Yahoo auctions allows videos to be sold on their site. Many a collector will be lulled in by all the rare and out-of-print titles available there.
When you receive the item, that is where the fun starts! Every rare or out-of-print video I have tried to purchase on Yahoo has been a copy.
In one instance, the seller listed items for sale that he did not even possess (their copier was broken).
In another instance, the deal was completed, and when I received the copy of the movie and reported it to the seller, he angrily scolded me, accusing me of ruining his "fun" of selling on Yahoo!
In another instance, the same person who ripped me off in the previous paragraph outbid me on three other movies from another seller. When I contacted the seller and made her aware of the situation, the one tape I did win was mysteriously broken, so it could never ship. Subsequently this seller blacklisted me from her auctions!
I reported all of the above, and more, to Yahoo auctions and to their copyright department. I was told I should contact the owner of the actual copyrights and let them verify whether there were in fact violations. They ignored my requests about how I could be blacklisted by someone for asking whether their items were originals or copies.
(As an FYI, I even contacted the FBI about the one copy I received, and guess what: they never responded! So I guess you can ignore that warning shown at the beginning of every movie!)
Warning: buyer beware! If you choose to purchase something from Yahoo auctions, be aware it may be a copy. If it is, Yahoo will do nothing to correct the problem. They are only in it for the money!
0 comments