Ebay is a pirates' paradise.
Curiosity got the better of me, and I went looking there for pipe bending equipment.
I found a lot of incomplete gear there. I found minimal descriptions....what you saw in the pic was apparrently what you got. If you failed to notice that a few critical smaller parts were absent- well, too bad.
One piece pictured was a Harbor Freight "pipe bender," of extremely limited use. The description failed to mention the make of the item....but a search under "greenlee benders" got it to pop up.
Pricing, for the complete sets, was often higher than retail.
When I see lots of "new" stuff...say, five 1/2" benders, with an asking price less than the cost of one.... I can't help but be suspicious. Ditto with odd assortments of tools. And, when a $2000 tool is listed at $150, the word "Theft" screams out at me.
You know neither the seller nor his source. Some of these sharpies take "let the buyer beware" to an extreme. To believe that someone, out of the generosity of their hearts, is willing to provide you with such great bargains defies belief.
Pawn brokers have always been associated with stolen goods- so some regulations were placed upon them. Ebay, and other "auction" houses, have no such constraints.
Finally, there is the nature of auctions themselves. Apart from "auction fever," there are various scams that use the auction as a means to fleece you. These include the seller bidding on his own stuff (often through a "shill," or partner), excessive handling fees, counterfeit goods, and targeting you for future "special offers."
I'm not about to give a thief a market. Sure, I've had folks consider me the 'village idiot' for this attitude, but I don't care. Someone else may buy it- but not me!
Remember, anybody can claim anything on the internet. A fancy web site may easily originate in the trunck of a car in a bar parking lot. There is no reason to expect an "auction house" to care about the source of the goods sold- any more than the local flea market.
The next time someone brags about their "great deals"....look in their tool box. If every tool has a different name engraved on it, you can be sure that there are some victims out there.
If I am ranting a little much, consider this: Until recently, the other half of my duplex was a dope den. Almost across the street from me, there was a "sell your stuff on the internet" business. I saw every doper in town going in there, selling items they had 'scavenged.' When we finally closed down the dope house, it wasn't long before the "business" moved on as well!
"For evil to triumph, good men need do nothing."
