Metropoulos Forum

The eBay seller audiotubes_de from Germany tried to sell me a nice NOS quad Mullard Xf2 single getter with the production code B3E2, what denotes, that they've been produced in the 2-nd week of May 1973:

http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie ... IBSA:DE:11

and they've been silkscreened with the OLD Mullard shield logo - the seller meanwhile has pulled off the photos, but here they are:

http://www.larry-amplification.de/pixs/ ... uad.fk.jpg

Although the old shield logo was discontinued already since 1970

Larry

Seems that he's a fraud

Regards & Achtung!

Robert

What was his response after you confronted him?

EDIT: I moved this to a sticky thread focused on pics and descriptions of counterfeit tubes to beware of. -- Bash

Thanks for the info Larry,

What was his response after you confronted him?

+1

His first answer was, that he doesn't know much about Mullard tubes, but when I think, that these are faked ones, we may skip the deal - it's anyway a sale or return.

In the second mail he asked, whether the '3' in the production code possibly may indicate 1963 instead of 1973 In 1963 the Xf2 all still have been double getter.

Meanwhile he had pulled the photo off the ebay auction. But I've copied it at the right time and uploaded it to my server, where it still is. After he recognized that, he promted me in a third email, to pull 'his' photo off of my server, because he owns the rights on that photo.

But no! It'sw still there:

http://www.larry-amplification.de/pixs/ ... uad.fk.jpg

where it's seen, that the fake logo even is bad faked, the REAL shield logo looks quite different in detail, see here:

http://www.larry-amplification.de/pixs/ ... .xf2-2.jpg

Be alert with ebay!

Larry

You would think that if someone were to go to all the trouble of counterfeiting tubes, they would at least do their homework and do it correctly!

BashCoder wrote:You would think that if someone were to go to all the trouble of counterfeiting tubes, they would at least do their homework and do it correctly!

Who knows, how many of 'those' indeed are around !?!

Larry

Exactly, how many people really know this stuff in that kind of detail? Novosibir, you are truly in an elite minority.

Perhaps he was ripped off by a dishonest seller and he is just "flipping" them?

he promted me in a third email, to pull 'his' photo off of my server, because he owns the rights on that photo.

I believe that falls into "public domain" once it is placed on eBay.

- WOT

Yep. Thats why people photoshop those watermarks into their pics on ebay.

Oh mama
Larry, how do you read the production code?

Since there is so much money to be made with vintage gear and the like, It brings all the scammers out of the woodwork! They are even making counterfeit vintage Marshall amps complete with old transformers ,grillcloth, components,etc!! There is an excellent artilcle in this months Vintage Guitar Magazine which gives tips on detecting frauds. It keeps getting harder to detect them as they keep getting better and better. I myself have seen some lately on ebay and some were at pretty well known places. Anyone here ever got taken?

yes and the transformers in question are being ripped out of original wem dominators to make those bogus 18 marshalls .the screens are up for the unwary vintage pilgrim...i have to admit! i get a kick out of seeing some corporate lawyer trying his luck in .the vintage amp or guitar market with his field guide clasped firmly ...shot gun..... see the boy run! do da jerk baybay....,it went thru the roof when they showed the vintage gear graph against the usual top investments.with old gear taking the lead and rising 80 some percent in 18 months .....brings out alot of the local gentry!

Just curious....what kind of tubes are they? they have some of the Mullard type features (the 2 slots in the plates). I need to get educated so I don't fall for one of these scams?

dab wrote:Just curious....what kind of tubes are they? they have some of the Mullard type features (the 2 slots in the plates). I need to get educated so I don't fall for one of these scams?

The tubes are legit Mullards....but the silkscreening is fake.

Here's what happened. I saw these listed on Ebay and spotted that they were fake logo's. Larry won them and I posted on PP that they were fakes and warned him that he got hosed. I've seen this seller (Karsten) do shady things for a long time, and I always watch what he's doing. He knows tubes really, really well....but he does at times get sloppy with his nonsense. He has that really nice tube website I'm sure you've all seen:

http://www.tube-classics.de

The other Ebay ID he uses is "tube-classics".

I've had long emails back and forth with him in past years, and you wouldn't believe the things he's said. He's flat out stated that he doesn't care if he hoses people with fake tubes or not.....he put that in writing!! I still have that email. He says that if someone complains, he finds a solution. So basically, if he gets caught, he'll work something out. It's really a shame. It would take a long time to list all the crap I've seen him pull on Ebay the last 5 years or so.