Been sat on this event for a few days now trying to work out of its something or nothing.
I have my Rev 2 for sale at the moment on Reverb. A buyer approached my offering to swap a monomachine mk2 for it, via post. He messaged photos etc via the reverb in-app service.
I agreed, but on the basis I would send the rev2 upon receipt of the monomachine.
He refused, and suggested sending the synths at the same time on the same day (the next day).
I tried to offer assurances, as best I could in this situation (such as drawing up a basic contract he could rely upon in a dispute), that I would send it and wasn’t out to rip anyone off (especially as he approached me with the offer of the trade).
That offer from me was the last communication we had; no reply since.
So… I’ve put this up here as firstly would like to hear others opinion on the exchange, and if anyone has experienced something similar.
Secondly, I’m not sure whether my regarding this as a potential scam is fair - was I unreasonable with apportioning all the risk to the other guy?
However, it seemed a little too good to be true, with the monomachine’s higher resale value than the rev2 (not that I was intending to sell-on immediately to make money).
The abrupt end to our correspondence strikes me as odd, as my final message politely gave him the option to back out, if he didn’t agree to the terms.
I’m not sure if I’m and was just being a bit of knob, but if it was an attempt to scam then I guess it needs to shared as a warning.
I’m curious about a few things, what made him peg you as an elektron guy in the first place? does your feedback mention buying elektron stuff? or your sold items in your store?
red flag.
Why did he risk approaching you on reverb instead of trying to get your contact information offline. Does his account have any feedback? When was it last used? is it possible it’s a hacked account?
Possible red flag.
Does it sound too good to be true?
Red flag.
So, I’ve had reverb “ethics patrol” or whatever they call themselves send me some pretty unpleasant messages just for corresponding with people about talking offline or exchanging mail addresses. They want their cut no matter what.
If it came to pass that you did this trade and they were aware that you ended the sale because of a trade that took place by their facilitation (as a result of their marketplace) even if it was successful, they may try and force you to pay a seller fee and say that if you don’t it’s fee evasion and suspend your account.
There is no love from reverb, it’s all business.
Anyways, What are the specifics of the guys account? How much feeback? how many sales? any you can confirm? What kind of things bought, what kind of things sold? I wouldn’t want to send first either but in this circumstance it seems a bit suspicious as you asked the right sequence of questions and did not falter and maybe he went off to scam someone else.
Just my 2 cents.
Scammers like easy prey. They don’t want to work for it, that’s why they scam one would assume.
The guy seemed relatively legit with limited feedback and some other items for sale.
Not considered reverbs’ potential interpretation of the transaction. It kind of happened quickly over the course of an hour or so whilst I was doing a pub quiz (in which we came second to last).
That’s what I typically do, on this forum and Modwiggler, but only because it’s with people I know (at least virtually) and trust. Someone you don’t have any history with approaching you with a deal that’s too good to be true… that would be a hard pass.
Monomachine is the white whale. It’s too much of a coincidence to think he just has one and is offering it. If he has one there’s a 50/50 chance he’s a member here. Did you ask if he was on elektronauts? I feel like if he really wanted to work something out he wouldn’t have disappeared the moment you displayed hesitance to send your synth. Did you look at the mnm listings and see if his backdrop matches any existing listing like he ripped off the pics or check google images? if they have a distinct backdrop you can usually find where scam images came from.
People are really scammy with mnm on reverb for some reason, I see a lot of just created accounts listing mnm with other peoples pics. I’m not a flaggy kind of guy, but I flag that shit.
Yeah of course. I didn’t mean it’s bullshit, it’s more of a gentlemen’s agreement.
I would do the same for a transaction on this forums marketplace, if the user is a member, has a bit of a history, or better yet has already been praised in the feedback thread because he sold or traded you a nice piece.
In this case, being approached quasi-anonymously, that doesn’t inspire trust at all.
Defo a scam. When something doesn’t make sense, avoid. This scammer could easily sell the MnM in a heartbeat and then buy two Rev2s. OP did good wasting the scammer’s time at least
@sid6581 you don’t owe a complete stranger the benefit of the doubt, trusting your gut doesn’t make you a knob and feeling pressured to complete a transaction is a core element of scams. You did the right thing
This is another true-ism which we come up against time and time again. Why should we trust a random internet stranger? Go with your gut, even if sometimes that means you will occasionally lose out on a bargain. The money you didn’t lose to scammers will more than make up for the odd lost bargain.
