Man Says He Was Tricked Into Paying $750 For Photo Of Xbox One On eBay

Introducing the new Xbox One Special Paper Edition… only $750 on eBay!

It’s a truism as old as time: Wherever there are people willing to pay a ton of money for a new video game console, there will be scammers willing to take that money and leave them empty-handed. Well, not technically empty-handed in this case, as the customer did get a photo of an Xbox One for his $750.

“I’ve had to make a joke out of it because I was that angry,” says the 19-year-old from Nottingham, UK, who paid £450 ($749) to a seller on eBay. “At least we’ve now got something to laugh about in the years to come.”

The young man says he’s an experienced eBay buyer and this is the first time he’s been duped.

In the seller’s defense, the buyer admits the listing did say it was a “photo” of the console, but he tells the Nottingham Post he assumed it was the real deal because it was listed under the heading of video games and consoles. He also says there was no negative feedback for the seller.

So either this was the first time the seller pulled this alleged trick on a customer, or his buyers appreciated the level of customer service.

After all, the seller did leave a “Thank you for your purchase” note on the back of the photo.

The buyer contested the purchase with eBay, which has given the seller until Monday to issue a full refund.

To anyone out there tempted to pay top dollar for a Xbox One or PS4 on eBay or other secondary market site… don’t. They will be back on store shelves shortly and there are only a very few games available to play on either console, and most of those games are available on current generation consoles. You can spend hundreds of dollars over list price to get an Xbox One or PS4 right now… and then sit around for months waiting for decent games to come out, or you can just wait and save yourself a lot of cash.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist