eBay buyer/seller to avoid - Panasonic AG-1980P rip off!
 

im throwing this out there so this guy doesn't try pulling this scam any forum members.

i sold him a broken ag-1980- it was listed as "for part not working" and had HUGE letters in the auction description stating it was broken.
it powered up but had transport issues and would not take a tape.

he paid a paltry $50 for it.
after he has it for almost 2 weeks - he sends me scathing emails, files an ebay case and sent me pics of the video head disassembled - (he said the video head was broken off and rattling around in the unit).
anyone who has looked inside an AG-1980 knows there is no way the head can just break off even if the delivery driver threw it off the truck that would not happen.
it was packed very well as all my items are.
he said it was poorly packed and that cause the broken head and i should have only charged him $10 for shipping
hopefully he ebay case goes nowhere as i listed it as broken

truth of the matter is it either wasn't the easy fix and flip he was hoping for(must not be a very good tech) or he wanted it for free.
still it had a good power supply and other parts and was worth $50

this guy has at least 4 different ebay ID's and buys/sells the kind of hardware that we on the forum might use.
he is in Houston Texas and goes by av-collection, sony-av collector, trans-auction and 123wonbid

Its amazing how greedy these flippers have gotten. There is a degree of risk in the business that some don't take into account. If anything the buyer should have treated the machine as a source of parts for future restorations/repairs. Was this the machine with the bad y/c board? If so, makes you wonder why he took the head apart!

As I always tell people, be very careful about buying (and selling) on eBay, because there's a lot of liars on there.

I had to file on eBay twice this week. One was just yesterday.

The first was an ATI card that didn't work. Luckily, that seller just issued a refund, which included shipping. I now have a DOA card that I'm tossing. It may have been pulled from a working system, but it doesn't work now. Probably a case of a person storing it in a junk drawer without a static bag for an extended period.

The second one, yesterday, was a toy gift for somebody. (It was a 1982 Smurfs car for guess who!) The auction said "card has some issues, mainly corner curls and a couple of creases ... stain on the back of the card. This would make a great starter piece for a collection or a great toy to open and actually play with." But what he forgot to mention is that it smelled like an old ashtray. That thing had to be in a smoker house for a decade, because the stink leeched through the sealed bubble, through the cardboard, and even the toy stunk. That's NOT as described. He failed to mention "smells like ass" on the auction page. I'd have never bought it. The whole package stunk like smoker, including the packing material, and even the USPS box itself! Those smokers screw up so many toys, electronics, etc, by breathing their toxins on it.

So it's not just buyers, but sellers too. People suck sometimes.

that one i sold to believe it or not Southern Advantage -(never heard a complaint on that one)

this one looked like perhaps someone had forced a stuck tape in or out
it would accept a tape at all.

i still have one more - i blocked all 4 of his user-ID's from bidding on my stuff

this guys sell alot of 1980's and 5710's so one would think he could use the parts
he has many overpriced sony decks and JVC mini-dv SVHS combo decks listed

smokey stuff really sucks - i got a HR-S9800 once that was ruined by a smoker.

problem with those people is it smells normal to them - everything in their house/car smell like cigarette so they are desensitized to the smell.

It must be the weather cause I also have had issues on "the bay" (as we call it in our house)

Lady buys an item from me. She thought it was something else which it wasn't. So much for reading lol. Then sends me 13 ebay messages in less then 4 hours asking me how I'm going to fix this and then files a complaint with ebay over the auction. what a nutcase

Also volksjager, I've found with similar issues like this one that when I call paypal and or ebay and tell them what is going on. They seem to side with me faster then waiting the normal amount of time. Never sold a vcr but sold a sealed game and this person claimed it wasn't "sealed to his liking" so I told him I'd give him $10 off the total price as it wasn't really my problem nor my fault but what the hey Im fair. so we agree...3 days later he opened a ebay dispute saying the item wasn't as described blah blah blah. failing to mention I refunded him, so a quick call to paypal straighten that out real quick :D

If the buyer disassembled the VCR that's an automatic win for you in the dispute. Any attempt to tamper with the goods will void any buyer protection.

Once I sent a scanner accessory to the official vendor service center to get proof that it didn't work. My mistake. The buyer protection was void instantly when I provided PayPal with the (manufacturer official!) documents. I would've probably won the dispute if I'd done nothing.

he definitely disassembled it-
this morning he escalated the dispute to ebay customer service - we will have to see where this goes

i cant believe some who does this as a business is willing to burn a bridge over a $50 parts deck that was listed as "for parts not working"

ebay decided in my favor :) - they even removed the negative feedback he left me for that transaction.

however im stuck with a negative he left me as a retaliation on a sony hi-8 deck he bought over a month ago.

Good to hear it was resolved, but annoying that you even had to deal with it. Part of the advantage of listing a unit as "non-working/parts or repair only" is that it should release you of any liability or guarantees. I miss the old ebay of 10 years ago when they were just a provider of basic auction services (with a cheap listing fee) and not an end-to-end marketplace solutions provider.

I bought something for $10 this week, and it was taped excessively. I had to try not to damaged the item because the person went nuts with a roll of clear tape. That's actually worse than not trying to secure it!

i have had sellers actually put tape directly on the front of decks.
what a PITA to clean off.

I am happy I found this post. I was thinking to buy from one of these. All of these accounts are still active and have vcrs for sale now.

There is another seller on ebay named youwillbesatisfied. Also located in Houston and selling AG-1980. What are the odds that it is someone completely different?

If you want a 1980 get one from Tgrant photo,

Rule of eBay: If it looks fishy, it probably is. :wink2:

Thanks for the replies.

I also had an encounter with this guy. I asked him a couple of questions about one of the Panasonic AG-1980 that he had for sale on eBay. When I wanted more clarification from his first set of answers, I sent him a second email. Not only did he refuse to answer my question, I sent me back a sarcastic answer. When I called him out on his answer, he continued to send back insulting and degrading answers. Stay away from this guy!!!

seems he has a new user id now too - vcrseller ( and this one doesnt list city)
i bought 2 decks listed by him(didnt know it was danny/son tran until i checked out)
only to have the transaction canceled a half hour later stating he listed them at the wrong price.
i wish ebay would boot this guy - there is no reason to have 5 different user-ids unless your trying to hide something.

I've been watching eBay auctions for AG-1980's and I've noticed something peculiar.

Pretty much on every auction style listing, there's two bidders who always bid, but virtually never win. Since IDs are masked, they only show as o***e and h***o. Makes me wonder if they are just two people who try to get a deal by bidding on everything, or if they just inflate the prices on purpose.

volksjager I'm curious to know why you dealt with this guy a second time if he had already left you one negative feedback. Was it before you realised he was using multiple IDs?

Thanks for sharing this by the way. More and more Ebay is becoming a treacherous place. Like NJRoadfan I too miss the Ebay of ten years ago.

I recently had an experience where a seller sold me a fraudulent copy of the original Woman in Black DVD. They seemed to get offended when I pointed it out and asked for a refund. I opened a case with Ebay and the seller still gave me a bit of a runaround before finally reversing the transaction. They then sent me one last email as a sort of Parthian shot acting like they had done me a favour and taking umbrage at my impudence for daring to make such a request.

i didnt know it was him the 2nd time - he has so many different user id's
not until after and i saw the name/address on the paypal did i realize it was yet another of his many usernames.

I just stumbled onto this thread. I purchased an AG-1980 from 123wonbid on eBay a few days back. It hasn't even arrived yet. Supposed to be tested and great shape. Is there any chance the unit is ok or should I not even accept it?