Holly

Well I'm back and, so far, I haven't seen any sign of any suspicious LSW auctions - but I'm keeping a look out. Sadly it has made me a bit more wary on the Buy It Now front... I'm still waiting to hear about my Paypal claim - does anyone have any experience of how long these take??? On a happier note, I do have a Republic Gunship!!! The one below has arrived and is absolutely wonderful *sweet* http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...em=280032197346 I didn't post this before as, after my experiences with the fake RGS auction, I had some fears that this one might be the same - but the seller of this "real" RGS has been nothing short of fantastic and has restored my faith somewhat. I suppose I was being greedy in grabbing the fake one as I already knew I'd won this one - it just seemed too good to be true as my son (in true male fashion!) would love an "army" of Republic Gunships. Oh well, we are VERY lucky to have the one I know ;-) Holly

I think I saw this in my local independent toyshop yesterday - I didn't buy it as they had quite a few and I was buying a birthday present for my nephew - perhaps I should have grabbed one while I could! This will be our first year with a Lego Advent Calendar rather than a Playmobil one (same principle: you open a piece every day and gradually build a final scene). Does anyone know of a link to all previous Lego Advent Calendars please? I have every Playmobil one ever released and, whilst I'm not likely to do the same for the Lego ones, I'd be interested to see them. :-) Holly

ROFL :-$ Unfortunately (well, fortunately really!) I'm off to France in 2 days time and working until late both days that I'm still here - so I'm not going to have time to remain glued to ebay. But if these fake listings are still appearing when I get back................. I probably should point out that I'd normally be against bidding on ebay items with the intention of not actually paying for them........but in this instance my usual principles don't seem to apply! Holly

Thank you!!!! I did try bricklink the other night before posting my request and there weren't any at all then. The great thing is that I've wanted a set from Northwinds store for a while (Geonosis Fighter) and been holding off in case there was something else I wanted (to save on shipping fees) - so I've bought the set and the 7101 box. Thanks again for brining it to my attention - I really must pay more attention to bricklink as they seem to have a fast turnover and add new stuff very frequently. Holly

Yes indeed - funnily enough I've been daydreaming about taking my revenge on the scammers. I've got it all worked out. What I'd do - if I was going to do it - is re-register on ebay using my hotmail account. Then, next time they list a load of sets, I'd use BIN on all of them - and obviously not pay for them. That would remove the listings before any unsuspecting genuine bidder could bid on them. I could just keep doing it until they get bored........ I've even got my username worked out - revengeissweet >:-) Holly ;-)

Unfortunately (for my bank account) I'm an ebay addict and something like this would never REALLY put me off - I've been ebaying for 4 years and have completed well over 1000 transactions, the vast majority having been a positive experience. I'm careful anyway - his will just make me more cautious. If I DON'T get my money back I'm not going to be happy though! Holly

My payment went to hetangzhise@hotmail.com ...of course, I didn't know this before I paid as I paid using the ebay invoice. Since paying I've received about a hundred spam emails (all with attachments I've been careful to delete without opening) as, when you win an auction, your email address is given to the seller :-( It's ALMOST enough to put me off ebay for life.... Holly

I'm glad you haven't paid yet, imperfect-illusion (I wish I'd waited but hey - I still hope to get my money back!). I noticed tonight that every one of your seller's unsold auctions have been cancelled - I think the real seller has realised someone's accessed their account but I don't think they've got hold of ebay as yet. If you look at your seller's completed listings they've sold almost

There are a whole load more of them this morning! Sadly they've all been snapped up - I have to go out so I don't have time to email all the buyers and warn them not to pay immediately :-( Here are a few of them - watch the links disappear (along with everyone's money) when ebay realise: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Lego-4483-AT-AT-Star...1QQcmdZViewItem http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/STAR-WARS-LEGO-4504-...1QQcmdZViewItem http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/DARTH-VADERS-TIE-ADV...1QQcmdZViewItem I'm disappointed - but not surprised - at ebay - they have a communication system - why are there no warnings???????? Holly

Sadly I was right - ebay have removed all of tonights listings that I was suspicious of - an AT-AT, several Millennium Falcons, a sandcrawler, a UCS Tie, etc etc etc I just hope they did it before anyone else bought one. Holly

Oh no! Someone has just used BIN on a new, sealed Death Star - for

I'm not sure about that one, Zane - the one's I've seen that have been removed have all been very cheap buy it now's - if you look at this evening's new listings you will see several - until ebay remove them. I have done this - I need to wait five days to upgrade to filing a proper claim. One small piece of luck - I'm a bit broke as I bought two big sets last week - so I used my credit card - I've contacted the cc company and I may be insured for stuff like this. I usually use my paypal balance or bank account. Holly EDIT - another tip is that all those I've seen are 24 hour listings - I suppose that's so that the criminals doing this have less chance of being spotted by the genuine seller who's account they've accessed ( I presume through "phishing" emails). I'm a bit annoyed at ebay - I feel they should be warning people about this - by removing the listings and leaving that page I linked to above they are effectively removing any evidence and genuine bidders are in the dark about this. I think the folks doing this must be making a fortune.

I've thought hard about posting this here - I'm very new to this forum and this makes me look a bit dumb - but I can see more listings on ebay tonight that resemble the scam one I fell for last night so I'm posting this in the hope that nobody here will fall for it like I did. Basically if you see a newly listed very desirable set listed for a too good to be true Buy It Now price - then it probably is too good to be true. What these sellers are doing is choosing a seller with 100% feedback and registered in the UK and somehow accessing their accounts in order to set up an auction in the reliable seller's name. The one's I saw last night and this evening are sellers who don't sell regularly - I suppose that's so they are less likely to notice immediately that someone has accessed their account. Anyway I saw a Republic Gunship for

(Sorry missed this) Yes I will have my son and nephew with me - they are both probably not heavily into traipsing around cities - but they'll have to put up with it for a short while as they are getting several days at Disneyland to make up for it! ;-) Holly

I'm one of those saddo's who saves the original boxes for all of my sets - and I just received the above set from an ebay seller who posted it in a jiffy bag - despite my requesting an outer box to prevent it getting squished :-( Needless to say it's crushed - does anyone have a nice, clean empty box for this set that they aren't bothered about keeping? I'll pay for the box (sent inside another box to prevent the same thing happening!) and the postage - I'm in the UK. On a side note, does anyone else find it infuriating when you bid on a set which is photographed with a decent box and the seller just sticks it in a padded bag so it's unrecognisable when it arrives???? Holly PS It's also missing Qui Gon's hair which is a separate issue as it's in the photo - I'll be contacting the seller in the morning - hopefully it's just dropped out and they have it :-|

Whether we get it or not will probably depend on how much I get for the Playmobil version :-P Holly

Thank you yet again for all of your help, Yoda *sweet* It's getting near now and I'm quite excited about the trip - although it's mainly about taking the children to Disneyland we'll also have a little time in Paris - anywhere else you would recommend we go in our limited time there (when I'm not hurrying between toyshops!)??? Holly

I like it *sweet* I've got the Playmobil Christmas train set and we've used that under our tree for the past four years. Now that we've outgrown our Playmobil I've been thinking of selling it - but what to replace it with I hadn't decided - this could be perfect and we could run it around our tree on our HP train track. Thanks for the link Holly

Yes it is a bit overwhelming for me as well (my son is blissfully unaware of the sandcrawler) but I've sold a few of my Playmobil toys on ebay over the past couple of weeks so the money was there - what else could I do??? It's funny though, because I've had money over the past few weeks I've found it hard to find stuff I want - whenever I don't have money I can find a ton of stuff I want to buy :-| Anyway I don't have to worry about that now as I'm back to my usual empty wallet state :-/ Holly

I can't get over how kind you (and everyone) are being - that would be very helpful. We arrive on Wednesday 4th October and leave on Sunday 8th - if I know the Torcy store has them it might be easier than trying to go there when we arrive at the airport or make our Paris sightseeing day a bit less rushed - though I'd like to get to the La Defense shop if I can. Many thanks, I appreciate it :-) Holly

I'm finding it hard to believe but I've bought two major sets today (must be the influence of this forum *wacko* ) ....this morning I bought the sandcrawler for my son for Christmas (shhh don't tell him!) and I've just bought a 7190 Millenium Falcon for myself (actually we share all our sets anyway). Just waiting for them to arrive now ;-) Holly

Wow! That's beautiful, Panda. And it reminds me that 4708 and 4752 don't have tenders - while the motorised Hogwart's Express and yours do! Holly

Thank you everyone for all of the information. At the moment I'm thinking I will visit the La Defense store when I got off the plane as I know the Imperial Inspection are there - however, if someone were able to tell me that they were also at the Torcy store I could go there fairly easily at any time during the week which would probably be easier! Holly

There are 3 HP trains - two that don't run on Lego tracks and one that does (it actually comes with track in the set). 4708 and 4758 are the two trains that don't run on Lego track - they are to be the same size as the motorised track version but they have fixed wheels and so won't take curves. Apparently they can be converted into motorised lego trains that will run on the tracks. The motorised version you can buy is 10132 - this is basically a train set with track, station, transformer and figures as well as the train. Hope this helps - all can be seen on bricklink. We have all three and the motorsed set is well worth having IMO. Holly

Hi and welcome from another newbie :-) My son is at least partly responsible for my Lego interest as well! Holly