I saw this Strat on ebay. Supposedly it's a 57/58 original strat. I looked up the serial number and it checks out but for the price, it just can't be a real original. I was under the impression that a strat of this age, and overall great condition would be worth 10 times what the current bid is. There is less than 24 hours left on the auction and there are only 4 bids with a current price of around $3000. Oh, also, he's requesting payment with a bank wire transfer instead of paypal. Is that even safe or advisable? Just curious is all. Oh he also has some other vintage strats for sale as well.

http://cgi.ebay.com/1957-Fender-Stratocaster-100-original_W0QQitemZ150390212677QQcmdZViewItemQQptZGuitar?hash=item2303f48845

Looks ok to me. It'll probably go up a lot in the next 16 hours, well, probably not until like the last hour.

Only thing that looks odd to me, is he's also selling a 63 strat and a 60 strat. I don't know if it's a store or just a guy, but 3 classic all original strats seems a little odd, but not impossible.

i mean it "looks" like the the real thing and it might and might not be kinda hard to say when your not there looking at the strat yourself. ive seen strats like this go over for much more like 30k. The seller does have a 100% positive feedback but has only received one in the past year. Kinda hard to say sounds fishy to me. Hope that helps.

Looks legit.

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-Kc
"Payin' dues."

Something is not right with these guitars, I dont care how good they look. Look up on ebay any other Strats in the same age bracket and compare prices. Funny he has three pre CBS guitars with only one just barely going over 3K and the other two at $2,900 with less than 15 hours left on all of them. Also he does not accept paypal only bank transfers which means if the guitar is a fake you are beat. I would not touch them and it seems all the collectors have not either.

This is not the way to buy vintage guitars.

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James Burton Upgrade Telecaster
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I nearly got taken by this same scam over a pretty identical 57 with a amp for £1500.


Note the case similarities



The upshot of the story is they advertised the guitar and amp for £1500. It was on the forum last year around this time.

I said," yep I'll have it where are you in London? I'll collect and pay cash. "

Seller, "ah I'm in Valencia at the moment, selling the guitar for my boyfriend. Wire me the money using world money union and I'll fedex the guitar".

I said, "Ah Valencia is no problem, I'll fly out friday collect it and pay you cash in whatever currency you prefer". (this all happened on a wednesday if memory serves correct)

Seller, "oh you dont need to do that its safe with fedex, they guarantee it".

At this point Ceri started saying lets drive down their and punch his head in, or words to that effect.

Seller,"I'm flying out to America friday morning".

I said, "I'm sorry but a guitar like that deserves a seat next to me on the return flight. Its a fifty year old guitar that should go nowhere near a airplane hold. Tell you what I'll also pay your airfare for you to fly out saturday. If you can hold off one day for me to collect".

Seller, "tell you what pay the £1500 into your wife/partners money union account. Give me a statement of the balance and I'll ship it".

Me, "NO"
Seller, "Half now rest on receiving the guitar?".

I didnt bother to respond. We even got the address and aerial photo's of the residence. Which looked like a shop to me.

The upshot of it is that genuine 57's will sell for Between £15000 and £30000 depending on condition, all day long. Not £1500 on the london gumtree or $3000 on ebay.

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No no and no

No no I can assure you it was typical English thuggish brutality that he wanted to meet out to the scam artist. Nothing gets his back up like a unscrupulous scammer in the world of guitars.

I honestly started worrying about going down there with him, thought he was gonna get dark on that scammer should he get his hands on him.

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No no and no

I'm forced to concur with the general consensus here...I would be -VERY- cautious about doing any business with this person.

First there's the previously mentioned issue about the "back to band transfer". Very simply as an Ebay buyer and seller myself, it's not -that- hard to set up a Paypal account...not hard at all in fact. For a sale of this nature (not to mention in the amounts of money we're talking about) there is absolutely no good reason this person shouldn't be accepting Paypal.

Second, in regards to this person's feedback...if you'll look closely, this person's feedback is mostly as a buyer and not as a seller...this person doesn't appear to have sold many things on Ebay -at all-. What's more is that in one of the feedback comments you will see "Lightening fast Paypal payment Truly responsible Buyer A A A A A A + + + + + +" which indicates this person -IS- familiar with Paypal but has chosen not to use it for these transactions....VERY suspicious indeed.

In addition to those issues...which of course are huge...the pictures aren't even close to sharp enough to verify ANY sense of legitimacy or authenticity. Any -serious- seller of instruments of this nature would provide sharp, clear images (not just numerous pictures) documenting every detail of this instrument. From the poor quality images on these auctions, these two guitars could -EASILY- be fakes and you would not be able to tell. Honestly...just how hard is it to write a date on the end of a neck? The routing, wiring and wear do look consistent with an instrument of this vintage -but- those things too can be easily faked and these pictures would NOT reveal that at all.

Also on the note of authenticity it also goes without saying that these instruments should have a certificate...they don't.

I also find it highly curious that in some shots there is a tuning key missing on both guitars yet in other shots it's there. I'm not sure why anyone would remove a single tuning key for auction pictures...

Quite honestly even if this person did except Paypal, I probably wouldn't do business. On the other hand, I wouldn't buy an instrument of this nature via Ebay anyways...the -ONLY- way I would buy an instrument like this is in person so I could inspect the instrument myself.

Please do NOT let your greed over-come your good sense here...as others have said, this really looks like a VERY questionable situation at best. Unless you can EASILY afford to throw away a few grand (in which case you should throw it -my- way), please don't do it!

Just my $.02 worth,
Jim

When I buy or sell on eBay it's cash in person or Paypal, period.

I think also, if he was really selling these classic strats, he would have a reserve on it, and probably pretty high. Doesn't look like he has a reserve on any of these guitars.

Refer you all to the current issue of Premier Guitar on the subject of counterfeiting guitars. Most interesting reading. BTW: IMHO this magazine is a must subcription for all Forum members.

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"Another day in paradise!"