Back in December, I bid $250 on a Pharos piece produced by HL in England. The series was pulled off the market in the United States due to quality issues according to a spokesperson at HL. It looks like there weren't too many pieces produced in the English series either since most were recalled.

I received an e-mail from the seller that the piece was not available but would be shipped to me from England within 10-12 weeks. Either my own personal greed or my being naive, I paid the cost and waited.

Last week, I inquired and was told to expect shipment by Friday. Yesterday, I e-mailed the seller and asked where the piece is. I haven't heard.

At this point, I need to contact e-bay and my credit card company to see if I have any recourse. I'm sure that e-bay will allow me to post negative response. I'm not sure what my credit card company will do since you usually only have 45 days from a buy to dispute a charge.

Luckily, I kept copies of all my correspondence with the seller and my replies. That may serve as some evidence. I am still hoping that the seller is legitimate and everything will work out. But it's three months since the initial transaction.

Has anyone else had experiences with after market dealers or e-bay where the transaction didn't go as planned?

Was that just for one piece? Maybe a year to year and a half ago, quite a few of us on the collector forums were able to get all 4 Pharos pieces for about that same price.

I've never been burned on eBay. I always check the feedback of the seller to ascertain if there have been any problems in the past.

Correct me if I'm wrong but there are more than just four Pharos Collection pieces. I have five in their boxes in my storage area.

Contact your credit card company and have them charge back the seller because he didn't follow through with the deal. You can leave negative feedback for him or her but he or she will probably do the same to you with some bizarre excuse blaming you. The important thing is not paying for something you didn't receive.

Bob

There were five pieces in the series and the cost for these pieces was around $240.00 + $30.00 shipping. This is what I paid from a dealer in England. Harbour Lights furnished the name of the dealer(s) to me and I called several of them to get the best group of serial numbers. It took about a week after I placed the order to get them at the frount door. I hope that the price you paid was for the whole set and not just one piece. I would also call your credit card company and see if they will make a special exception in your case to pull back the payment the next time someone buys something from this seller.

So far I have never been bit by a secondary market dealer, but, then I NEVER buy from ebay because of some of my friend's prior experiences. I prefer to buy from someone that I can talk to over the phone or someone I have dealt with before. I would never pay in advance more then a week or two so I can cancel the credit card payment if they don't come through. I think paying a little more and having piece of mind is worth a few extra dollars over ebay. My opinion of course.

I have never been burned by anyone on eBay yet, but then, I always check the feedback of that particular person just as Bob does. I also pay via PayPal. Do they not offer insurance for each purchase? I know this is late coming to you Plebetkin, but I do hope things work out for the best. Take care.

Tim

I by now must have purchased at least 80 HL from different sellers on E-bay, and I have to say every transaction has went very well, thank god.
Hope all work out for you Plebetkin, keep us posted. Ron

Rich is correct, I do have 5 in my Pharos collection.

I, too, have used eBay to buy/sell HL's in the past and never had a problem (sorry plebetkin...). I had about 20 transactions, but the majority of mine were (intentionally) for smaller amounts...$60-$70 was probably the most I spent on an auction. That way, if I do get burned, I can limit my losses...

Good luck, plebetkin!!! And keep us posted on how this whole thing works out.

Bowing to intense pressure to weigh in on the issue, I offer these thoughts from my experience.

I just made my first Harbour Lights purchase on Ebay—Got a Whaleback for 90 bucks. Smooth transaction. No complaints.

I've purchased quite a few things over the past few months: Out of print CDs, Paul Lynde-related memorabilia (hey, he was from my hometown and is one of the funniest actors ever), a poster from the movie "Jaws" signed by John Williams (I came out of my socks when that arrived). All successful (last week I got my Gold Star Rating. I peed my pants. They like me! They like me!):

But I remain vigilant. If they don't take PayPal---which I trust---I may not bid. If they don't have a proven track record of positive responses, I won't bid. And for reasons I can't quite articulate beyond a general distrust, I won't bid on anything offered from a foreign country.

You're smart to keep a record of your correspondence with these loons. I hope everything works out.

P.S. On a related note, I recently discovered how ruthless EBay bidders can be. I thought I had a beautiful Nauset locked up with 10 minutes to go. I was outbid at the very last second. I won't make that mistake again.

Bill, I hear you on the last minute bidders, I had a steal on St. Helena @ 37.25 with five minutes to go and it went for 75.00!!!!

I have also ran into these last minute bidders and it can be a real downer. I must say that all of my ebay transactions have been positive even when the piece arrived broke! It was a Fire Island and the USPS had stabbed the box almost clear through with something. It was amazing the only damage was the top ball was gone off the light! The rest of the light was fine without a scratch. It was insured. The people I worked with were great emails were flying as we solved the problem. I took pic's and filed a claim the post office, who sent it back to the sender for their paperwork on value ect ect. Unfortunately they didn't have another Fire Island which they offered to replace the damaged one. I suggested a substitution if they wanted to or we could wait for the USPS to refund the money. They gave me a choice of three lights none I really wanted. I choose one but ask if they had a Sanilac they would be willing to part with instead. They did, so I still got a light I wanted.

Things are real easy if they work with you, and you remember it was not the seller's fault the USPS stabbed the box.

Chuck

A number of years ago I had two Nausets on layaway at Collector's World in Mass. During the 6 months that they were in layaway, the pieces increased in value quite a bit from the $100 each I had paid for them. After finally paying them off, I had them "sent" to me just before Chirstmas of that year. They were sent USPS, but they haven't arrived to this day. I got my original $200 back because they were insured, but I would have rather had the lighthouses instead. They were the last two the store had in stock!

I wonder if someone, somewhere has those two Nausets and realize what they have. Or even worse, they don't realize what they have!! Unbelieveable!!!

Bert

Bert, I have the numbers somewhere at home. Collector's World wrote down the numbers before they were sent and gave the numbers to me after the fact. Police officer Bob has been working on this case for years, but no results yet!

Thanks for all the advice and war stories.

1. I did check the seller's comment postings, and the seller has good feedback. She states the item was shipped from England last week and is delayed entering New York customs because of the added security recently. I'll give it more time.

2. I paid $250 for the one item. Another on e-bay just went for $170. Someone offered me all the pieces for $400.

3. HL denys that any pieces exist made by them. They tell me that the item was released in Europe and recalled. They also said that the items weren't up to their standards of quality and were never released in the U.S. I have since heard that up to 400 or more of each piece did make it to dealers and weren't returned.

4. I've won at least 15 or more other HL pieces on e-bay without incident. In fact, most sellers have contacted me all through the check out and pay process to see how things were going and some even contacted me to make sure that I received what I ordered.

5. After one auction, I contacted the seller privately and bought seven more pieces. Since there was snow on the ground, she packed them extra special to withstand the way UPS and the others handle things like that (like leave them on a snow pile next to the garage).

6. I will contact my credit card company just to notify them that I haven't received the merchandise. After I posted yesterday, the seller did reply to my e-mail today to state that she's looking into this. I am trying to keep an up-beat posture that it will all work out.

So, all in all, I've had good luck with e-bay and after-market buying. I will continue to buy. I just don't want to be out $250.

So far (knock on wood) all of my HL purchases have turned out to be good one's. I've gotten 3 Anchor-Bays and 17 LE's from e-bay, so far.

good news. My Pharos from England finally arrived in great condition. It is nice to know that I waited a long time but that I didn't get cheated as I was beginning to wonder.