John, I know where you are coming from. That has happened to me many times over. Craislist is like a newspaper add. It's first come first served. Sometimes you will find a seller with high integrity and others that are total losers. That's part of the collecting game. Several years ago, I was at a garage sale and bought a Columbia Elite table model. That's an interesting story in it self. Beside it was a really nice VV XI from the teens. The price was $150.00. I had a buddy who was looking for a nice VV XI. The only issue was the governor need work on it. I told my friend about it and he was excited.I brought him over to the owner's house so he can look at it. He had the money and everything. She had the audacity to say the selling price is now $350.00. She said ant antique dealer said the price was to low. Needless to say my friend was highly pissed. After she told us the price went up, she then asked if we could repair he governor. We said no and left.I contacted all the collectors in my area and requested that they don't repair the governor. Another collector felt for us and he called the lady and said that this was a rare machine and worth $1500.00 and he will be over to pay her in cash. I often wonder what happened to the machine. Isn't net working nice? This is one of many sour deals I went through. John, I'm sure that you will find a nice VV XVI at the CAPS show. Good luck, Harvey Kravitz
________________________________ From: Peter Fraser <[email protected]> To: Antique Phonograph List <[email protected]> Sent: Sun, April 11, 2010 8:31:34 AM Subject: Re: [Phono-L] Craigslist Rant It isn't a done deal until you appear and money changes hands, and what you describe isn't really all that out of line. At least she came clean and told you what was happening. She didn't make you sell the XVI, so although that's unfortunate, it doesn't apply to the beef you have with her. Reporting her to CL? Not sure about that. I'm reminded of a deal I made years ago with someone who lived down your way, to purchase a nice oak L-door XVI / VTLA. I had pictures of it, and although it was located up in Oregon, I made arrangements to transport it. Same situation - completely done deal, all agreed on price and timing, but this was before paypal so no payment had yet been made. Then my ISP had a problem and my email was out for about a day and a half. When it came back to life, I emailed the guy to confirm and finalize the last details...and he came back to say he'd sold it to someone else. Why? Because he hadn't heard back on an email he'd sent me a day before, and "assumed" I wasn't interested. Sound familiar? I'm sure we all have more stories like this. In a perverse way, it's part of the hobby, part of the chase - great finds, sad losses, near misses, and sometimes redemption. Ok, listers, what tales do you have to share? -- peter On Apr 10, 2010, at 11:12 PM, john robles wrote: > Hello all > I need to rant. I have been made a sucker. I sold my nice mahogany Victrola > XVI in order to buy a Victrola XIV in beautifully grained American Walnut on > Craigslist. The deal was made a few days ago (all documented in email) and I > was set to drive down to San Clemente tomorrow to get it. Tonight the seller > writes me and says "Hi John, I'm sorry to say this but I have another offer > on the > Victrola for $600. The collector thAt looked at it said it has an > uncommon walnut finish. Anyway, I am giving him until next weekend to > pay/pickup. I'm sorry for any inconvience this may have cause you. Good > luck to you." > So I sold my nice XVI for nothing. And the seller reneged on a done deal > because she got a better offer (by the way, her ad asked for $450 and I > agreed to pay that). The other collector is going to find out that it isn't > Circassian, and I hope he renegs on her. I reported her to Craigslist for > gogn back on the deal. Obviously I am very unhappy about this. I just wanted > to vent. > Thank you for listening! Now I have to find a nice victrola to replace my > XVI... > _______________________________________________ > Phono-L mailing list > http://phono-l.oldcrank.org -- Peter [email protected] _______________________________________________ Phono-L mailing list http://phono-l.oldcrank.org _______________________________________________ Phono-L mailing list http://phono-l.oldcrank.org
