Things like this on ebay is what makes it a not so good place to shop when looking for a flute. What is the person thinking, or not thinking!

http://cgi.ebay.com/YAMAHA-quality-silver-flute-at-affordable-price_W0QQitemZ7386792974QQcategoryZ85874QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

umm....that`s obviously not a yamaha. did they just put yamaha in the title so it would generate more search hits?

No, he put compared to Yamaha in the listing. The seller also claims that he is a professional jazz player and did recordings on this nickel plate sky flute. Lol!

Ya know he could have... there was a little lawsuit lately


Discount musical instrument maker wins $20.7 million
St. Louis Daily Record & St. Louis Countian, Jan 8, 2006 by Natalie White
The following article was originally published in Lawyers Weekly USA, a sister publication.

BOSTON - Massachusetts jurors, perhaps swayed by a rare courtroom performance of Errol Garner`s jazz classic Misty, recently awarded $20.7 million to a musical instrument maker that claimed it lost millions to a competitor`s smear campaign.
[The song] just transformed the mood in that room, the way music does. When he was done there was just silence, said Lee Bromberg, attorney for the plaintiff, First Act Musical Instruments. I`m the guy who`s supposed to ask the next question. I wasn`t sure what to do - applaud, say it was nice. But it certainly was proof positive that these instruments will play [for the] short term and [hold up over the] long term.
The trumpet demonstration was performed by the director of the Boston University Music Organizations, Chris Parks, who tested several First Act instruments for more than a year with his students. Bromberg said the performance showed the quality and durability of the company`s line of affordable band instruments.
First Act claimed that its competitor falsely advertised and defamed it by sending letters to customers criticizing the quality of its instruments.
Full Story:
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4185/is_20060108/ai_n15990073

Looks like a pretty good deal to me. Let`s say you purchase it for $20.00 and throw away the flute. The case, case bag, cleaning rod, and polishing cloth are worth the purchase price. Just think of the flute as a bonus.

That is interesting. I would still have to side with Brook Mays though.

He could have, you are right, but why would a professional jazz player be playing on a flute like that? Kind of odd.

On another note, if are a really good flutist, you can make just about any flute sound good, so playing one song in a court room doesn`t really tell you much about the instrument. It might have fallen apart after just the one song, we don`t know.

From reading the article I gathered that Brook Mays never listed any specific brands of the cheap flutes that they were referring to.

Hey, this is interesting. Have a listen.

http://www.firstact.com/products/products.asp?id=12

haha that is a pretty good deal tho... i like the bag

ebays not bad if you automaticly ignore any search results licluding any of the following. "BAND INSTRUCTOR IMPROVED!!!!!!! 85%OFF GREAT DEAL, PROFESSIONAL SELMAN, ECT..."
unless your rich and feel like seeing how crappy they are

did anyone else hear out of tune that first act flute was on that site...oh my word...get helen keller away from that flute PLEASE!

-Dennis

My friend got her flute and piccolo off ebay...she was lucky...

My friend Matt said, "Never get instruments off of ebay...they are so bad!" Then he told me what happened to some flute or piccolo, but I forgot what.

I meant she was lucky that she got a good quality instrument...

The problem is not Ebay, it is the ignorance of the people who purchase instruments without knowledge of the flute, and the ignorance of people who sell in mass and really have no idea what they are selling.

I actually wrote a paper at one point for a course I was taking on helping parents find a quality flute for a beginner student. I should find that file and email it to Ebay. Maybe they could put it at the top of the site. "Before you buy from people advertising flutes who take pictures of them put together wrong... READ THIS"

I would be very interested in reading that. Could you possible post it on here sometime? I would LOVE to see ebay post it!