eBay Files Criminal Complaint in Nautiluso Case

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Well, our persistence paid off. We finally got a response from eBay media relations today on the Nautiluso case and it’s a doozy: The company says it has filed a criminal complaint with the Berlin Police. Here’s the full text of the reply:

“I have an short update for you and your readers. I appreciate your patience and I’m sure you understand that an international investigation takes time. You can tell your readers that eBay is continuing to investigate this matter and has filed a criminal complaint with the Berlin Police. This is all the detail I can provide at this time.”

That’s all we have for now, but it’s really fascinating and gives us hope that we’ll eventually get to the bottom of what actually happened. Also, I went through all of our

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Putting a Name on the Jazz Vinyl Fraud

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As Rudolf pointed out in a comment yesterday, Nautiluso, perpetrator of the Jazz Vinyl Fraud of 2009, is no longer a registered user on eBay, so the public information about him is slowly starting to disappear. There was a point at which he had a My World page, but that is gone. You can still see on eBay that he had been a member since June 8, 2003 — in Germany. Personally, I’m not sure he was ever based in Brazil: It’s likely he had an accomplice mail from a Brazil mailing address because he believed it would provide a safe haven. The thing about this guy is, for several years he was probably a legitimate seller and probably used his real name in communicating with customers. I will tell you the name he used: Thomas Lamprecht. If you had any dealings with him, please let us know. What’s also starting to disappear from eBay are

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Nautiluso: More Feedback, No Response From eBay

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Here’s a quick update on the Nautiluso Fraud:

I contacted media relations at eBay on Monday with a bunch of questions. Still no response. I’ll follow up today. Still trying to find out if they are acknowledging a fraud, if they are pressing charges against the perpetrator and if they are consistently reimbursing victims.

There are two new instances of negative feedback on Nautiluso if you check out his profile here. These are from a classical buyer from the same auction. He was ripped off to the tune of about $3,400 and says on his feedback that eBay refunded his money. So far, everyone we’ve heard from directly has

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New Ella, If You Can Find It

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Have you read about the newly discovered and newly released Ella Fitzgerald Boxed Set from 1961 and 1962? It’s called Twelve Nights in Hollywood and it features 76 songs recorded at the Crescendo in Los Angeles. I read the article in The New York Times on Sunday and was pretty excited and I was a little down today and I figured, well, what could be better on a down day than Ella. There are plenty of places that sell CDs near where I live — I’m in the New York metropolitan area, so really, they’re all over the place, or at least they used to be. And it’s Christmas shopping season, so every place should be fully stocked, right? Well, so far I’ve called six different stores and not a single one is carrying this item. Zero. They all told me to go online and I could get free shipping. So why bother having a retail store at all?

In Nautiluso Case, PayPal May Be The Biggest Loser

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Brian makes an interesting point in his comment in the article on the buyers filing $30,000 in claims against Nautiluso. He notes in the earlier fraud that emanated from Italy, most, if not all, of the buyers were made whole by PayPal. He mentions a maximum of $2,000, but I think there actually is no maximum. I spoke to one of the Nautiluso buyers yesterday who spent more than $2,000 and was fully reimbursed by PayPal and was asked not to talk about it, so I won’t mention his name. We also heard from one of our readers that he has already been reimbursed by PayPal. The challenge for organizations like eBay and PayPal is that their business model is predicated on creating a safe buying and selling environment, so something like this poses a major challenge to them. At the end of the day, they don’t want the negative publicity Read more

Still Waiting For Answers on Nautiluso

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No major new updates on Nautiluso. I spoke to media relations at eBay again this morning and posed a bunch of questions, such as: Is eBay ready to declare this a fraud? If so, are they pressing charges and, if so, where? What about the probable victims — who gets protected and who doesn’t? It will be interesting to see how they respond. I’m hoping to speak to someone directly in eBay corporate, no offense to the media relations person who is quite nice and friendly. I haven’t seen any new complaints or negative feedbacks on the eBay profile of Nautiluso, but they haven’t pulled it down yet either, so that’s a good thing, since it is a place we can keep monitoring events if eBay is not forthcoming with information. I did notice that Nautiluso doesn’t have any items posted this week.

Buyers File $30,000 in Fraud Claims Vs. Nautiluso

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In the past two days five buyers have filed 21 instances of negative feedback against Nautiluso and have indicated in their feedback posts that they have filed claims with eBay. The actual number of records involved was higher — 24 records in total — because some of the feedback actually registered as positive, accidentally we presume. You can check out the feedback comments here, but here are some samples:

“Buyers be aware! 10/10 jazz auction was a mere fake; you’ll never get your recs!”

“Never received the record. No communication from seller. Claim filed with Paypal”

“Never received the item, filed claim with Ebay and Paypal…”

“Records never delivered. There is not a response at all either.”

If those comments are not bad enough here is the piece de resistance, from a classical buyer:

“The contents are 100% different Useless trash Search with Q123Q word.”

So the assumption on that last buyer is that he received a package from Nautiluso, probably timed to arrive after the 45-day time limit for filing a claim with eBay, and the contents of the package were not relective of those that he had won on the auction. We’ll do more reporting on this later today and tomorrow, but so far the tally is as follows:

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Prestige Day At Jazz Collector

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Let’s catch up on some of the Prestige jazz vinyl we’ve been watching on eBay:

Sonny Rollins, Moving Out, Prestige 7058. This was an original New York pressing. It was listed in VG++ condition for both the record and the cover and the seller has a good reputation. The price was $197.50. This one has Kenny Dorham and Thelonious Monk. We would have expected a higher price.

Webster Young, For Lady, Prestige 7106. This was an original New York pressing as well. The record was only VG, while the cover was M-. The price was $213.50.

Eric Dolphy at the Five Spot, Prestige 7294. This was an original yellow label pressing with

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On Ebay: Hope, Dex, Jackie & True Blue

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Let’s take a break from all this Nautiluso stuff and get back to our real business of watching real records on eBay. Here’s a few that will whet your appetite:

Elmo Hope, Informal Jazz, Prestige 7043. This is quite a nice rare record featuring John Coltrane and Hank Mobley, later issued as Two Tenors. This is an original New York pressing. The record is in M- condition and the cover is listed as VG++. The current price is nearly $400, but it hasn’t reached the seller’s reserve yet. The seller has a few other nice items as well, including: Jackie McLean, A Long Drink of the Blues, New Jazz 8250. This one is listed as M- for both the record and the cover and is currently at about $115 — also still short of the seller’s reserve price. The same seller also has a copy of:

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