Another eBay auction scam can happen _after_ the auction for a legit
item.  Last week I purchased a Weber Grandezza piano on eBay.  There
were 50 some bids, and the seller was for real, as was the instrument.
We moved the instrument two days later on Saturday, trading a cashier's
check at the time.

Since this was a larger value item, many of the bidders got, not one,
but two different "offers" from other sources stating that I had backed
out, and they could buy it under the "second chance" option.  All they
had to do was contact the seller, etc.  I even got the offer based on
an earlier, lower bid.  The letters sent were through eBay's notification
screen and were from dormant, but apparently good, eBay sellers.

Luckily, many of the lower bidders were friends or acquaintances from
MBSI and they recognized me.  Some brought this to the attention of
eBay's fraud department.  Unfortunately, they merely got back what could
be described as "ho-hum" form letters.  It doesn't sound like eBay cared.

Then there were more than one (rogue?) collectors who contacted the
owner directly between the sale, but before I could move the instrument
(only two days later) with the apparent intention of paying more and
leaving me little recourse other than giving bad feedback.

I can understand the former scam, but the latter is quite problematic!

Julie Johnson