If I Don’t, Maybe Nobody Else Will
Last March, I thought I won the Twangin’ From Phoenix To L.A. box set by Duane Eddy on eBay for $18.42. Now, I knew that I should have been suspicious, as I have tried unsuccessfully to find this out-of-print 5 CD box set for less than $200. But, I have an unusually large amount of trust in eBay, so I bought it and hoped for the best.
After getting the run-around from the seller for weeks, I received the single CD If You Don’t, Somebody Else Will by Jimmy & Johnny. WTF, right?
So, I was disappointed, to say the least, and the seller gave me a refund after two months of more running around. But, there’s a whole crop of sellers who claim to be selling Twangin’ From Phoenix To L.A. when it’s actually If You Don’t, Somebody Else Will. Why? Most of them are those huge sellers who couldn’t bother to actually look at the title of what they’re selling. So, I looked at the UPC of my copy and there were two sets of numbers. It turns out that Bear Family used one set of numbers for both albums. Very confusing.
I e-mailed some sellers to change their listings, and some of them did. I get automated e-mails from eBay tracking sellers who list Twangin’ From Phoenix To L.A., and sometimes the real set is listed (and I’ve lost those auctions). Other times, it’s still If You Don’t, Somebody Else Will.
Well, the moral of the story is that if it looks too good to be true…you know the rest…
Maybe I should give Jimmy & Johnny a listen?
1 January 2006 – 12:00 PM