1000lbs on ebay -- what's wrong here?

[tonysbricks]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HUGE-MASSIVE-750LB-LEGOS-38LBS-FIGURES-100S-MANUALS-MOTHER-OF-ALL-COLLECTION-/181085161471?pt=Building_Toys_US&hash=item2a298447ff

What are people's thoughts on this?

I have been watching it for awhile now and the price keeps going up. It was $12500 when I first saw the auction and he keeps rejecting offers and raising the price. Now it's up to $17000. Seems fishy.

He requires payment outside of ebay. Huge red flag right?

He keeps "finding more and more" and claims you may get it in the auction. Shouldn't a real auction be posted once you have assembled everything to sell so there is a concrete contract between buyer and seller?

He bought and added a ninjago display to the listing for free. Why would you buy something you plan on giving away in an auction? Makes no sense.

The grammar seems aimed at getting people excited rather than telling what's included. He keeps posting about how exciting and cool and fun the process is.

BUT he has high feedback, and the little forensics I did seems to check out with a legit history.

I haven't done much with ebay so I am curious what the experts think. This whole thing to me screams scam and I see it ending in a glorious train wreck. Is my gut right?

[terrymc4677]

i would avoid that like the plague.

[Huskers1236]

It's definitely a screwy listing. He sounds like a drunk used car salesman. The pictures also look like he's a hoarder who probably treated the stuff like crap. Look at the pictures, everything is stuff in crates and boxes in an attic. He says he will send everything in garbage bags. There is no way that there is 17 grand worth of stuff here. I don't care how many minifigures he says he has, I can guarantee that there is a fair amount of stuff here that the buyer will throw out because it's beat to crap. A true seller that knew what he was doing would inventory and display all the figures, instructions, and display everything so that you could see what they were getting. His saying that he is accepting private local bids is concerning as well, again, he sounds like a salesman or auctioneer that is going a mile a minute without actually saying anything. The fact that he wants to do things outside of Ebay is a flag, but he could just be trying to save money. I would never in my lifetime purchase this outside ebay and paypal. For 17k, I would fly out there myself to see it all personally to inspect it and then rent a Uhaul for the drive back

[Snowcrash]

Ever watch "storage wars"? Did you know that the storage company doesn't get to keep the proceeds from the sale, only enough to cover the debt that they're owed for the unit? The rest gets paid back to the renter. The company has to sell the contents at public auction since they're obligated to get the best possible price for the goods, but there's absolutely no law that states they have to leave the contents of the unit tucked away inside and unopened. If there's a motorcycle or some gold coins inside they're well within their right to prominently display them or even haul them out and sell them outside the unit. Know why they leave everything in those mysterious bags and boxes? Because they get a better price that way. Don't believe what you see on TV, most abandoned storage units are filled with garbage and pornography. Best guess is this auction is legit, and the seller knows exactly what he has. He knows if he lists everything brick by brick he probably won't get that great of a price, but selling it like this he's fueling everyone's wildest hopes and speculations. I'm thinking the winner shows up to collect and is disappointed to find out that while he's certainly won a huge amount of Lego, when he actually gets it all home and inventories it he realizes he would have been much better off just buying it all loose in individual lots. I know I wouldn't drop 17k on something like this without way more details on what I'm buying. There's hardly any pictures. That's a huge amount of money to spend on loose Lego. $23/lb? Yikes! What did I say about people being bad at math...

[stackables]

Pretty sure i saw this lot on craigslist.

[redeemed763]

Complete garbage listing, the seller does sound drunk, and the truth is, he didn't buy a lot of sets, he bought a lot of lots that means that stuff has been picked through used and lost several times over, you will not get a complete set out of it that is worth anything. Not to mention the fact that he "just went back into the attic and found several hundred more minifigs" doesn't that raise more red flags like "how much of these sets are going to be missing?" If I had the cash and was wanting to do some serious moc'ing, I might put 4-5k towards this but you still need to have more info first. Oh yeah, and there is this little gem that caught my eye "this is how you buy bulk yes its a tidy sum but with thousands of mini figs and thousands of parts and hundreds of manuals its all set up to start building the sets from the books and then listing them on ebay as built,complete with figs, accessories and weapons , then you will double if not triple your money tons and tons of star wars in this tons.its actually so fun!!!" Not only was he drunk/high when he wrote this incoherrent response but how did he spend over 10k on this, sell it for 17.5k and double or triple his money for all that fun?

[Ed Mack]

If you have a chance to see it in person, it is worth a shot IMO.

[metsrock507]

He requires payment outside of ebay. Huge red flag right?

it says on the listing that he/she accepts paypal... doesn't make it worth it though, seems like a nutjob

[Clambo]

$23 a pound??? I've never paid more than $10 a pound for bulk Lego. As the weight of the lot increases, the price per pound should go down, not up. In addition to all the red flags, this one just doesn't add up.

[kerrmando]

I think it's way too overpriced. 23 bucks per pound of just the minifigures is a steal but of everything? not that good. I try not to pay more than six

[Snowcrash]

I'm curious, who's the "we" he keeps referencing in the auction description? He's stated numerous times that he has no wife or girlfriend. The carpet in one of the pictures is stained. Crazy cat hoarder too? His user name is singledad56, but last I checked the father typically needs to be in some sort of relationship with the mother prior to winding up with the children... Part of me wants to make the drive just for the lols to see what this actually looks like in person, but its almost 9 hours one way and I'm not too sure I'd want to deal with this gent in person.

[tonysbricks]

He finally found a sucker buyer. I would love to know what was actually paid when the new ebay data comes out.

[Diabolos80]

Oh. My. God. I seriously just got brain freeze trying to read the great wall of mumbled text in that description. Owwwww.

[DoNotInsertIntoMouth]

The price per pound is not great - but a the same time that is a lot of figures. I would be interested if I could have gotten pictures of stuff.

 

Looking at his purchases I think he just impulse buys stuff.

[comicblast]

I wonder what the best offer was...$12,000 is my guess. STILL...

 

Hope whoever bought this is either retired, unemployed, or wants to hire a few people full-time for a year or so... LOL

[Noodlenut]

haha.  I would not take a chance with that one.

[Guest TabbyBoy]

I've got no time for sellers who use a difficult to read or too large a font.  I don't want Bovine Scatology, I just want easy to read facts.

[BrickPick3r]

I doubt he has the original receipts. Who would keep the receipt? I think he's making it up base on the part that he can pick of. So there could be a roof top from harry potter and a Jabba minifig. That makes 2 sets for him. haha