Beedster

That 'feeling' has been with me the whole way through this, trying to anticipate exactly what the angle was. He was definitely up to something, I suspect he's just a bit greedy and perhaps not the sharpest knife so telegraphed it to me well in advance (which was nice of him), whereas a good conman would be gone well before I'd even noticed. But yes, that unease that sometjing was wrong was there all of the time.

The 'buyer' refused the eBay refund I sent and insisted that I send the bass, so I have refunded him directly through PayPal (and have an acknowledgment from eBay that he has now received it). I'm guessing from his tone that he'd already sold it (eBay listing closed early), had seen a nice £600 pay-day coming his way, and is now rather miffed. What goes around comes around eh

Having still not resolved this I tracked back through messages, and not only does he have multiple ebay IDs, he has multiple real IDs also. I insisted I would only send to his registered PayPal address and he eventually agreed. I didn't realise it at the time, but the postage labels he had earlier emailed me (after I'd told him I was not going to let him arrange the courier), had a different name to that with which he had paid for the bass, and from which his PayPal account is registered. I still can't escape the feeling there was a scam here that I've ducked out of, but in true 'Burn After Reading' style, I've no idea what it was

Ha ha, quite happy to keep it to be honest Harry, it's bloody lovely, just doesn't get used that much any more. But I've re-listed it as I kinda need the money, which was the reason for listing it in the first place

Thanks for the above folks. eBay is an interesting one, I suspect that we all still remember the days when the occasional Pre-CBS Precision popped up and sold for £450, when buyers and seller were generally polite, helpful and honest, and when it was largely full of used and interesting items. Wow it's changed.

Nicely put Ped, wise words and point taken And probably should be in my profile!

So, this guy is really quite unpleasant. He has numerous eBay accounts including godisforme7, vintagepluslondonguitars, reverbfireguitars, fireguitars and no doubt many more. He's just left me the first neg I've had in 15 years on eBay saying that I didn't send a bass to him with the usual "AVOID AT ALL COSTS" rubbish. He has also has just emailed me to say the police are involved. I imagine the crack anti-bass fraud group are as I write doing 90mph down the M2 in response. If they lock me up and throw away the key, it's been nice knowing you all. A nasty guy trying to bully me with threats; he wants me to refund the fee for the courier I told him not to book. I have no doubt that the reasons he messed about so long on the courier thing was because he was going to send the bass directly to the new buyer, and I told him I wasn't going to. I suspect that he has now sold the bass and taken payment, and is sitting in a pile of his own mess. I think however that this is indicative of eBay these days, so I'm about to close my account. Good idea while it lasted, but these days often populated by clowns trying to pull a fast one.

Thanks for the above folks, having done a little bit of digging around I found he has numerous ebay identities - five at least (some are linked to the account he bought with and some are not - and several comments on guitar forums about him doing what he has done here, sometimes even before he'd actually bought the guitar in question! He has a refund, I get to keep my 4003S

Hope this might help a bit also