You got to read this one

[peterdragin]

Here's an auction I ran across on Ebay.

Now this guy has a new slant on selling a Plasma T.V.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3039284687&category=11073


Would you call this a lottery ?
Would you call this a Scam ?
Would you call this guy Stupid !

[Arzel]

This is a major scam, but I would not quite call it a lottery, although it seems to come across as one.

Imagine a very long straw cut into 5000 pieces and trying to be the person in the end with the most pieces (or the longest piece).

What is really bad about this, is that the person setting up the auction would only need to have a friend in on the bidding. That friend would then just need to continuely be the one with the most individual bids. At the end that person would win, regardless of anyone else, and recieve the item for 1/2 price at the most (although if this is the case they would just be keeping the money from the rest of the people and split the cash).

I certainly hope that you did report this auction, it certainly comes across as an illegal lotterly.

[peterdragin]

Yes it is reported, what got me is if he didn't get enough bids on this auction he is running it again untill he gets enough..

Everybody on the original auction has to Bid again.

[concerned]

The auction was removed when I went to see it. Can you explain what the scam was?

[Arzel]

He had an auction of 5,000 $1 buy it nows for a ticket for a plasma tv.

The person that had the most tickets at the end of the auction would get the tv, so long as at least 4,500 tickets had been sold.

If not enough tickets were sold by the end of the auction to reach 4,500 he was going to relist the auction with the remaining number of tickets still available.

If at the end of the auction two or more people had tied for the top spot they were going to have to have a bid-off of some sort.

[tcb1969a]

Interesting concept....though it does seem to be some sort of lottery almost...........

[damion]

It sounds like a raffle almost but if you buy the most tickets, you are going to win it...
My guess is that he is going in with someone to scam others (or possibly using another alias in a twisted shill bidding experiment).

Not sure on legalities, but I know it is against eBay's policy and am sure there are some ethical issues there.

Damion

[tcb1969a]

Just about everything is against ebay policy's....(if I wanted to I could get every auction on ebay cancelled for one thing or another)

Of course I would agree does seem like a raffle....or some sort of sweepstakes, or contest, or lottery, perhaps all combined....

[peterdragin]

here is what the auction description was, I copyed it .

Brand new 42" Panasonic TH42PWD6UY plasma TV, SCREEN ASPECT 16:9,PIXELS 852x480,pixel pitch 1.08mm,displayable colors 1070 million,contrast 4000:1,audio output 2x8 wats,anti-reflection screen coating,input jacks:1BNC component video,1 s-video,1 BNC composite video,1 VGA cable, etc.,new real black drive system,new deep black filter on front glass,picture in picture,picture by picture and picture out picture,super real gamma system-reproduces 1536 shades of gradation,dual picture display and 9 point digital zoom,contrast auto tracking system,etc. Please read carefuly to understand how my auction works.Please understand you are buying not real plasma TV,you are buying bids to get real plasma TV if you are highest bidder. There are 5000 bids to buy,$1.00 each bid,you can buy as many bids as you want.In reality you not need to buy many bids to be a winner.Think twice before bidding how much you can afford to lose if you are not winner.The number of bids that will determine that an auction is successful and closed is at least 4500 sold bids.After the closing of the auction the successful buyer will be chosen that bought the highest quantity of bids.If there are more than one identical highest bids,highest bidders will be advised to buy additional bids,until the single highest bidder will be chosen.Winner pays for shipping.Regular freight shippment is approximately $170.00. After the closing of the auction all buyers will be informed about auction results. If after the closing date of the auction less than 4500 bids are sold,auction is unsucessful, and highest bidder(s) with bought bids will be transfered to my next consecutive auction for the same plasma TV. Payment for the bids can be made by money order,or PayPal only

[tcb1969a]

Hmm.....even though even I think that this auction is probably against ebay rules and maybe somewhat illegal, I would have to say this one thing. The person that ran this auction did state this:

Think twice before bidding how much you can afford to lose if you are not winner.

So if you are a responsible person you should understand that you could lose your money. And that if you bid and lose your money, you should understand that you took a chance and lost. Of course I probably would not have taken the chance, but if you do, it clearly stated that you could lose your money. Just my opinion though.....

[damion]

It would have had to be a scam.
I thought about the math and when you consider the PayPal fees for each winner....
Out of $1, he is going to get roughly $0.65 per $1 bid (math is not exact - just based off my recollection of PayPal fees.
Take .65 and multiply by 4500 bids and you get $2925 - which I am sure is less than he is expecting (or paid for) that TV.
Now figure in the ebay listing fees and final value fees - anyone care to do the math on that? I can not remember the fees.

Either way, he is going to end up with a lot less money than he thinks he is or he is blatently running a scam. How many people are going to press the issue on a $1 bid? How can it be proven that he ran a scam?
I think this is why eBay does not allow raffles except by registered associations (unless this has changed).

Damion

[tcb1969a]

Yep your math is about right....PayPal and ebay fees would take a big chunk out of $1.....

[matrixfriendly]

I think he might be depending that there is not going to be 4500 bids and going to run the auction over and over. He states that the high bidders will be rolled over in this event, I did not see him mention the losing bids. So this could potentially bring in an unlimited amount of money(assuming buyers are present in force).

[tcb1969a]

Who knows what the auctioners Idea was anyways, just speculation. Has anyone bothered asking the seller these questions.....?

[matrixfriendly]

wrong thread sorry!!!