Question for our UK collectors

[gramophone78]

After checking (for fun) "London" Craigslist . I could not believe the multiple posting for very rare machine's. Polyphones, Opera's, Berliner's, Vic. schoolhouse and yes....even Bettini's!!! within a two day period. Imagine, all right there for the buying.... . Now, every country/city has it's scams on CL. However, I have never seen so many by so few in such a short time..... . And all this time I thought it was just Lithuania..... . I need to start buying over your way. Clearly there is no interest in such machine's over there..... .

[Steve]

UK Craigslist is a hotbed of fraud, dishonesty and scams! Has there ever been anything remotely genuine on there? I'm not sure. I certainly never look at it and never intend to anymore. Anyone GENUINELY listing anything phonographic on there must be either very naive or desperate or (like me) a hater of Ebay!

[dd2u]

Steve is right. The listings I have seen merely stole the photographs from recent eBay auctions or from museum or collector's web sites. I have never contacted one to find out how the fraud works.

In general I do not know anyone in the UK who uses Craigslist for anything. Someone must of course but I doubt that any of my acquaintances has even heard of it. Everyone has heard of eBay. A few people have heard of Gumtree, but mainly for giving things away rather than selling them.

[Valecnik]

4 or 5 years ago I sold an Amberola 1A on eBAY. The machine was in Minnesota. A couple weeks later my pictures sold up offering the same machine in the UK on Craigslist. I highly doubt it made it across the Atlantic to the UK in two weeks, especially given it was still in my parents downstairs rec room at the time.

[Steve]

By way of stark comparison, what never ceases to amaze me is how reliably genuine most adverts and transactions are on US Craigslist. In fact Craigslist in the States appears to be THE place to pick up absolute eye-popping bargains - the complete opposite of the UK, in other words! It's astonishing how naive US Craigslist sellers can be sometimes, considering how much information (price!) exists elsewhere on the net now, with Ebay and various fora to consult.

You guys really are spoilt for choice. It makes me sooooo......

[Valecnik]

By way of stark comparison, what never ceases to amaze me is how reliably genuine most adverts and transactions are on US Craigslist. In fact Craigslist in the States appears to be THE place to pick up absolute eye-popping bargains - the complete opposite of the UK, in other words! It's astonishing how naive US Craigslist sellers can be sometimes, considering how much information (price!) exists elsewhere on the net now, with Ebay and various fora to consult.

You guys really are spoilt for choice. It makes me sooooo......

Yes I've gotten two very nice machines from Craigslist in the past few months, an Edison A150 diamond disc and an oak Amberola 75 in very good condition. Both sellers were kind enough to deliver the machines to a friend of mine until I can pick them up. Both were very reasonably priced, dirt cheap by UK standards.

[gramophone78]

Well I have to share a story of one of my CL experiences. About 6 years ago I started running a "wanted" ad on CL here in my Provence. A few weeks later a man contacted me and told me he found a Berliner and about 30 records in the basement of a old house he was hired to restore. He was approx. 30 miles outside Washington D.C. in West Virginia.
First, I was surprised he would have seen my ad. I thought to myself....."does he stay up all night on CL??"... . So, I asked him. He told me that one just needs to Google my ad and there it is... . I had no idea. I really just thought it would only be seen in my local area.

Anyway, I asked for pics and to my surprise I was looking at a 1897 swing brake Berliner with 30 records.
I said to the man "you may want to Ebay this package". Then I realized I may have shot my foot off. Again to my surprise the man said he hated to deal on Ebay any longer and "if" I made him a fair offer it was all mine.
So with that, I did. Now this is before PayPal. So, I had to send a US money order. I went to the bank and mailed out the MO. By the way, a MO is just like cash. There is no recourse. After I sent the MO it hit me.....what if this is a scam????... .

My Wife thought I was nuts....OK, she used a different word.... .
Well, a week later.....I received a beautiful 1897 Berliner with funnel horn and the 30 records.
The moral here is.....you just never know...???

**Foot note to my story**
If this were to happen to me today.....I would not be so quick to act.

[Orchorsol]

Yep, I've seen a good few UK EMG scams... even corresponded with a couple of enthusiastic "sellers". All went quiet once it was clear I was serious about visiting the remote locations. I wasn't a bit surprised!

[Valecnik]

Yea usually if you just ask for more pictures it's enough to stop the communication in cases like that. Coming to see the goods would even be more problematic for them.

[kirtley2012]

these scams are coming up on gumtree aswell (basically the good version of craigslist in the uk), to go off topic, i was buying a 50's framus archtop guitar from a person on gumtree for £50 (very cheap for such a guitar) i communicated with her about buying it, all was arranged then it came to payment and she said "send me a UKASH card" (which is a non renewable money order) which is when i got suspicious, i looked on the internet and found page after page of people scammed on gumtree sending these UKASH voucher things off before they reveived a item, strangely enough, all for the same price, and everone received the same initial email as me, all of them lost there money, i later found a seller on ebay selling archtop guitars with the same background as the fake ad which is obviously where the seller stole the pics from!, luckily i realised before i sent any money!, i just say ALWAYS be careful with buying things online!, gramophone78 got a great bit of luck! (i bet it was a surprise when that turned up on your doorstep ) but you can never be too careful!, where theres money involved theres always others trying to steal it!