I thought i would like to share my story of a recent flute purchase from ebay USA.

I was looking for a second flute as a backup and was mooching around for a yamaha series 4, i had a couple of bids trying to win one but was always outbid by 10 dollars or so lolol

Then i saw a yamaha 821 closed hole, c foot on a buy it now for 1800 us dollars !!! i couldn't believe it !! what was wrong with it !! why was it so cheap !!!!!! In my excitement i contacted kara and sent her the link for her opinion, and after several e mails back and forth i decided to take the risk and buy it. As it turned out the seller was a lovely bands man from the us army based in Georgia who gave me a good description of the flute, it's age and rougly how much it had been played (which was minimal) He also offered me a 7 day money back guarantee and therefore i had him send the flute to Kara first for a check over, before sending it out to the UK.

Kara received it withing a day or two of my purchase, she cleaned it and serviced it for me and it got to me a week later in a brand new condition.

I am absolutely overwhelmed with the quality of the instrument, it has a beautiful mechanism, is a delight to play and with my own headjoint (andrew oxley handmade gold lip and riser) the tone is beautiful.

I know that flute sales are a little cheaper in the US than here in the UK, as everything is (i worked out the other day that we pay just over 7 dollars for a gallon of gas lololol) So the saving i've made on this instrument is HUGE, i asked the flute shops in London how much they think they would sell a used Yamaha 821 for (in immaculate condition)and they told me anywhere between 3000-3500 sterling (about 6000 us dollars).

All this from Ebay usa, and lots of help from two very lovely americans

thank you

I am so glad that you like your flute so much. It was a pure joy to play on and so comfortable too! Thanks for sharing. xxxxx

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Dislaimer: For anyone who may have had a micron of a doubt, I have never posted that the USA ebay was corrupt. I said ebay in general, meaning everywhere, NOT just the US. I have had far more worse dealing on ebay from other countries that I will not list out of respect to other members of this forum that may be from that part of the world. Thank you.

Congrats Angie!! That's awesome; I'm delighted for you.
Its my personal opinion that ANYTIME there is ANYONE trying to see ANYTHING, its possible that fraud could be involved. ANY scammer from ANY country could use ANY website to try to RIP PEOPLE OFF!!!
The important thing is that one use common sense to avoid these frauds.
And like Angie found out, sometimes its really NOT too good to be true; sometimes you DO get lucky!!

Its my personal opinion that ANYTIME there is ANYONE trying to see ANYTHING, its possible that fraud could be involved.

Your opinion is not VALID. lolololol!!!!

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(Inside joke!)

it is too!!!!
STOP BEING MEAN TO ME!!!!
(*goes to cry in the corner*)

'What was wrong with it' was the closed holes and C-foot, which are unfortunately and unwisely avoided like the plaugue among upgrade-flute shoppers in the U.S.
I also bought a Yamaha 800 series, C-foot flute on eBay for about $1800 two years ago. It does have open holes, most of which are now plugged! The seller was very communicative and the flute came with a 7-day-send-it-back guarantee.
My flute came with a handcarved CY headjoint that was probably a second quality- it had an asymmetrical embouchure hole. I sold it and replaced it with a Prima Sankyo NRS-1 (net cost after selling the CY, $600) and now I have a GORGEOUS flute with the lightest, fastest mechanism and I love it. I do prefer the feel to the Yam. 600 and 700's that I have played, this thing is SO yummy- even "Julliard gal" with her Brannen prefers the feel of my mechanism.
My only problem with the Yamaha 800 series models is that there are no adjusting screws on it, which means disassembly if it gets out of adjustment. On the plus side, my tech padded/adjusted it so well, and it has such nice level soldered tone holes, so it has not ever needed adjustments besides its annual COA. But it COULD get bumped and the repair would be not nearly so simple- part of why I have a backup flute. No, no, don't back up, don't back up!!!! (Silly travel website TV ad).
My backup flute (I had planned on a Yamaha 200 series abut bought a Pearl 501E) has the same size barrel (I think size 4? Heeheehee) so I can use my fancy headjoint on the Pearl and you would have a hard time hearing the difference.

I know what you mean tibbi about the CY headjoint, it's really difficult to play so i'm glad i had my own head to put in it.

I have an open hole flute already, and have plugs in all the holes lololol so i don't mind at all that the yamaha is a closed hole flute, i will get a b foot for it at a later date.

Yes i agree, the mechanism is perfectly smooth and lovely to play and i'm going to enjoy it closed hole or not, and maybe concentrate in future on upgrading headjoints for it.

thanks for your comments, angie xx