These two items look suspiciously similar.
I would watch out for this Siccama.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=10183&item=7323045809&rd=1
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=10183&item=7321195129&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW
Cheers
I think you’re right, Andrew. This is becoming a serious issue. Do we need to develop a routine response to it on behalf of the flute-loving community? Will Ebay react to challenges?
On a happier note, I recently purchased a French 5-key flute through Ebay for my Research Collection. It came up at a very good “Buy it now” price, so I acted. The vendor then asked could I pay by Western Union as he was in Brazil and couldn’t collect money from PayPal. He offered to cover postage if I did that. I agreed. He then said he needed the 10 digit code to collect it from Western Union (apparently untrue and permits you to collect anywhere in the world without matching ID). I did that too. Then I started to wonder and read through the Ebay fine print on payment methods, and found that what I’d gone down was the classic scam path. I resigned myself to having been taken and tried to put it to the back of my mind. I assumed Ebay wouldn’t do anything as I hadn’t followed their advice on payment). Sitting out enjoying a sunny lunch the other day and the flute arrived!
The big difference here though is that the vendor had a long history on Ebay with about 150 positive comments going back over 6 years. I assume that can’t be faked (except perhaps with massive assistance from others over a long period). And that that history would be blown out of the water if the vendor was a scammer.
Getting back to the case in point, I imagine emailing the vendor: “Hey, my brother-in-law lives in Redwood City and is a flute player in the Police Marching Band! Can I send him around to check it out for me? What’s your address?”
Terry
The UK seller is legit–I just got a Fentum from him this past week. He’s a stand up guy. I’m assuming the California seller won the flute and has immediately turned around to sell the flute.
–Doc
It looks bad. Go careful with this one. Why would he buy it for $1500 and sell for $135? This could easily be a scam.
is there some reason why no one has bothered to not that this is the same flute on both ebay listings? One obvioulsy BS (do not trust anyone sellign a high-deal flute from a new member…usually it’s a giveaway).
And it’s a Chappell siccama, not a first-made siccama.
OK, I have reported to Ebay that it may be a fraud. We will see what happens.
And not only the same flute but the same photos of the same flute. I lost interest at that point, but they may well still carry the same image filenames!
The purchaser of the original flute doesn’t have the same name as the current vendor. That doesn’t rule out the possibility that the flute has changed hands again before being offered on Ebay, but seems unlikely that the original words and images would be reused.
Terry
There is a common eBay scam where someone steals the password from another user (usually someone who doesn’t use eBay very much, so he doesn’t notice, and this accounts for the low feedback numbers). Then, copy pictures and descriptions past auctions, hoping to get paid for something you don’t have. In this case, the feedback is zero, so it may even be an account made up just for this fraud.
One thing you can do is email the seller asking for more details (serial number, additional pictures, etc).
I live near Redwood City… If you send me the money, I will go buy the flute and let you know how it is 
Ah, the offending item has been disallowed by Ebay. So that answers the question - they are prepared to disable a scam if alerted.
Well done ajay, a triumph for Truth, Justice and the Belconnen Way.
Terry
Mabey he just doesn’t want or need it anymore and isn’t trying to make money?
Mabey I have too much faith in people?