After Hours

I mean, OK, nobody sells stolen UPS units for 99 cents.
But do you wipe it all, or what?

Wipe off the fingerprints, wipe the data, wipe off the serial number?

It's very true that there are lots of items of questionable origin on eBay. For example, there are a great many portable GPS units for sale where the security PIN has been 'lost' by the owner.

When it comes to things like Cisco WLAN products or switches, I would suppose that some items might be stolen, but I really tend to doubt it.

Now If I want to buy a stolen TV, laptop, or portable GPS, the local craigslist is the place to go for that. It's also a great way to robbed, attacked, or killed, as criminals offer items for sale, hoping to lure people with cash to meet them somewhere.

And, of course, there are the scammers. When I was selling my Avaya PBX on Craigslist, somebody offered, via email, to send me a cashier's check for the system and send a moving van right over.

The interesting thing about the email was that the time-zone-offset in the email header was GST +8, and I am in GST -5. So this guy in Western Australia was offering to send a truck (across the ocean!) to the the US for a $200 load of phone gear. (of course this is a classic scam, as they issue a fake check for a larger amount and request that you send the excess back to them),

Surprisingly, when I sent a return email, which showed that his IP address and time zone was in Western Australia, and then guessed that he was in a certain city there (where many Nigerian scammers have emigrated), his email account was disconnected within about twenty minutes.

Wasn't any good as a car but it was complete and good for spares on one that was being restored for the wife to play with.

Cost $500.00 to have transported here but it was the right type for what was needed at the time.

Col

Though I've owned a few that were worth less.

I've used Craig's List twice to get some obsolete hardware off the company shelves. Other than that, I have no experience on either side of the auction equation, and no clue how to accurately assess the offerings or game the bidding system.

I've only bought camera equipment from eBay, and it is rarely a steal. It often looks good right up until the last five minutes when the real bidding wars start.

My best "buy" off craigslist was a broken Vivitar 285 flash. I bought mine in the early 90s, but lost the off flash cable, and the battery holder had not survived a leak, and I couldn't get the contacts clean of battery acide despite an hour of trying.

Someone was selling one of theirs for $30 because the hotshoe was broken. So I got the cable, which goes for $70 +, if you can find it, the battery holder ($10 on ebay), diffuser and color filters ($20 on ebay), plus the body for spare parts.