decal kit in a non-Guillows kit, as if that's supposed to make it more desirable. Completely adds to the cheesyness and takes the prize of "box full-o-junk", in my book:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1970s-Vintage-G ... 20d2e51348

Edit: Just came back here, after almost hitting the buy button for a Guillows D7. Looks complete enough for the price, but would you buy something when the seller gives feedback like this, when there are problems? He labels his customers as illiterate and deadbeats. Nice guy here. Great attitude:
http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.d ... gative_365