Teenager pays $735 on eBay for photo of Xbox One

[Salmon Trout]

Dumb kid department: I burst out laughing when I read this.  A UK teenager paid £450 ($735) for what was described on eBay as ‘Xbox One Fifa Day One Edition, Photo Brand New UK 2013′. But wait. it gets better. He is aged 19, and he bought it for his 4-year old son.. He got a full refund from eBay. Not the sharpest knife in the box? The readers who commented on the newspaper website appeared to think so.



http://metro.co.uk/2013/12/05/teenager-paid-450-for-xbox-one-on-ebay-got-sent-photo-of-one-instead-4217752/

[BC_Programmer]

A young father who paid £450 for what he thought was an Xbox One on eBay was sent a photo of the new console instead.

"Thought" is the key word here. If you are paying 450 dollars for ANYTHING you should make sure it's what you think it is. Especially on eBay. I find many older game cartridges and consoles searches will turn up results that display an image of the cartridge but are only the manual or box or something stupid like that.

Peter Clatworthy, 19, had saved up all year to buy the Microsoft console – which is now sold out – for his four-year-old son.

Yeah, likely story. There are two possibilities here: either he's a liar who was actually buying it for himself but pulled the whole "but it's for my kid!" spiel which for some reason is supposed to make people more empathic, in which case he's selfish for spending that much on himself (then again, presumably being selfish is how he got the kid in the first place, no doubt to the mothers dismay) Or, he really did want to buy a XBox One for his 4 year old son in which case he's a bad parent because, I mean... come on, That's a bit early to start them out on the virtual entertainment, since the world is still so entertaining overall. And I also question why he would get his 4 year old a football game- that really makes it clearly the first option.

I loved this one:

Mr Clatworthy added: ‘It has potentially ruined Christmas.’

For him, of course- not for his son, who it was probably not intended for.

I doubt he'll even learn anything from it. it was that clever scammer, putting a photo in the description! Words are hard, after all. They make my brain hurt!

[Salmon Trout]

I also question why he would get his 4 year old a football game

Check out the shirt he is wearing - it's a football shirt - this is the typical attire of the British "chav" - all these idiots think about is soccer. I don't know which team it is - [Yes I do: Google search for "football shirt tree two stars" - Nottingham Forest] He probably dresses the kid in a miniature version of the 'team kit'.

[Helpmeh]

Reminds me of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY3UKeDZqv8

I don't know why people try...

[Calum]

He got a free Xbox from CEX.  The guy from CEX looks thrilled to be handing it over in the photo.
He's a moron of the highest order and a great example of what's wrong with society.  The Ebay seller was apparently banned, for selling and providing something exactly as described...go figure.

[DaveLembke]

I find it funny that the printer was running out of color ink that printed the image, so it wasnt just a picture of one but was a crappy picture of one..LOL

[anthonyb5615]

Ebay seller had bad intention so it was good he got banned. Buyer still an idiot. I sell on ebay, and I even sold laptop boxes, gaming boxes, ( and I always make sure to put in ad selling only box.   Because I know people are stupid, and I don't have time to deal with error's.

[DaveLembke]

I sell on ebay, and I even sold laptop boxes, gaming boxes, ( and I always make sure to put in ad selling only box.

Unless the box was for an Atari2600 etc, which is a collectors item, who would buy a box without the device in it intentionally?

[Calum]

People with the item the box is for.  I realise that sounds somewhat facetious but it's entirely true, I've sold motherboard boxes even for low end boards on there and they've sold, only for a few pounds but that's expected.  A box can add resale value to pretty much anything as well as providing proper packaging, so it actually makes sense to buy a box from someone before selling your item if yours isn't currently boxed and if the box would add enough value or protection to make it worthwhile.

Ebay seller had bad intention so it was good he got banned.

What, because he sold a box described as a box?

[Salmon Trout]

What, because he sold a box described as a box?

Wasn't it an inkjet printed photo? I think the asking price of $735 and also the less-than-in-your-face way of saying it was a picture makes the seller's intentions open to doubt.

[Calum]

Sorry...photo described as a photo, I got box into my head from the post above heh.
I haven't seen it stated whether it was a "buy it now" listing or auction style, if it was auction style then the seller has very little control over the price apart from his starting price.

Edit: looks like it probably was "buy it now" not an auction listing, so fair enough the asking price of £450 was set by the seller.  However the complete title was "Xbox One Fifa 14 Day One Edition Photo Brand New UK 2013" so it seems pretty obvious to me.

From the article:

Despite the listing stating it was a photo of an XBox One Day One edition console, Mr Clatworthy said he'd expected to receive the console as it was listed in the video games and consoles category on eBay.

He said: "It said 'photo' and I was in two minds, but I looked at the description and the fact it was in the right category made me think it was genuine.

It doesn't sound like it was mis-described, just posted in the wrong section (where should a photo of a console be listed?  Not surer myself).  I'm not saying the seller was 100% in the clear as listing things in the wrong section is incredibly annoying for a start, but listing it as a photo, clearly stated in the title of the ad, to the point where the buyer even states he saw that it was listed as a photo, to me says that it was clear enough to reasonably expect a potential buyer to see it.
I just think that banning the seller from Ebay smacks of avoiding negative publicity and being seen to do something, perhaps a black mark on the seller's record (which is serious enough) would have sufficed - but then again Ebay is notoriously biased towards buyers anyway so it's not unexpected that the seller was banned.

[Salmon Trout]

I am reminded of the story (I don't know if it's true) of the 1920s UK person who advertised "a metal coat hanger, a portrait of the King, and a cigarette lighter all for one shilling" in the small-ads sections of newspapers, and sent out to each responder a nail, a penny stamp, and a match.

[Calum]

I like that one!

[camerongray]

He got a free Xbox from CEX.  The guy from CEX looks thrilled to be handing it over in the photo.

This is the part that really annoys me.  The guy was dumb enough to buy it in the first place, he gets his money back through Paypal but in the end gets handed an Xbox for free anyway!

Now, if he didn't get the refund then maybe I could sympathise and appreciate CEX's response - He could have just made a genuine mistake, seen the eBay listing and jumped at it without properly reading it. But the fact that he got the refund which is more than enough to buy a new Xbox One yet CEX felt the need to give him a free Xbox really does annoy me.

[Salmon Trout]

he got the refund which is more than enough to buy a new Xbox One yet CEX felt the need to give him a free Xbox

If he got double his money (in effect), then maybe he isn't so stupid after all.