I was just rummaging through some old e-mails and came across this one from another eBay member. Seems he saw me bidding on another auction and thought he would be helpful and turn me to his bargain:


"Hi! I saw that you were bidding on a WORLD'S BEST MP3 CAR STEREO !!! RIO CAR
EMPEG (Item # 3005689833) and wanted to tell you that I have one for sale cheap.
The unit is in a 9.5/10 condition and comes with manual, remote, wiring harness
and mounting hardware. If you want it, I will sell it for $100.00 I will pay
the shipping!

I am liquidating the contents of 5 pawn shops and have sold the majority of the
items locally, but are selling the electronics via the internet. I need to sell
the inventory quickly to free up funds to secure future shipments. If you are
interested get back to me ASAP. Thanks!!"


$100 and free shipping?? Ummm, if you saw that I was bidding on another Empeg, you obviously saw how much it was going for. Who would take a loss of $500+ when you could sell it so easily on eBay? Maybe I passed up the deal of a lifetime, but in all odds, I saved myself a hundred bucks.

BTW, if anyone wants to take a chance, the user was celtics_rule3. No telling if it is still available, it was a pretty hot deal...

Even if it was legitimate, if it was a pawn shop liquidation, it might have been someone else's stolen unit.

...it might have been someone else's stolen unit

If I were in the position I would have probably picked it up and then made a post asking everyone who had theirs stolen to submit serial numbers.

Yeah, that would have been the optimal thing to do, but the first thing that came to my mind was "phony advertisement", and the e-mail was dismissed. Had I had any inkling that it was a stolen unit, I would've definitely picked it up.

I've still got the e-mail address, I guess I could always check. I'm sure that the seller probably e-mailed it to a lot of other people though. Thought maybe some of the other members might have received the same.

Even if it was legitimate, if it was a pawn shop liquidation, it might have been someone else's stolen unit.

Not everything sold in pawn shops is stolen merchandise. However, I agree that it would make me suspicious if I knew it came from a pawn shop.

Especially at that kind of price... I suspect it more a hoax, though.

If each poster on this thread chipped in $16,66, we could find out if it was a hoax or stolen: in which case, we could return it to its owner for $100. If it turns out to be neither, or the original owner doesn't want it because his insurers have paid out, we could sell it on and make a profit, each, of $66.64-

-All you risk is $16,66.

Cast your bread upon the waters and it will return....

....but who wants soggy bread.

Of course, if the insurers had paid out, the Empeg would belong to them. But for $16, you can't lose!

I sent the guy an e-mail a few days ago, haven't heard anything out of him (The first e-mail was a few months ago). Apparently he decided not to liquidate too much stuff on eBay, cause his rating sits at (0).

ya im in