Hi 'catters.. Been lookin' at e-bay, not w/o some element of wonder.. or disgust on occasion. - so this thread is germane..

In quotes below is a response I got today, to an inquiry I made abt a guarantee of satisfaction or trial period, from a seller of a guitar who has set his opener @ $400.00. EVERYBODY knows, I believe, how variable individual instruments are. I obviously left the name out. The brand he's selling (Tacoma) has definitely been highly variable & sometimes quite unimpressive when I played them in stores. This is, I suspect, sophistry at the VERY least. ?possibly duplicitous.. & clearly this individual wants to avoid such responsibility. Comments about how quickly he delivered other guitars he's sold in the past are MEANINGLESS in respect to this issue. And yes, I am VERY uncomfortable bidding on this item, tho it IS very pretty - who knows what it really sounds like, & I'm not likely to plug it in - I really want a decent acoustic sound.. (BTW, what do you 'catters think of this brand?)

His response:

"Hello, Thanks for your E-mail. I have always discribed my items as acurately and honestly as possible. Therefore, I would only accept a return if I misrepresented the guitar in some way. I would suggest you play one in a music store and also check my feedback. It's really a beautiful guitar and I kinda hate to part with it, but if you feel uncomfortable bidding I understand. thanks," (name left out)

- how's that for an easy catch-22?? He sells - evidently among other things, guitars - note the plural.....

As for hurting local shops - hard to say, except to point out that, as best I can tell, >2/3 of the instruments most appealing to me are clearly being sold by dealers. Sometimes I've back-tracked to the dealer's site to find the same instrument, for which the opening bid was set by the dealer, being sold outright on their site for that exact opening bid (opening bid they set is their normal everyday price) - so any bid at all has to be more than the opener & any way it breaks, that seller is ahead of their normal price, for which they sell the item to any taker - ie, the bidder is being HAD...

Like many, I've often seen things selling for way above the going price in the not-so-good-deal local stores, let alone the really good price places. ANYTHING w/the name Taylor or Martin seems to go very high.

So, at the very least it seems to have all the usual drawbacks of any auction & some more. I'm not sure how to catagorize any pluses, except, perhaps availability of a large # of items & convenience of access from home. I have, BTW, bought strings & digital cam-corder tapes on the net & have been pleased to ecstatic abt the deals I've gotten. The string issue could definitely hurt local stores..

CAVEAT EMPTOR!!

Cheers, BK - who hasn't been around much & is not allowing cookies at all right now & for at least the short term future. It would be great if we could set the browser to accept cookies ONLY from specific sites..