Too good to be True - a real story of a scam - Part 1/6
illustrated guide by Avi

"Too good to be True" - how many times have you heard this phrase?

Well, this old phrase is very true when it comes to eBay market.
Yes, you can certainly find bargains on eBay, but when it comes to incredible bargain, you should stop and spend some time on a serious inquiry of it.
Rushing and purchasing such bargains might cause you financial lose and frustration.

In this guide I'll show you (with screen captures) a real case or a "Too good to be True" auction.
You'll learn how it looks like, how to spot signs of scam, how to investigate an auction, how to learn of its seller performance and history and eventually how to save you disappointment, frustration and money.

This guide accompanies other guides I've publish on this topic:
A. Discover eBay auction scam / account takeover.
B. Avoid scam, How to spot an account takeover (a 7 parts guide)
C. eBay to compensate for scam report - AN IDEA TO FOLLOW

This guide is different since it deals with a tricky auction that looks like a legitimate one while my other guides deals with auctions that has clear signs of scam.

* I apologize for splitting this guide to parts due to eBay limitations on image size and quantity.
At the end of each part you'll find direct link that will take you to the next part.

So, let's start
I'm looking for a new Nikon D200 camera and found the following auction that offers according to its title "Nikon D200 camera with 12-24mm lens MINT !".
Both items are prices ~US$2,600 (Oct.2006) at known internet stores.
It is always advisable to search for your items in other stores and have a price to compare to.

OK, I think I found an incredible bargain. I found an auction that is about to end in about 6 hours with a current price of ~US$360 and with a BIN of US$375, less than 15% than its street price, WOW .
So, should I jump on this amazing bargain? Should I buy it right away before someone else will ?
I'm sorry, but the answer is defiantly NO !
Why? Why should I miss this great opportunity ?

To answer this lets examine this auction's details and lighten up some things:
[1.] this is a 1 day auction, 18 hours already passed and nobody in the world except me saw it.
is this possible? Am I so lucky or others are smarter and kept away from this auction?
A 1 day auction should also light a warning, someone is in a hurry to sell. We need to be careful and review this auction deeply.
[2.] Seller is from France, Item is listed on eBay Australia, Price is in Australian $, Item location is in Beijing-Hong Kong (this guy is really looking for trouble with Chinese authorities :-) ), shipping cost at the bottom looks as it is an Australian auction, Shipping price to Australia and worldwide is the same.
Isn't this combination odd ?
[3.] Title says camera body and lens in Mint but description says nothing on the lens and it looks as a cut and paste technical data taken from another site.