Besson 981 3 day

[Chuck(G)]

He is a scam! Out of country and won't tell where item is untill paid for!!!!!!!

You'd have to be nuts to bid on the horn with this latest feedback...

[windshieldbug]

Only three feedbacks, two for current items removed, and
"He is a scam! Out of country and won't tell where item is untill paid for!!!!!!!"

Caveat emptor!

[Donn]

This is in my area. Refuses an inspection. Very strange response to question...

I have wondered about that. I think when people list things on an on-line auction, they don't usually expect that potential bidders are going to appear at their doorstep wanting to fool around with the item. Which is fine, I don't mind giving people a surprise, but have any guidelines we ought to observe in this situation?

No doubt I'm going to want to inspect the valves, since this is a piston tuba. Just forget it if a valve cap seems to be stuck? What if the piston doesn't easily slide out all the way - force it?

Pull the valve slides for the famous compression test? What if they seem like they might be stuck, OK to pull kind of hard? Some of this stuff might look a little scary to the seller.

Would you insist on playing it?

From a seller's point of view, I guess if I expected a dozen inspections, I'd expect probably half of them to involve all the above, and it might seem like an unwanted nuisance, or worse a risk to the instrument.

I have actually done it, once, with a local seller who has a pretty good reputation here, a trombone player who handles fairly high end stuff. He was very gracious and not only let me play the expensive and rare instrument, but also brought out an even rarer one that wasn't for sale and tried to get me to play it, too. But I don't expect everyone to be like that.

[Randy Beschorner]

Listing now removed from eBay.

[Wyvern]

I always ask if it is possible to inspect a tuba before bidding, even if I have no intention of doing so. Their reaction helps to gauge if they are genuine.

I did that for one where the tuba was supposedly in London, for them to say it was actually in Spain. Needless to say, I proceeded no further!