eBay Microphone Warning

[themaddog]

Hey everyone,
I mostly post on the analog forum here, but I thought I'd warn everyone here as this pertains to microphones.

Recently I won an eBay auction for two new Shure Beta 57a mics at an awesome price, too good to be true. The pics showed actual Shure mics with the Shure manuals in the background, but apparantly these mics were bootlegged, because I recieved the following email from eBay a couple hours after the auction's end:

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 11/17/2005 10:21:51 PST
From: ended@ebay.com
To: themaddog@********.com
Subject: eBay Listing Removed: VeRO Program (=IB &7331 JM4437894) All headers

Dear Peter,

The following listing:

7367085427 - Shure Beta 57A Vocal 2 Microphone Beta 57

was removed because the intellectual property rights owner notified eBay that the listing potentially infringes its copyright, trademark or other rights. Due to this claim, and the fact that the feedback system is no longer available, we strongly urge you not to complete this transaction.

You can get more information on eBay's cooperation with intellectual property rights owners at:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/confidence/programs-vero-ov.html

Thank you for your cooperation and understanding in this issue.

Regards,

VeRO Program
eBay Trust & Safety

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Fortunately I was able to get my money back from the seller, but you never know. Just thought I'd give everyone a "heads up" here if you weren't aware this was going on.

-MD

 

[downatone]

Well just use a little common sense.
If you are buying *anything* 'new' for 50-60%+ less a respected stores price then you know something is up. So if you see a new beta 57a for $75 USD, but you know they cost roughly $140 USD - don't buy it.

 

[pohaku]

Were the pictures used Shure company pictures -- i.e., not pictures of the actual mics for sale, but "stock" commercial pictures used by Shure? If so, that may have been part of the problem. Many manufacturers will object to the use of their product photos (hence the reference to intellectual property rights) by E-Bay sellers who are not approved dealers. They will intercede and demand that the pictures and the listing be removed. The corollary to this is that sometimes scammers will use a manufacturer's pictures because they can't take a picture of the actual item since they don't have it. Of course, sometimes people just use the commercial pics because they don't have a digital camera or they think it's easier just to use a pic already available. If you are concerned, you can e-mail the seller and ask for additional pictures showing serial numbers of the actual items for sale. If you don't get pictures that look appropriate, you can back away. Sometimes that helps.

 

[themaddog]

Thanks for the good advice, I hadn't thought of that.

-MD

 

[xstatic]

SHure was recently involved in helping to stop, or at least slow down someone who was bootlegging their mics. I don't remember all of the details, just reading about it recently in a Shure newsletter.