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Oh, jeeze!! I thought this was hilarious.
Yeah, the kid was wrong, but wouldn't you have loved to have seen the look on those guys faces when they opened a picture?!?

Did you see "Matchstick Men"?


The kid's intent is what the law looks at and his intent clearly was to mislead people into thinking they were getting something they weren't.


He wanted them to think they were getting a television and not notice that they were in fact getting a picture of a television.

A refund and probation would be appropriate IMHO.

I dont believe that the kid did anything wrong. It if he can figure out a way for some idiot to give him $2000 for a picture of a TV, more power to him. If you are trying to tell me that the picture is not worth $2000 and that the kid intentionally tried to deceive them, then is it not deceitfull to puchace a TV for a ¼ of the retail price? This reminds me of the apple book scam from several months ago.

The more I think about this the more it bothers me. Its so horrably wrong to sell a picture of a TV for $1600 but its not wrong to buy a REAL 52" plasma screen TV for that same price....? ""I was floored. What am I going to do with a picture of a TV?" Farris said."----what would someone do with $1600 for that TV? Didnt you just try to rip off this kid the same way he did you? Argh, this pisses me off.

So far, eBay has been very reliable for me. Their feedback rating is a good tool to determine the reliability of a seller, or a buyer for that matter. It has real bargains, but I definitely would not spend more than $500 on it, regardless of the seller's feedback. I don't see how people can buy cars and homes on eBay without even seeing the items in question.

i know of several police departments, creditors, ect... who post repossesed items on ebay following auctions to get rid of any items that did not go in the auction. there are several legitimate reasons someone might want to sell his/her plasma tv for 25% of its 'average retail price'. also remember, unless otherwise stated, shit that sells on ebay is generally considered used. as such, it is not unreasonable to expect that many items on ebay sell at amounts signficantly less than items retailing brand new.

this kid is a puke and what he did was wrong. period. i have a serious problem with people who try to swindle others out of their hard earned money. societal parasites.

you would have to be pretty daft to not read something through properly before trying to buy it, but then if the buyers first language wasn't english its easy to understand the dudes mistake. Kid should give the money back...

Ummm, Ebay states when you place a bid:

This constitutes a legal contract yada yada yada... be sure before bidding.

The people bid on an item that stated it was a picture in the fine print, they signed a contract willingly and did not complain shortly afterwards (ebay will allow you to with draw bids). They accepted a contract and got exactly what they paid for, the kid deserves their money and they learned a lesson.

Personally I always read the fine print and any links to websites posted (especially ones that say: Terms and condition apply, see website) and take a copy of anything important. The kid posted a legal auction... so why should the police get involved.

If the kid did say that it was a picture - then he did nothing wrong. His intentions are beyond the point. If you can convince some moron to buy a picture for $1600 without lying to them then those people are REAL morons.

The legal system disagrees with you.

To get the selling prices to $1600 or $2000 there must have been at least 2 (and probably more) bidders that misunderstood the auctions. I bet there were a few people feeling foolish and lucky after this story came out.

I can't believe people are standing up for this kid. He's not "clever" at all, just vile. And people are "stupid" for being duped? Stupidity and naivety are two seperate things. The kid is stupid thinking he could get away with it, hope he pays bigtime.

It's way too easy to scam over the internet right now. There are smart criminals out there making millions and even dumb criminals are able to make a living.

Cant belive he thought he could get away with it because of the wording

The buyer maybe deserves a "STUPID" tattoo on his forehead, but the seller deserves to die - no maybe about it.

There is NOTHING worse than a thief.

Heh, that's inventive.
But very wrong, of course. ;)

So true. I must admit we have been fooled as well ourselves. I think everyone probably has. It's a matter of did you learn from it?

P.S. Sorry I gotta be anal - it's "parted" not "departed".

What a punk little shit! If it were me, I would be driving to GA and get my refund personally.

I can't believe the "If you can trick people out of money and make it legal, go for it!" attitude here. I am truly disgusted.

I hope the charges against the kid are dropped. From the sounds of it, he clearly put in the ad, "By bidding on this item, you acknowledge that you are bidding on a picture of a 52" plasma tv". How is that fraud? Since when is it illegal to sell a picture of a tv?

Is it illegal to sell any of the following?

A picture of a picture of a man eating cake
A picture of a screwdriver
A picture of a house
A picture of a car

The answer is: no. People sell dumb shit all the time... carrots that look like vaginas, chewed gum, dirt in jars, etc... Just because you're an idiot that buys it expecting something more doesn't make it illegal. If I make an auction saying "You acknowledge that you are bidding on a picture of a house", then it's not illegal. If someone ends up buying it for $1000 and later claims "Oh, I thought it was a real house", it's not illegal.

How does it suddenly apply to a TV?

Say you walked up to a van in an alley and someone asked you, "Want to buy this?" pointing to a 32" TV box. You nudge it to make sure it isn't empty... it feels heavy, must be a tv inside! So you give the man $50 and walk off with your new 32" sony tv (let's assume you can just carry it around for a second). You get home, open the box, and find weights inside. No tv. You just spent $50 for a heavy box. Now, whose fault is that? Sadly, yours.

1. what the hell are you doing buying a tv from a fuckin van in an alley,
2. why the hell didn't you open the box and test the thing out before buying,
3. what the hell are you doing buying a tv from a fuckin van in an alley?

Stupidity should be punished, and the punishment should simply be a statement from police, "Sorry you lost your money. Maybe you won't be so stupid and gullible in the future."

Besides, businesses get away with this shit all the time with their "fine print" in contracts. Why isn't that illegal? Probably because it clearly states what you are agreeing to if you took a few minutes to actually read the damn thing carefully.

Stupid people deserve to get tricked like this. I applaud this kid.

QFT!!! :thumbsup:

Ouch! I feel burned! :-p

At any rate, It's no so much siding with this guy as it is seeing it for what it truly is. In a fully capitalist society, this is more or less common, just to varying degrees. The "Pet Rock" was a ridiculous industry for those stoned enough to buy them. Oddly enough, no matter how many people felt "had" when they sobered up a bit, it was just business as usual. If I put up for bid a napkin. I say, "Hey, this is a napkin!" and someone chooses to bid US$100 for it, I'm not going to disuade them. If they read more into it than that, that is not my fault. That's part of a bidding system. If I had the same napkin for sale at a store for US$100, chances are nobody would ever buy it. *shrug* The joys of Ebay, bringing stupid people's wallets to anyone anywhere.

Stompy,

When you run for president, can I be your running mate? I agree... if for no more reason that I detest stupidity. *grumble*

Okay, I guess maybe edits would've been better, but I'm too lazy today... at any rate, how does this make the kid a theif? If you take out a loan, and are surprised that you get charged interest because you did not read the fine print, does that make the bankers theives? Or is this different because it was a TV (somehow)? I'm not sure why so many people are "sickened" by this, unless they themselves have been had in such a way and feel bitter about it.

I totally agree with maleficent here... If there's one thing you learn in life, it's question EVERYTHING!

The buyers should be punished for being so stupid.

Wow. I remember hearing about people doing this. Bout damn time someone gets caught though.

Now what happens if on this loan the bank says they are charging a low 5% intrest rate. But somewhere deep in the fine print the 5% intrest rate is per month not per year? The idea is banks advertise their intrest rate per month by specifying a 5% intrest rate their playing on the fact that people are used to seeing it as a yearly rate. The same goes for this TV people see a picture of a big TV and the auction is tilted 52" TV it is very missleading.

Um, point. The article said not that he claimed it was a picture, but that the word "picture" was _used_ in the ad.

I can see it now...

"For sale: 52-inch plasma screen television. Beautiful picture." :suave: :lol: