net Posted July 26, 2020 Share Posted July 26, 2020 Maybe another scam, but the seller seems OK, with at least some past selling. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Volunteer sir sanders zingmore Posted July 26, 2020 Volunteer Share Posted July 26, 2020 The seller is in Hong Kong and the price is in GBP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
net Posted July 26, 2020 Author Share Posted July 26, 2020 Yes., you pay about AUD $18. The seller sold about 40 in the past 24 hours Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monk Posted July 26, 2020 Share Posted July 26, 2020 (edited) Worth a try at this price. See if something newish gets delivered. Ta. Edited July 26, 2020 by Monk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete_mac Posted July 26, 2020 Share Posted July 26, 2020 (edited) Hmmm... this smells pretty damn fishy from where I'm sitting. In addition to selling a bulk quantity of these Chromecast Audio devices at well below the regular price (including free worldwide shipping), the seller has also listed a variety bulky/heavy products (desks, welders, 1 and 2 gallon epoxy resin kits) for very cheap prices including worldwide shipping - at a fraction of the regular price. A bit of research and applying some common-sense goes a long way. If it looks like a duck... Edited July 26, 2020 by pete_mac 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete_mac Posted July 26, 2020 Share Posted July 26, 2020 (edited) As an example - the Epoxy kit info copied from the manufacturer here - $USD 105 plus shipping: https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Crystal-Clear-Epoxy-Resin-General-Purpose-Bar-Table-Top-Coating-2-Gallon-Kit-/282416650652 The deck is copied from here ($USD 150) https://au.dhgate.com/product/fch-office-l-shaped-computer-desk-corner/553962358.html?f=bm|GMC|pla|1682264326|68385750634|553962358|pla-301146456863|019027008|AU|dingding134|c|2|&utm_source=pla&utm_medium=GMC&utm_campaign=dingding134&utm_term=553962358&gclid=CjwKCAjw0_T4BRBlEiwAwoEiAVcmsL9tM5Gp83w-GBRPWHZR1bhd00f83gqAM_mcvtbcSik4QTICXxoCmXQQAvD_BwE Edited July 26, 2020 by pete_mac 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
net Posted July 27, 2020 Author Share Posted July 27, 2020 Despite all these, there is not much downside, if you pay by Paypal. No financial loss, but only a likely realisation of what as expected. A scam that can only hurt E bay financially, but then they have plenty to spare. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Volunteer sir sanders zingmore Posted July 27, 2020 Volunteer Share Posted July 27, 2020 6 minutes ago, net said: Despite all these, there is not much downside, if you pay by Paypal. No financial loss, but only a likely realisation of what as expected. A scam that can only hurt E bay financially, but then they have plenty to spare. It may only hurt eBay (mind you it probably also hurts the person whose account may have been hacked) but it also potentially benefits a scammer. Do you really want to do that? Maybe a better alternative is to report it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
net Posted July 27, 2020 Author Share Posted July 27, 2020 "Maybe a better alternative is to report it " Done that twice!, but staff there don't really care!, Also what can do about it?, as restricted by their "rules". Also, they should not pre-judged anyone, before any misdoing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete_mac Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 (edited) 2 hours ago, net said: Despite all these, there is not much downside, if you pay by Paypal. No financial loss, but only a likely realisation of what as expected. A scam that can only hurt E bay financially, but then they have plenty to spare. By throwing money at any of the items that the scammer is selling, he wins. This is what he is banking on - people hoping for a bargain and disabling their logic when hitting the buy button, or people hedging their bets and not caring due to the way that paypal system works - and he walks away with the money. This is ABSOLUTELY the downside - we should not be enabling or encouraging a scam culture, regardless of whether it is the consumer or paypal who pays for the scam. Edited July 27, 2020 by pete_mac 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
net Posted July 27, 2020 Author Share Posted July 27, 2020 (edited) The official advice from E bay is to write to them to enquire. They are hoping that they are legitimate, and will adjust their buying/selling policy, when necessary. Also, they have yet any complaint. Sellers on E bay are not as protected as buyers, and it is E bay's way of encouraging business. No need to do policing for E bay or PayPal. Edited July 27, 2020 by net Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
net Posted July 27, 2020 Author Share Posted July 27, 2020 A recent message from seller: " new message from: russel-3847 (39) dear friend The project is made in China with low cost. Please don‘t worry. thank you! Reply Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
net Posted July 27, 2020 Author Share Posted July 27, 2020 Maybe now, we should be telling GOOGLE about their illegitimate devices, made without their knowledge? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Volunteer sir sanders zingmore Posted July 27, 2020 Volunteer Share Posted July 27, 2020 36 minutes ago, net said: Maybe now, we should be telling GOOGLE about their illegitimate devices, made without their knowledge? Made in China with low cost...sounds just like what google does 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete_mac Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 (edited) 1 hour ago, net said: The official advice from E bay is to write to them to enquire. They are hoping that they are legitimate, and will adjust their buying/selling policy, when necessary. Also, they have yet any complaint. Sellers on E bay are not as protected as buyers, and it is E bay's way of encouraging business. No need to do policing for E bay or PayPal. 56 minutes ago, net said: A recent message from seller: " new message from: russel-3847 (39) dear friend The project is made in China with low cost. Please don‘t worry. thank you! Reply 53 minutes ago, net said: Maybe now, we should be telling GOOGLE about their illegitimate devices, made without their knowledge? Hmmm... writing to a seller to check if they are a scammer... sounds somewhat disingenuous, don't you think? What kind of response do you honestly expect to receive? Seriously... if you can honestly look at the suite of the items he is selling (heavy welders, desks, epoxy kits, and the Google device), consider the stupidly low pricing including free worldwide shipping (it would cost more to ship some of these items than the selling price of the items themselves!) and be satisfied that this is legitimate... then I wish you luck with your purchase. Sorry, but you are switching-off the rational part of your brain in favour of hopefully scoring a bargain. Of course ebay have received no complaints - the seller has sold bulk quantities of each item over the past few days. There has been no time for people to realise the items aren't arriving as planned... I'm looking forward to seeing where this debacle heads over the next month or two. I predict no tracking details being provided when the items are claimed to be shipped, and a fairly swift departure by the seller after emptying their linked bank account, while ebay and paypal are left to clean up the mess. BTW Google have nothing to do with this. I'm not implying a forgery or the sale of illegitimate devices - there's nothing for sale here apart from a picture on an ebay listing and thin air, hopes and dreams! Edited July 27, 2020 by pete_mac 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Volunteer sir sanders zingmore Posted July 27, 2020 Volunteer Share Posted July 27, 2020 It's actually not a bad scam. Low priced goods sold for an even lower price. You attract lots of people who say "it's a cheap gamble, even if it is a scam I won't lose much." As opposed to selling an expensive item at a too-good-to-be-true price which still involves quite a lot of money Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete_mac Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 5 minutes ago, sir sanders zingmore said: It's actually not a bad scam. Low priced goods sold for an even lower price. You attract lots of people who say "it's a cheap gamble, even if it is a scam I won't lose much." As opposed to selling an expensive item at a too-good-to-be-true price which still involves quite a lot of money Damn straight it is! Just over $AUD 11,500 worth of sales over the past four or five days - and still some way to go before all items are sold out. Not bad for a week's work... er... scamming! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barbz127 Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 Not backing this seller/scammer whatever but there is something odd with the Chromecast audios in general, one day there were hundreds in stock at each jb hifi and then the next day everything was withdrawn from sale, not sold but pulled. I'm wondering if there was something going on between google and Sonos or someone else that forced their hand to pull them from sale. Based on this I always figured there were large allotments of stock that would hit the market over the years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
net Posted July 27, 2020 Author Share Posted July 27, 2020 (edited) "Sorry, but you are switching-off the rational part of your brain in favour of hopefully scoring a bargain." you are getting personal! Do you have any schooling? Why not go next step? "Maybe now, we should be telling GOOGLE about their illegitimate devices, made without their knowledge?" It is a Google Chrome-cast Audio, a device legitimately made by google. What do you mean by "..Google have nothing to do with this." Edited July 27, 2020 by net More information. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete_mac Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 25 minutes ago, net said: "Sorry, but you are switching-off the rational part of your brain in favour of hopefully scoring a bargain." you are getting personal! Do you have any schooling? Why not go next step? Sorry if I have offended you - this is not intended to be a personal attack. I am only hoping that some common-sense will prevail. As the saying goes, you can lead a horse to water... Do I have any schooling? Plenty, thanks for asking! 25 minutes ago, net said: "Maybe now, we should be telling GOOGLE about their illegitimate devices, made without their knowledge?" It is a Google Chrome-cast Audio, a device legitimately made by google. What do you mean by "..Google have nothing to do with this." There is no need to tell Google about "the illegitimate devices, made without their knowledge". There are no illegitimate devices made without their knowledge. There are no devices being sold here at all. It's a file photo being used in the ebay listing. Nothing more, nothing less. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete_mac Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 Look out... a new addition to the seller's store: https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Google-Home-Mini-Smart-Assistant-Charcoal/164308561801?hash=item26418daf89:g:UI8AAOSwqrZa8ECU&frcectupt=true ($12 delivered) Text stolen word-for-word from here: https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Google-Home-Mini-Smart-Assistant-Charcoal-/173631891192 ($55 delivered). Let's take bets on how many will be sold within 24 hours. I'm guessing 87. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
net Posted July 27, 2020 Author Share Posted July 27, 2020 (edited) "There are no illegitimate devices made without their knowledge." Do you truly believe that? How do you know? If you got things made in China-they can be made without their consent! Moreover, things can be reversed engineered. Edited July 27, 2020 by net More information. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete_mac Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 (edited) 18 minutes ago, net said: Google Home Mini - Smart Speaker with Google Assistant - Chalk $29.00 Sale at Target That's Target in the USA. You can currently grab these for around $40 in Australia. However, I'm not quite sure why you posted the link. I think you are missing my point entirely. This may be of interest too... the ebay seller has increased the available quantity of the Google Chromecast 38 times within 24 hours! https://www.ebay.com.au/rvh/164305627940?rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l48144 The welder... even more frequenty! https://www.ebay.com.au/rvh/164281191624?rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l48144 Desks - not so many revisions: https://www.ebay.com.au/rvh/164299700442?rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l48144 Similar patterns for the epoxy: https://www.ebay.com.au/rvh/164298365213?rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l48144 Now... either the seller has incredibly poor inventory control (I guess it must be hard keeping track of hundreds of pretend Google devices, welders, chairs, desks and epoxy resin kits inside an imaginary warehouse) or he is waiting until there are only a few items left before bumping up the available quantity and creating the impression that buyers should buy now or risk missing out on these invisible bargains. Edited July 27, 2020 by pete_mac 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete_mac Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 (edited) 3 hours ago, net said: "There are no illegitimate devices made without their knowledge." Do you truly believe that? How do you know? If you got things made in China-they can be made without their consent! Moreover, things can be reversed engineered. Hmm... firstly, for some reason you've completely changed your earlier post. Secondly... you are taking my words out completely of context. When I referred to Google not being relevant, I am talking about this seller, this situation, and the discussion in this thread. My comments are all about this thread - not a wider statement about counterfeiting in the marketplace. Let's try to keep the discussion in-context please! Everybody is aware that there are fake goods for sale on the internet. However... I haven't once suggested that this seller is trying to sell fake Chromecast Audios. What I have suggested is that he is selling Chromecast Audios which he doesn't have in stock - just like the rest of his wares. This isn't a counterfeit goods scam - it's a bunch of 'too-good-to-be-true' deals with tell-tale signs all over it. There are countless discussion threads on the ebay community forums and elsewhere on the internet - this not a new thing! As I said earlier, I hope that common-sense will prevail... but I am not holding my breath. Edited July 27, 2020 by pete_mac 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Volunteer sir sanders zingmore Posted July 27, 2020 Volunteer Share Posted July 27, 2020 8 minutes ago, pete_mac said: Chromecast Audios which he doesn't have in stock But the seller said "please don't worry" so I'm sure it'll be fine 2 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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