I was at the music store yesterday and I couldn't help but overhear a conversation between a lady and the store owner: apparently the lady went on Ebay and bought what she thought was a bass clarinet. She took it in to the store owner to see if he could fix the huge dent in the bell. He looked at it for a second and told her it wasn't a bass clarinet, it was an alto clarinet. He blew on it and told her it wasn't in any playable condition. He told her he could fix it up, but it would be really expensive and at that rate she might as well buy a new bass clarinet. He then asked her to tell him how to get to the website. She directed him on the computer and showed him the page. He first noticed the guy spelled bass clarinet "b-a-s-e c-l-a-r-i-n-e-t". She told him that the starting bid was $300 and she was the only one bidding, but she ended up paying much more than $300.


Beware of those Ebay jerks!!

well now, to be fair (though i don't know the backstory) the mistaking an alto for a bass and misspelling sounds suspiciously like ignorance and lack of research, not neccesarily jerk-ness/lying- most non-musicians (and plenty of non-band musicians too actually, particularly strings) don't know what a bass clarinet is, let alone an alto!

the much more than $300 thing is pretty shady though.

ebay people find ways to curve things around and make crapy stuff look good.
i'd personally never buy an instrument off of ebay.
i've bought zelda shirts, hats, pins... books.
and i got ripped off on a hat once. i thought it was an actual
authentic nascar jeff gordon one... nope. a crapy thing with
24 stamped on the side. its still cool, but not what i was
expecting. be careful on ebay.

Well, sometimes you can get a good deal from ebay. I bought the bari I use regularly now through ebay, and when I received it all it needed was some spring adjustments, one leak sealed, and a different mouthpiece, and I now have one of the best baris I've ever had the pleasure of using. The important thing is that you find out as much as you possibly can about the instrument before you even place a bid. Get the seller's phone number, contact him/her, evaluate his/her instrumental knowledge to make sure he knows what he's talking about, and get a real idea of what he/she is selling, and make sure he/she knows that you do know what you're talking about. If you do your homework you greatly decrease your chances of ending up with an unusable, worthless instrument. Though one thing to be noted, I don't use ebay for modern saxes, just vintage ones.