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Hmmm...Questionable eBay Listing Exposed by Pricescope?

mimi72

mimi72

Shiny_Rock
Joined
Feb 2, 2011
Messages
194
I confess...I want a Harry Winston ring. So I troll eBay every so often looking for something. Someday, it will come.

A couple of days ago this listing went up, with a low starting bid of about $4550.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Genuine-Harry-Winston-3-3-dwt-Cushion-Cut-Micropave-Ring-/221113825811?_trksid=p5197.m1992&_trkparms=aid%3D111000%26algo%3DREC.CURRENT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D14%26meid%3D1575643560163793408%26pid%3D100015%26prg%3D1017%26rk%3D1%26#ht_2152wt_1066

If the listing doesn't work, search eBay for "Genuine Harry Winston 3.3 dwt Cushion Cut Micropave Ring", item # 221113825811

Wow! I started to do some research. One of the same or very similar photos in the listing (second row of photos on eBay, third from left) was posted on PS circa 2008, same time seller says the ring was purchased, same carat weight 2.43. See second photo down on the link below, "Got the HW micropave yesterday!" posted by wse:

https://www.pricescope.com/blog/harry-winston-micropave-ring

Unfortunately, the link to that actual thread doesn't work, I get a message that says "You are not authorised to read this forum", British spelling and all, not sure what that's all about.

BUT, the caption with this photo on PS says the ring is D VVS1. The ring in the eBay listing is G VS2. What's going on here?

I sent two emails to the lister asking to clarify this discrepency, pointing out his/her photo and the information on PS. No reply as yet.

Not to mention, HW's own website says it only sells diamonds F color or better, so a G by definition, unless they make occasional exceptions, can't be a HW. Still may be a very nice stone, GIA certed and all, but perhaps the original stone sold in the setting by HW was swapped out?

What do you think? eBay = caveat emptor. Do your homework.
 
Could the PSer be selling it? But yeah, seems fishy on some level.
 
Look at the sellers feedabck, too. Fishy.
 
The PS'er could be selling it, but the caption on the photo posted in PS says it's D VVS1. But in this listing it's G VS2. IF it's the same ring, and I think it is, the center stone has been changed.
 
wow :shock: the feedback is REALLY fishy
 
If they don't answer your email, disregard the listing.... Unless you don't need your $6500 :roll:
 
Definately not a legitimate auction. Unscrupulous eBay sellers do this a lot. Go in for the big money get paid and disappear. You can tell its a scam by reading what is included. It doesn't mention the ring at all. It's a 100% scam. This happened not long ago. I noticed a listing for a very expensive ring but the way the listing was worded, the seller only committed to sending you a picture. The buyer was out $900. Before the listing was over, I contacted eBay about it five times and they said they would take care of it but at auctions end they had not. I couldn't contact the buyer because eBay blocks that info out now. Last I heard she opened a case and eBay was supposed to be giving her a refund. But the issue was the listing stated it was a "picture" She left negative feedback and I contacted her through that. eBay had not refunded her yet. It's a shame what people do to rip people off.
 
On the other hand, the guy posting it at the outset just might have been lying about the D VVS1. It could be the same person considering the thread has obviously been taken down. But I wouldn't bid on it under any circumstances and I feel for the people who are bidding because someone is going to be in for a huge headache. The thing doesn't even have a reserve. Can't believe people are actually bidding on it!
 
Oh...I have NO intention of bidding!! I just posted here since I found the connection to PS interesting, since the photos are the same.

True, the OP'er could have lied about the ring being a D VVS1 (it does look tinted in the photo but one can never tell) or about it being a HW.

Does anyone know of an authentic (modern) HW in a color lower than F?

I saw that too about what's included not mentioning the ring. Figured no one would really try something that low but maybe they would!!! What's more interesting is that it includes the HW box but not the paperwork or receipt. HW boxes of course are easily bought on eBay.
 
I noticed on the appraisal that it says Diamond and Platinum engagement ring (Harry Winston........) the words following are blacked out, I wonder if the word 'replica' is blacked out? :rolleyes: And what's the big secret regarding the GIA report #? Why is that blacked out?

I don't shop ebay very often, and you all are a lot sharper than I am. I wouldn't have noticed anything off with the sellers feedback. I still don't see what you all see, I guess. :oops: :lol: Is it because all the feedback is from the past few months? Or the low number of feedback? See? This is why I stay away from ebay! :lol:
 
mimi72|1345944037|3257157 said:
I saw that too about what's included not mentioning the ring. Figured no one would really try something that low but maybe they would!!! What's more interesting is that it includes the HW box but not the paperwork or receipt. HW boxes of course are easily bought on eBay.
Click to expand...

I've seen things like that enough to know it happens. One of my other hobbies is collecting perfumes, and there are SO many sellers selling bottles of rare perfume for $$$... but without any perfume in them. Just the empty bottle. And it will be phrased like "One whole bottle of X" so you think it's full, but either in reeeaaaaally tiny print it says it's a whole empty bottle, or else if you make the pictures big you can see that there's nothing in it. I know a couple of people on my other forums that have been ripped off that way.
 
in no Fking way this is legit.. :nono: he/she had never sold an item for more than $1... :nono:
i've seen a lot of these kind of B.S. auction with expensive watches on Ebay. they post $20K watches with no reserve and just take whatever $$$ they can and disappear.
 
Judging by the account name and no recent feedback, this look like an abandoned account that someone hijacked.

However, with the new ebay/paypal hold, ebay will save the winning bidder from themselves. No money will be released until at least 3 days or as much as 21 days after the buyer receives the item. If it is a scam, the buyer can just file a claim, and will get their money back.
 
Christina...|1345944940|3257164 said:
I noticed on the appraisal that it says Diamond and Platinum engagement ring (Harry Winston........) the words following are blacked out, I wonder if the word 'replica' is blacked out? :rolleyes: And what's the big secret regarding the GIA report #? Why is that blacked out?

I don't shop ebay very often, and you all are a lot sharper than I am. I wouldn't have noticed anything off with the sellers feedback. I still don't see what you all see, I guess. :oops: :lol: Is it because all the feedback is from the past few months? Or the low number of feedback? See? This is why I stay away from ebay! :lol:
Click to expand...

Click on their feedback number and you see they sell only "domain names" or something, none of the auctions are searchable on ebay and all were valued at about $10. In addition, about 8-10 of their feedback is from the same person, makes me think itsa friend.
 
Dreamer_D|1345949132|3257190 said:
Christina...|1345944940|3257164 said:
I noticed on the appraisal that it says Diamond and Platinum engagement ring (Harry Winston........) the words following are blacked out, I wonder if the word 'replica' is blacked out? :rolleyes: And what's the big secret regarding the GIA report #? Why is that blacked out?

I don't shop ebay very often, and you all are a lot sharper than I am. I wouldn't have noticed anything off with the sellers feedback. I still don't see what you all see, I guess. :oops: :lol: Is it because all the feedback is from the past few months? Or the low number of feedback? See? This is why I stay away from ebay! :lol:
Click to expand...

Click on their feedback number and you see they sell only "domain names" or something, none of the auctions are searchable on ebay and all were valued at about $10. In addition, about 8-10 of their feedback is from the same person, makes me think itsa friend.
Click to expand...

Thanks Dreamer, What is a domain name? Is it just a way to protect the buyers identity? And if so, what's the point?
 
Agree, what's the point of blacking out the GIA certificate #? Thought that was also a red flag.
 
Ruby, that is very interesting and good to note. Because before all you had to do is have one positive feedback as a seller and all sales after we're golden. Meaning eBay will hold the funds on your first sale until you got positive feedback from the buyer. After that, the funds for any sales after that were instantly available. If this is ebay's new policy it's about time. I guess they got tired of loosing money with the new buyer protection policy.

I hope it's only on feedback received as a seller and not feedback as a whole. Because they sell and or buy cheap items usually around a dollar to get their feedback score up, then pull a fast one and split. Next thing you know they are "Not a registered user". It's awful that these people have nothing better to do than to spend their time figuring out ways to scam people. As in the case of the lady who is still waiting for a refund from eBay, the seller sent her a picture of the ring as promised in the listing. So the sale was fulfilled as stated in the listing. And trust me, if eBay can wiggle their way out of giving you a refund, they will. It happened to me with a gold ring that was stamped 14k, but wasn't. So since I could not prove it wasn't gold. I got stuck with it because the stamp was visible in the photo. Then it became my word against his. Luckily, I was only out $40, but honestly I can't imagine how that lady felt going to her mailbox and only receiving a photo.
 
Hmm, the listing is also very careful to say only 'ring' and 'stone', it never says 'diamond' except in relation to the melee. And it states the appraisal is for the value of the ring at the time of purchase.... so they can show the appraisals and say well that was for the ring before, not now (that we've switched out the center diamond for some other stone).

So shameful. :nono:
 
Scary! :eek: Ive been watching it...it's like a train wreck you just can't turn away...
 
Tammy, I reported it too...every listing has a link to report suspected fraud/abuse so I did that a couple of days ago. Don't know what it takes for eBay to shut down a listing however!

I do find it interesting that the seller is offering a 7 day inspection/return period. Surprised it's not all sales final.
 
mimi72|1346067254|3257746 said:
Tammy, I reported it too...every listing has a link to report suspected fraud/abuse so I did that a couple of days ago. Don't know what it takes for eBay to shut down a listing however!

I do find it interesting that the seller is offering a 7 day inspection/return period. Surprised it's not all sales final.
Click to expand...

Depends on where you are looking in this listing.

I saw it too and the inspection period is only in the item description, but not in the ebay details section. That part says "no returns". When you sell something on eBay, there's a part you have to fill out in the ebay details of the listing about your returns conditions. I am not sure, but I think whatever is in that section listed supersedes what may be posted in the html code.

Same issue with the shipping costs. The portion filled in ebay's details section says ~$2 shipping. The html code says $45 in the items description.
 
Christina...|1345949986|3257196 said:
Dreamer_D|1345949132|3257190 said:
Christina...|1345944940|3257164 said:
I noticed on the appraisal that it says Diamond and Platinum engagement ring (Harry Winston........) the words following are blacked out, I wonder if the word 'replica' is blacked out? :rolleyes: And what's the big secret regarding the GIA report #? Why is that blacked out?

I don't shop ebay very often, and you all are a lot sharper than I am. I wouldn't have noticed anything off with the sellers feedback. I still don't see what you all see, I guess. :oops: :lol: Is it because all the feedback is from the past few months? Or the low number of feedback? See? This is why I stay away from ebay! :lol:
Click to expand...

Click on their feedback number and you see they sell only "domain names" or something, none of the auctions are searchable on ebay and all were valued at about $10. In addition, about 8-10 of their feedback is from the same person, makes me think itsa friend.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Thanks Dreamer, What is a domain name? Is it just a way to protect the buyers identity? And if so, what's the point?[/quote

a domain name is an internet address, basically.
 
This makes me so angry! I hate that there are scammers out there to ruin internet shopping for the bunch. I reported it as well.
 
In my over 13 years' experiences dealing with ebay, they are not going to remove an auction based on someone sending in a report. You could be the jealous ex or a competitor trying to knock out the competition. Unless the auction will somehow lose ebay money, they are not going to do a thing about it. The only exception to this is that a few long time sellers do have ebay's ear. Hopefully one of them will see it.

Do know that with this seller's very spotty history, no money will be released until the buyer receives the ring. He only accepts paypal which is great news for the buyer. The worst that will happen in this case is the buyer will have wasted his time and be disappointed. I can assure you that based on the new ebay / paypal buyer protection, if it is a scam, the seller will not get a dime from this auction.
 
Notice how the details of the diamond on the GIA report are all in bolded text which looks different then the rest of the report?
Is this how normal GIA reports look?
This is shady shady shady!
 
And sold for $31,101.

I truly hope it works out for the buyer.
 
GirlyGirl|1346342590|3259811 said:
And sold for $31,101.

I truly hope it works out for the buyer.
Click to expand...
:eek: i'd feel sorry for the buyer.. :(sad
 
It is unfortunate that ebay has this issue so often. A coworker of mine was selling his ex FI ring on cregs list- and a few months after he got a call from a woman who said she had just bought his EXACT ring from someone on ebay. I guess people will troll for pics and specs of real rings and repost them on other sites :nono:
 
I actually had PS take down my photos as I was contacted by a few people regarding that eBay listing. I noticed another picture that was on that listing was a HW photo listed through a Google search
 
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