Reverb Fraud Right

[deacon Mark]

Gibson L-5 CES 2016 - Sunburst | Reverb

Everyone knows I think nothing of reverb in general. If the above listing is ligament I could get there today by car and buy it. I take bets if I contact the seller What do you think.

[tomvwash]

Gibson L-5 CES 2016 - Sunburst | Reverb

Everyone knows I think nothing of reverb in general. If the above listing is ligament I could get there today by car and buy it. I take bets if I contact the seller What do you think.

That's actually my guitar. I already reported as fraud, gone now. This guitar has re-appeared 15 times or more, with fraudulent sellers. It actually "sold" once at this price--not sure how Reverb deals with that transaction.

[garybaldy]

I bought my '63 175 a couple of years ago via Ebay. Within hours it was being listed on Italian Ebay. It wasn't up for long. My seller reported it. I haven't seen it ( for sale) since!

[Stringswinger]

I have posted pictures on Facebook that were reposted by other users as though it was theirs. I no longer put my stuff on the web. It seems that there are a lot of people with defective moral compasses out there.

[Mick-7]

Pretty sure one can easily watermark one's digital photographs so that attempts to reproduce them will seriously degrade the images, con artists will to have to steal their pics from someone else.

Gibson L-5 CES 2016 - Sunburst | Reverb
If the above listing is legitimate I could get there today by car and buy it. I take bets if I contact the seller. What do you think.

If you click on that seller's ID you get: "Account Disabled"

[Hammertone]

Pretty sure one can easily watermark one's digital photographs...

Or use a certain black leather chair...

[pawlowski6132]

I have posted pictures on Facebook that were reposted by other users as though it was theirs. I no longer put my stuff on the web. It seems that there are a lot of people with defective moral compasses out there.

I couldn't care less if some scammer used pictures from one of my listings.

What's the difference?

[Stringswinger]

I couldn't care less if some scammer used pictures from one of my listings.

What's the difference?

If you have to ask that question, perhaps your moral compass isn't working quite correctly?

IMO, Moral people should not want their pictures being used to scam others.

[pawlowski6132]

If you have to ask that question, perhaps your moral compass isn't working quite correctly?

IMO, Moral people should not want their pictures being used to scam others.

Why? I'm not doing anything wrong why should I be considered immoral because somebody stole something of mine?

[wintermoon]

[pawlowski6132]

What you too?? I should stop selling things on reverb cuz somebody might steal the pictures I posted out of the billion pictures on the internet?

What's going on here? Are you guys doing a bit? you can't be serious.

[wintermoon]

Look man, no one said YOU were immoral. Read between the lines.
If you don't think there's anything wrong w people stealing other people's pix to rip people off I don't know what to tell you.
Maybe think of someone else here rather than how it impacts you.

[Mick-7]

Or use a certain black leather chair...

I believe that particular watermark is taken, perhaps one a little more informal, like say....

[starjasmine]

Y'all have raised an interesting point: it would be trivial for reverb.com or ebay, etc. to add a little code that automagically watermarks every pic before it even gets posted.

Sellers who don't want their pics reused can use freeware graphics programs to add their own watermarks before posting. A quick google search brought up links to 18 free programs that can add watermarks to images.

[fine-instruments]

at that price the alarm bells should ring loud and clear to everyone ! Even one or two grands more would be too cheap for such a clean L-5 CES so stay away of such offers. Don't let greed overwhelm your senses. BTW, the Reverb account was deactivated by now.

[djg]

at that price the alarm bells should ring loud and clear to everyone !

you actually want your scam to be obvious. you only want to attract the most gullible.

[bananafist]

Ligament?

[FourOnSix]

Ligament?

For guitars that cost an arm and a leg.

[Cunamara]

It seems that there are a lot of people with defective moral compasses out there.

Well, that sums things up neatly. And dovetails into my personal psychological corollary to explain the state of the world: "the human race is not as smart as it likes to think it is."

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

For guitars that cost an arm and a leg.

You gotta be limb-er in this market. The rise in prices is a bad tendon...see.

[Cunamara]

at that price the alarm bells should ring loud and clear to everyone ! Even one or two grands more would be too cheap for such a clean L-5 CES so stay away of such offers. Don't let greed overwhelm your senses. BTW, the Reverb account was deactivated by now.

Or at least consider carefully. A year ago I bought a Gibson ES175 from a seller on the local Craigslist that was about $1000 below the going price most everywhere else. Seller was a very nice man, a reputable lawyer thinning down his collection and not looking to make a killing with the guitars he had for sale. There is a Heritage H550 going for $2500 on the local Craigslist that's been sitting there for a year at that price because market demand is very soft IMHO. Such deals are out there; although somebody legitimately posting an L5 at that price on reverb.com would clearly not understand the current market. It is certainly a red flag in that setting!

[Stringswinger]

Or at least consider carefully. A year ago I bought a Gibson ES175 from a seller on the local Craigslist that was about $1000 below the going price most everywhere else. Seller was a very nice man, a reputable lawyer thinning down his collection and not looking to make a killing with the guitars he had for sale. There is a Heritage H550 going for $2500 on the local Craigslist that's been sitting there for a year at that price because market demand is very soft IMHO. Such deals are out there; although somebody legitimately posting an L5 at that price on reverb.com would clearly not understand the current market. It is certainly a red flag in that setting!

Deals can be had. This forum is a great place to find such deals (I have done so several times) and Craigslist is as well (I have made some great deals there). Dealers usually know what they have and seek market value, but they sometimes need to raise cash and will sell guitars at a wholesale (rather than retail) price (I have gotten some great deals from dealers, though I admit that is a rare thing). EBay and Reverb are much harder places to make a great deal. There is sales tax to be paid, the seller has fees and the traffic is huge. One can weed out the scammers with a Craigslist deal, online deals are much harder to do so. One can still make a great deal on the online platforms by using the best offer feature and vetting the seller. Usually, what seems too good to be true often is. In person transactions are worth the extra effort and expense. And caution is the best prescription for not being scammed. My experience is that Paypal and Reverb will not always protect you (contrary to their claims) but American Express (for those of us in the USA) will.

Good luck out there folks!

[nyc chaz]

Deals can be had. This forum is a great place to find such deals (I have done so several times) and Craigslist is as well (I have made some great deals there). Dealers usually know what they have and seek market value, but they sometimes need to raise cash and will sell guitars at a wholesale (rather than retail) price (I have gotten some great deals from dealers, though I admit that is a rare thing). EBay and Reverb are much harder places to make a great deal. There is sales tax to be paid, the seller has fees and the traffic is huge. One can weed out the scammers with a Craigslist deal, online deals are much harder to do so. One can still make a great deal on the online platforms by using the best offer feature and vetting the seller. Usually, what seems too good to be true often is. In person transactions are worth the extra effort and expense. And caution is the best prescription for not being scammed. My experience is that Paypal and Reverb will not always protect you (contrary to their claims) but American Express (for those of us in the USA) will.

Good luck out there folks!

All good advice by Stringswinger.Those that think you can't get a good deal on Reverb are wrong.The best deals on there are gone within hours of posting and many times wind up being bought by a dealer and reposted on Reverb at a substantially higher price.

[2bornot2bop]

Y'all have raised an interesting point: it would be trivial for reverb.com or ebay, etc. to add a little code that automagically watermarks every pic before it even gets posted.

Sellers who don't want their pics reused can use freeware graphics programs to add their own watermarks before posting. A quick google search brought up links to 18 free programs that can add watermarks to images.

I belong to an Audio marketplace that does watermark every item listed for sale. At least they’re making some kind of effort. But Reverb doesn’t want to be troubled. They only want to list things without any additional responsibility of whether or not that item is a bogus listing, even though they earn no fees unless an item sells. And when it does sell they have to spend time undoing that sell. Seems like a waste of time.

[starjasmine]

I belong to an Audio marketplace that does watermark every item listed for sale. At least they’re making some kind of effort. But Reverb doesn’t want to be troubled. They only want to list things without any additional responsibility of whether or not that item is a bogus listing, even though they earn no fees unless an item sells. And when it does sell they have to spend time undoing that sell. Seems like a waste of time.

Thinking this through a bit more, AI-driven tools could probably remove watermarks from graphics pretty easily. I'm still sure that watermarking would deter a lot of the lazy criminals, but it wouldn't stop the really sophisticated and motivated fraudsters.