Someone is trying to sell a Gold Plated BBC Micro on eBay - the one given away as a prize by The Micro User. This is in the Science Museum, London AFAIK - and they've used a picture of it. They are claiming to have a brand new, sealed one that they've had since the mid-80s. Why am I suspicious?
Curious how the scam works, if it is a collect-in-person and the buyer can inspect? I suppose they might ask for bank transfer for the cash and then give a fake address?
The scammer runs the auction, with an accomplice placing the highest bid to ensure they're guaranteed to win. Afterwards, the scammer contacts the bidders telling them the sale fell through and offers to sell to them directly instead, moving things off the auction site to email for negotiations.
Perhaps they just gold plated the case of another one. The process is not as expensive as you would think.
Report it?
Lots of people have asked the seller to post pictures or a video of the box/item as proof. It *could* be the find of the century, a misundestanding by the seller, a hacked ebay account or something else. We shall wait and see. The original one cost £5,000 in 1985. 22ct gold plate!
Seems like a good place to start. Hopefully no-one will get caught out if it is a scam.
Sure everyone's done this but.. www.markpack.org.uk/125682/impre...
Same photo
You'd have to assume from their other listings that their account's been hacked.
Something this rare should be placed in proper auction and not ebay* If it's even real*
friend of mine asked about its provenance.... the reply was: "I didn’t buy it and im not a competition prize winner . There is more than one but less than 10 were made . You can see all the provenance you need when you pick it up ." oddly enough it now shows on ebay as: it had 9 bids 2 hours ago
Here are some articles about the gold BBC Micro that The Micro User gave away as a competition prize. This one eventually made its way into the Science Museum where it is today AFAIK.
@colinhoad.com did an excellent video about the Gold BBC Micro too. No mention or rumours about another one existing. www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBbT...
Very suspicious that they haven't even uploaded pictures of the (supposedly) sealed box too.
Never mind, found the issue - there's definitely only one which means this is definitely a con
The article did talk about potentially creating more than just the prize model for wealthy Arabian customers, but if the person selling is claiming that theirs was also a contest prize then their story becomes a lot more flimsy.
There's also the possibility that the original winner, who sold the golden Micro decades ago, was the one who pulled the con and that the one in the Science Museum is actually the fake. 😄
That’s a hell of a long con
For anyone interested archive.org/details/Micr...
My only thought as to why there might be more than one is the articles from the Science Museum etc talk about them as if there was more than one - which, yes, is pretty inconclusive evidence.
I think Oak (the company that produced the competition prize) had plans - realistic or not, I have no idea - to create a run of gold Beebs, but given the one they made was valued at £5k they doubtless concluded it wasn't worth doing. Nobody has ever come forward with one since, so 🤷🏻♂️
Thanks for resharing this, @kevedwardsretro.bsky.social! This ebay advert would have made for an interesting "extra" in my original video if it had happened a few years earlier 😅
I do wonder how they can be sure there is a "gold" BBC Micro in there, if they have never opened it. My guess is that the ultimate buyer will end up with an empty box, or, at best, a Beeb that has been rattle-canned in gold.
Forget the video, you have a dot com? W hat are you selling and is it pre- or post-bubble?
Interestingly, it does seem like they made more than one ...
so do you think someone has made him an offer outside of ebay, last time i looked it was at £252?
The seller does have a 100% positive feedback on over 100 sales, selling retro tech, with much of it BBC Micro related. If I was in the market for this, I'd be wanting to pick it up in person, and paying only having examined it anyway. If real, I wouldn't be trusting it to couriers.
Suspicious that he says it's an unopened box and ASSUMES the contents. Yet there's no photos of the box though. Maybe it is a hijacked account.
If the buyer is welcome to open the box and check the contents, why doesn't he open the box and take a photo of it? 🤔
Or even take a photo of the sealed box
If they actually had one, they'd add at least one picture of the item in their possession, even if it's just the sealed box.
