Dear FPN members and experts,
I am a newbie to buying FPs and for the first time I am really looking to purchase an upscale pen: the Pilot Custom 823. (for my teacher...details in earlier post: "Gifting a FountainPen".) I heard good things about kamakura-pens on ebay and luckily they offered the Pilot 823. However, I've received 3 offers to "2nd chance buy" at a price I determine. I thought I was getting a great deal and happily agreed to it, but it got stranger and stranger when 3 people asked me for the same information (address and best price) over and over again. And then I was asked to send my money to Romania via Western Union. (supposedly illegal on ebay) Am I dealing with the real kamakura-pens? What's going on?

total scam. no doubt.

This is absolutely a scam, but probably not on the part of kamakura-pens. Do not respond to "second chance" e-mails, they are against eBay policy. If you do send this person your money, you won't have the protections afforded by eBay, PayPal, or your credit card company. I would be amazed if you actually got a pen; more likely your money would be gone and you would have no recourse. Don't do it!

Welcome to FPN!

Lisa

Scam for sure.
Make sure you forward the details to Ron Dutcher who posts here under the hanlde "kamakura-pens".
I think he might be interested in the details.

A scam. Same thing happenned to me and I reported it to ebay and they confirmed that it was.

Kamakura, Tokyo Russ and Engeika are impeccable e-bay fountain pen merchants. Second-chance e-bay offers are scams. I receive one each time I am not successful in my bid. I never get an answer when I ask them for details of the fountain pen they are offering me.

The scam is certainly not by kamakura-pens.
And your question is answered by the request to 1. send the money to Romania and 2. pay by Western Union. If Ebay thinks WU is illegal is irrelevant (it is not, ebay just doesn't earn the additional fees that way), but certainly never pay via WU to strangers - never, as you can't claim it back. The money is lost for sure. Also, as to what has kamakura to do with Romania, you know yourself the answer: nothing! All this is a scam. Your ebay name appears on the bidders list and anybody can contact you for anything.

While in this instance it is assuredly a scam, there are real eBay "second chance" offers; however, they always come via the eBay message system. Some time back I had a "second chance" offer arrive simultaneously via eBay and my gmail account. When I queried eBay about it, they verified that the one via the eBay system was legitimate, and, if transacted, would have all the usual benefits and safeguards of transacting business via eBay. They did caution me, though, that unscrupulous "sellers" might make a scam second chance offer, but only through regular email channels, but not through the regular eBay channels.

All this to say that second chance sales are not always scams -- most of the time they are, but there are exceptions, but only if they arrive via the eBay message system.

Donnie

Begging your pardon, second chance offers are not scams. I "won" a Parker 51 on a second chance offer this February past.

From Ebay help --

To make sure a Second Chance Offer is legitimate:
1. Go to www.ebay.com, sign in, and click My eBay. The Second Chance Offer email appears in My Messages. Legitimate Second Chance Offers are forwarded directly from eBay and appear in My Messages with a blue background and subject stating, “Second Chance Offer for Item…”

2. If you receive a Second Chance Offer, it will be reflected on the closed View Item page as a message that there is "an offer waiting for you". You can then click on the Second Chance Offer link to view the details and make a purchase.

AFAIK, Richie at www.cyberpens.uk.com sells the 823.

These so-called 2nd chance offers are usually scams. I've yet to receive a genuine second-chance offer on Ebay.

kamakura-pens, engeika, sakura_zeppelin....there are a few others....from my limited experience so far, are all impeccable sellers from Japan.

Ebay Golden Rule: Never, ever use Western Union for payment purposes...it's still the No. 1 mode of payment insisted upon by Nigerian political refugees asking you to send them several thousand USD so that they can post to you USD 3.5 million worth of gold bars...

I have dealt with all of the Japanese eBay sellers mentioned in this topic (if you can afford it, it isn't an addication). They are all great to do businees with. Even good eBayers can make mistakes. One of them once sent me the wrong pen but covered everything. I would not hesitate to buy from any of them again. Some second chance offers are legit - check your eBay messages. Always use a credit card with PayPal to pay. PayPal will back you up to an extent and you can always refuse the credit card charge. I have bought over 250 items on eBay with few regrets and have never felt the need to give negative feedback. Be sure that you are not using your e-mail address in your eBay username. If you have given your e-mail out to anyone about an auction and you are just starting out you might want to change your username. In general I ignore all e-mails claiming to be from eBay or PayPal. If it's important they will let me know when I log in to their site. Good luck on eBay; provided your taste in pens differs from mine.

Don't send them a dime- it's a scam.

Wow... I am glad you guys let me know this was going on. I'll have to put a warning in my ebay descriptions. I would hate anyone to get robbed thinking they were buying one of my pens.

I can assure everyone that this is indeed a scam. Occasionally I do make 2nd chance ebay offers, but I do not live in Romania and I do not accept or suggest Westren Union as payment.

Thanks to everyone for the sound advice given here.

Stay Well

Dr. Ron Dutcher
http://www.kamakurapens.com

Wrong. Second chance offers are not necessarily scams. If the message came directly from the seller, then it's genuine. The thing to do is to contact the seller and ask if the message really came from them. The problem is that scammers are able to make messages seem as if they come from eBay - it's a common trick.

Sorry...I should have said, "Second-chance ebay offers are OFTEN scams."

After going through some old Ebay messages, I remembered that I did receive one GENUINE second-chance offer from Kamakura_pens. Well, not really a second chance per say but rather, he found another of the pen I lost my bid on and I just happened to be the second-highest bidder. I actually forgot about that....ARGH!

Just to show that it's not too difficult to tell scams from real offer.....so far the scammers ONLY contacted me though my email, not through the Ebay messaging system....and best of all...one fellow offered me a 2nd-chance offer on something that I WON! Hahahahahahaha!