EXCLUSIVE 2.5 PSX Playstation 2 System ???

[pimpbot1976]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3058420895&category=11328

I never even knew this existed.

[MarioAllStar2600]

The item has not been released to the US Market, but will be shipped as soon as it arrives. We anticipate that the item will be shipped within 30 days of the auction close.

That made absolutly no sense. What says it will come out in USA within 30 days. SOunds liek some BS to me. Plus I dont even think that was released in Japan yet, dont no though.

[Achika]

I doubt anyone is allowed to bid anyhow, since it's only "preapproved". It's probably some stupid marketing ploy, but I don't know why someone would choice something that's far in the future anyhow.

[Rev. Link]

Those "pre-approved bidders only" auctions are BS anyway. What they do is, they don't allow anyone to bid until 2 hours before the auction ends. Then, there's this big clusterfuck of bidding. People tend to go nuts I guess, and it drives the price up.

If you ask me, it's a really cheap way of getting a better price than you should.

Btw, is anyone esle annoyed at Sony for calling that thing the PSX, when "PSX" was what we all called the original PlayStation?

[punkoffgirl]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3058420895&category=11328

I never even knew this existed.

Pimpbot, could you possibly use a smaller image in your signature? That one is rather large. Thanks.

[whoisKeel]

i don't see any component connections on the back of that baby... isn't that thing gonna retail for ~$800 ? i would think it would have component....

[can_dude]

i don't see any component connections on the back of that baby... isn't that thing gonna retail for ~$800 ? i would think it would have component....

from what I've read, it will come out in december in Japan and be 1,200 USD

[mezrabad]

Actually I've seen one of these pre-approved bidder auctions before and I think I figured out the scam. Fortunately, I can't find a current example, so perhaps ebay has put a stop to it.

The one I saw was for a PS2, pre approved bidders only. You could only be approved if you signed up with a particular electronics payments company whose name I don't recall. (not PayPal, something by citibank, I think). Anyway, the auction said "click below to sign up with this payment company then send me an email with your accountnumber/username and I'll approve your bidding!"

When you rollover the link, the status bar spoofs a legitimate web address, but in the source code you can see in the javascript that you're being redirected to the legitimate address from another site that adds the sellers information to the URL via cgi-script forms input. The seller gets credit for the referral of the would be bidder to the payment company. The would be bidder signs up. The seller never gets arround to preapproving any of the wannabids and the auction closes with no bids. The seller gets $5 for signing each bidder up (either immediately or whenever the signed up bidder actually uses the service.) and keeps the PS2 (if they ever had one to begin with.)

Lame and annoying, but I bet the shill auctioneer made some bucks from it.

The site that was doing the redirector for the bidder was some kind of "commision experts" site. I don't remember the URL but they seemed to specialize in finding ways to exploit systems that provided incentives for signing others up, yet did so with a very corporate front page.

When I discovered this I went on one of the eBay forums and tried to explain what I found and find out the best way to report it, I was beset with sceptics who accused me of being a competitor of the seller and making a big fuss over nothing. I was almost certain they were being obtuse on purpose until a little light bulb went on in one of their heads and they finally "got it". Then they were just as annoyed as I was, but not very helpful at telling me what I should do to report it. (which isn't surprising since it took them so friggin long to understand it.)