I was involved with two fake deals. One, where the seller stole another members identity. The other, where the seller simply disappeared.
In one case, I made the claim when the delivery date expired. In the other, I made the claim only a few days after purchase, even before the promised delivery date. (I noticed a string of negative feedbacks started to pile up just after I made my purchase. Went from 100% positive to 57% positive almost overnight.)
In both instances, eBay refunded me via Paypal within 48 hours. Very simple. No questions or further justifications asked. Seemed like they already knew there was a problem with the seller.
Last time I saw a “too good to be true” deal it turned out to be legitimate and one member did receive his TK75 2015 for $100… So apparently these deals do exist, and PayPal is always there to back you up in case that it turns out to be scam.
Unfortunately not possible now, bloody eBay washed their hands from this, when you click “Resolve a problem” you get only “Continue to PayPal” as an option…
They have not said its a scam yet. Just that the listing has been removed, normally that means sold out.
It might be a scam, I’m not totally stupid but I would hold fire for a bit. And the end of the day they have not cost $23 to manufacture so there is still profit somewhere.
After all some of us just got thorfire jm07s for $9.99.
Chinese New Year is next Monday, and normally these companies will only resume business again 2 weeks after CNY.
Some users that ordered during the weekend or earlier is week already received shipment notifications, so most probably the shop owner is already away for CNY break
I noticed this listing says it comes with the charging cable. The old listing specifically said it did not come with a charger, perhaps that’s why the price hike. And I’m very much considering rolling the dice too.
The Chinese government subsidizes most of the shipping costs from China.
Buyer Beware is on point.
While I was willing to gamble based on the 99.7% positive feedback rating, I neglected to check on how many feedbacks that was based upon. And that was only 364.
The last fraudulent deal I was involved with also had a seller with about 300 ratings. Had I been more diligent, I would not have purchased this flashlight. I requested the seller to cancel my order, but haven’t gotten a response yet.
I’m tempted also. I’ve always liked the MH20, just worried this could be a scam of some kind, but maybe not, who knows. But I could also just basically double the money and get another set of the Al Kronos X6/X5 lights. What to do, what to do……
This keeps repeating. The pattern is obvious - small amount of good, legit sales to build up rep, then sudden burst of really really cheap items with infinite quantity. And people keep falling for it.
Don’t compare this with some pricing mistake by reputable vendors! Bigger sellers need to maintain rep and will sell at a loss. As for eBay seller with 300 feedbacks, why should he give a nut? Just take the money, close shop and open another scam. In fact, the guy probably has tens of stores just for this purpose in the future.
This is one thing I wish BLF to grow more mature on.
You are right… it’s not the first time this happens but remember that some people actually received their lights, in the case of that $100 Fenix TK75 the seller actually drop shipped the real light and was a much more expensive product and not a brick or gave out a fake tracking number.
These scam shops operate normally until it’s time for the magic show, so things are safe if we are still in the period of time where he is building up rep.
My first thoughts about the pricing was possibly they are factory seconds, if there is such a thing, or it is most likely another knock-off of Nitecore’s hard work. The reason I say that is I had just received my Nitecore Digicharger D4 this weekend and stumbled on a thread announcing fakes hitting the market. It turns out thankfully mine is legit, and man was I relieved. I bought from a reputable supplier and had no reservations making the buy.
I have to admit I was tempted to buy this light but thought I can live easier without another light than without gambling $25 on a long shot.
I also noticed that while the # sold in 24 hours has gone up in the last 2 hours, the number available has remained constant at 10. Just a thought.
Nitecore flashlights have s/n imprinted on the head of the light. You can send the s/n to the factory for verification. Not sure about all their flashlights, but he MH20 also have Nitecore imprinted inside the bezel.
When it come to quantities remaining, “More than 10 available” means they still have over 10 units available, it could be 20, 50 or 100, this will keep showing until the quantity drops below 10, once this happens it will automatically start the count down to: “Only 9 or 8 or 7 remaining” and so on until they’re all sold out, then it will show: “This item is out of stock” - This goes for any auction listed on eBay selling large quantities of the same product.
and man was I relieved. I bought from a reputable supplier and had no reservations making the buy.