So tired of these eBay scalpers

[FreakinEurekan]

It’s not that they’re violating policy, they’re misleading buyers. Naïve buyers think they’re getting the top of the line 2023 MacBook Pro when they actually get a 2016. They usually load these up with pirated copies of Office and then sell these for extraordinary prices.

eBay is a cesspool, on a good day. Some of the scams you can catch by reading the details - some of them you can't. From that point of view, this is a "Benign" scam.

 

[Cape Dave]

I'd say they are deceptive. Not scalping or scamming.

It's like when the "send me a million emails forever" checkbox is already prechecked

 

[sgtaylor5]

Caveat Emptor, for sure. Many times eBay is the only place I can find laptop parts. But, I sure have to look closely to make sure it's the right part and that it's not coming from China/Hong Kong: concerned about shipping times only.

 

[Cape Dave]

I love eBay. I am careful when I buy. But they have stuff that absolutely no one else has. Let's say I want a 1950's space toy. Not gonna get that anywhere else. I have bought laptops, sold iPhones even sold used electric razors. I love eBay! Never had an issue and I have a 100% rating over 20 years! (in all that time, one guy tried to give me a bad rating. I contacted eBay and they immediately sided with me.)

 

[Allen_Wentz]

View attachment 2364913 I’ll browse eBay from time to time to see if I can get a good deal on an older laptop and I’ll run into listings like this…

An 8 year old laptop for $800… then they always say 2023 OS so people think they’re using a new laptop… these kind of people piss me off so much. Wish I could get these scalpers removed from eBay because buyers could get that same old laptop for $300 or less.

I quit doing eBay years ago because the percentage of con artistry was way to high.

 

[johnmacward]

So the title “2023 OS” is there to get people to click it’s a fair marketing strategy. Then, like people do, you scroll down for the description where it says release year 2016 and all the specs are listed.

He patched the laptop so it could run a 2023 OS and he added a premium for that service patch so what’s wrong with that ? Plus his company (TheMacPatch) is offering a 3 year warranty for a total of $800. The guy has been on eBay since 2002 and 100% feedback. If Apple can use all the hyperbole and exaggerated statements to sell an 8gb ram 512gb, $1500+ laptop in 2024 so can he.

View attachment 2365212

This is exactly right. I'm failing to see the issue too. Its very clear to even use block capitals for 2023 "OS" to make it abundantly clear that the system is capable of running something relatively up to date. If you don't know what OS is then maybe you'd be equally fooled into thinking that 8GB RAM is ok on a horrifically overpriced new Apple M2 straight from Apple. His level is no worse than Apple or any other tech company. His credentials are pretty solid on Ebay and while for sure SOME may interpret 2023 OS as a 2023 machine, some also could interpret 120GB SSD as 120GB RAM if their problem is failing always to read the word after the numbers.

 

[cmcbhi]

He who buys oneway deserves what he gets. Good or bad.

 

[Japan Ricardo]

I think it's overpriced, but so are many things. 'Scapler' is the wrong word.

 

[GumaRodak]

To the OP. Looks like the phrase “apple stuff holds its value” is no longer valid

 

[HiVolt]

It's no different than dishonest car lots, selling cars that have a cheap paintjob to make em look good and a shampoo engine bay and detailed interior to hide the flaws.

it's your job to look out for the bad deals. you will never get rid of them.

 

[Richuu]

Surely most people know by now that ebay is a place to tread carefully?

This probably is true for a large portion of the population. But there's probably also a large portion who haven't gotten burnt yet or aren't into tech. And even if it was a small percentage, that amounts to a large number of people due to the population size.

Without a doubt there's a huge market of potential victims on these platforms.

 

[halledise]

if it seems to good to be true, then it usually is …

 

[clayj]

I do have one comment (beyond "caveat emptor") regarding this particular scenario.

Are these folks making it VERY clear that they are somehow magically installing a version of macOS onto a machine that Apple specifically does not support? Are they letting the buyers know that Apple will likely not assist them if they run into issues, and that they will not be able to update macOS to the next version when it's released?

 

[Fishrrman]

This thread reminds me of another long-running thread here at macrumors, from 15 years ago...

"Don't buy AppleCare on ebay":

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/dont-buy-applecare-on-ebay.690859/

Seems like there were many bogus offers to sell AppleCare on ebay, nearly all of them scams...

 

[dukebound85]

My point is that while the year 2023 may be relevant to the software on the computer, it confuses the less informed buyer who is less likely to realize that the computer itself is no newer than 2019 and perhaps older. If one searches for 2023 MacBook Pro, that listing would come up.

buyer beware

 

[arcite]

My gosh; who buys an expensive laptop off some rando on ebay?

 

[jmoore5196]

I've been on the Bay for nearly 25 years. I can remember years ago when someone was caught trying to sell a kidney on eBay. The bottom line is that as long as eBay gets their percentage, they couldn't care less what gets sold.

More to the point, selling aging tech at inflated prices is hardly a new thing ... I remember a seeing a NYC Craigslist transaction go down at a Starbucks in 2012. The seller was offering an 8-year-old PowerBook at about $200 less than a comparable MacBook. The guy who bought it no doubt thought himself quite the shrewd connoisseur.

 

[ThomasJL]

View attachment 2364913 I’ll browse eBay from time to time to see if I can get a good deal on an older laptop and I’ll run into listings like this…

An 8 year old laptop for $800… then they always say 2023 OS so people think they’re using a new laptop… these kind of people piss me off so much. Wish I could get these scalpers removed from eBay because buyers could get that same old laptop for $300 or less.

Tim Cook must be jealous that there are other people out there who are able to charge even higher extortionate prices than him.

 

[turbineseaplane]

It's all going to get so much worse with more and more AI generating content and listings and ADs and being part of interactions.

 

[trusso]

The OP eBay image isn't scalping. Scalping is buying at retail and then immediately reselling at a huge markup. It's a little deceptive, but only because they're using "Loaded" and "Extras" as meaningless modifiers for things that probably aren't worth the price they're asking. Also remember that these are the touchbar MacBooks with the butterfly keyboards; they're outdated and much harder to sell to the tech aficionados generally looking for older MacBooks, because they're aware of its flaws. 2012 and 2015 MacBooks still offer a much better value as a previously-owned machine these days. I pity these sellers, but I don't sympathize with them.

 

[madebybela]

the only thing you can do to curb these people is to not buy from them

 

[drsox]

The first thing to do with an eBay search is to switch results to “Auction only”. Buy-it-now eBay is just a cesspool of crap like this. I’m sure the only people that these listing fool are vulnerable populations like the elderly, so it’s even morally worse.

Why should the elderly (over 35 ?) be vulnerable ? One thing they should have is experience - many years thereof - of life in many forms. Vulnerable may well be ditzy teens etc with no life experience yet. Only a few any age bracket have computer experience at some depth.

 

[stocklen]

View attachment 2364913 I’ll browse eBay from time to time to see if I can get a good deal on an older laptop and I’ll run into listings like this…

An 8 year old laptop for $800… then they always say 2023 OS so people think they’re using a new laptop… these kind of people piss me off so much. Wish I could get these scalpers removed from eBay because buyers could get that same old laptop for $300 or less.

I think you funadmentally misunderstand the term 'scalper'. Sorry.

Scalping is buying up stock of brand new sought-after items which are in demand at the time, sometimes using illicit mechanisms to do it such as bots... and then immediately seeking to sell them on at a huge markup from retail price taking advantage of the fact that nobody can get them and they are willing to pay that premium.
"scalpers" often have quite a small window of opportunity as once the retailer manages to get a decent flow of stock replenishment people can obtain the item at retail price and not have to pay scalpers a premium.

Selling a years-old laptop for whatever price... is definitely NOT scalping.

Why do you resent someone selling something and getting a good price for it?

 

[christiann]

Ebay sucks. THey keep banning my account and I have no idea why. I've only ever used it to buy a few things in the last 20 yrs. Like literally I can count on one hand what I've bought from ebay. No explanation is given for it either. My original account and then subsequent account banned no reason. Just email notice saying I violated something. No details. Like WTF? I've never tried to sell anything on ebay. So it's not like I was scamming anyone. Only thing I can think of is maybe the old gmail I used to have associated with it was compromised somehow and used violating their policies. But I just gave up. And google search on this specific issue there are countless people saying the same thing.

What the heck??

 

[christiann]

I quit doing eBay years ago because the percentage of con artistry was way to high.

The amount of times I’ve had false buyers is insane. Once sold an iMac to a dude and he sent me a picture of a shattered iMac. It wasn’t even the same model. I somehow won the dispute through eBay though