Fraud alert on Bird Of Paradise on E-Bay

[Dave]

We have had several new people join the forum in the last couple of months. If you have been in this hobby a while then you know this machine is a fake. However, if you are new to the hobby you might think this machine is as advertised. Don't be fooled, it is NOT a legitimate Bird of Paradise.

Item #160011891525 is currently being listed on E-Bay.

He says the machine is

EXTREMELY RARE AND BEAUTIFUL

1936 ANTIQUE WATLING 25 CENT ROL-A-TOP BIRD OF PARADISE SLOT MACHINE

Well, nothing could be further from the truth. The machine does not have an escalator in it and it looks like it has a Mills mechanism in it.

There is no jackpot in it and no way is the vendor or gold award stuff there.

The current bid on the machine is $2,125 which is a total joke. In my opinion, it is not even worth $200.

I have contacted the seller but he refuses to respond. It appears I am not the only one who has contacted him. He updated the listing with the following:

There have been a lot of questions asking about this machine and what it does, what's in it, we don't much about it, it's a great machine and it works well, but obviously you are getting it "as is", so it may not have some of the things it originally had, or it might have new things, we don't know much, we had a slot collector look at it and tell us about it before listing, so please understand it's best to click on the pictures and look at it. It's such a cool item!

So, he had a "slot collector" look at it before he listed it but he didn't bother to say what the "slot collector" said about it!

If you want to see the listing, then go to http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0011891525

Here is a picture of the machine:


FYI, the seller is also selling another machine and not advertising it correctly. Go to http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0011886972 to see that item

[watlingboy]

I also told him what a mess this was and that it had a Mills mech in it. No rosponse.

Watlingboy

[SLOT DYNASTY]

I also told him what a mess this was and that it had a Mills mech in it. No rosponse.

Watlingboy

I called this jerk-off personally, and told him exactly what he was trying to pass off as a "Rare Antique". But, as you can well imagine, he did not want to listen to what I had to say. The only thing good about this piece of crap, is if you need a late Mills mech for some reason. Or, maybe that rare Mills handle for your War Eagle! Not only does it not have an escalator, jackpot, gold award, and vender mechanisms, that big black hubcap with 25c on it, should be clue enough as to what this is. I even have suspitions about the front being castings. This thing looks so bad, that my bet is the front are all fiberglass patterns.
As Dave mentioned about all the new people joining the hobby, they are the poor souls that could well be snookered by all these phonies. One of the low bidders on this "Bird of Poop" told me that he was just bidding on the mech. But there is one bidder well over $1,000 that should know better. As for the others, I have no clue what they are after. With luck, maybe one or more shills will make the seller eat it for the time being.

[cashpaidauctions]

Hi

This is the seller. I thought I would reply because there are things written here that are not true and we wanted to tell you all we have updated the listing again to state everything you guys have told us.

We are honest ebay sellers and don't want anyone deceived, which is why we are addressing this and making the adjustments.

You have to remember not everyone is experts, we sell a lot of things, I spent several hours researching the best I could, and two people looked at the machine and told me about it, obviosuly we were given some inaccurate info, so we updated the ad.

By the way, there is no fiberglass, like you said in the forum, this is an extremely heavy and solid machine.

I hope this satisfies everyone. I've already had 2 local people come and look at the machine and they said, yeah, this needs work to become what the bird of paradise is but they said it's a great machine and the parts and everything on it are nice and they planned on bidding.

So this "bird of crap", so you call it, is not, it's just not what you are looking for, and again, please accept my sincere apology for making a mistake in the original listing

as far as the other slot machine, we made one mistake in the ad by saying cast iron, we added to the description it might be aluminum, we are not sure, what were these made with?

[cashpaidauctions]

P.S. Also spoke with ebay person, and they said if there is any shill bidding or fake bids on the auction, that they would trace those accounts and cancel them and see if the IPs are associated with any other account, we have done what is right by fixing the ad of our honest mistake

[cashpaidauctions]

I hope that by showing we care about everyone and their comments that you will realize we are real sellers who care about making things right... I hope you will make an apology for the rude comments you have made to us.

And yes, the gentleman in this forum who called me a "jerk off" who called me, let me tell you he was EXTREMELY RUDE from the start of the phone call and was not considerate or respectful at all, if he would have actually been nice, he would have been more help because it would have bene productive, but instead he was treating us really bad from the start, it seemed like he was calling just to pick a fight and make us feel like bad people... kind of sad.

[Dave]

You have to give the guy credit for at leasting coming here to try and explain his position.

Too bad he didn't respond to any of us who contacted him until he found out that he might get delisted for selling misrepresented items on E-Bay.

Too bad he still does not list all the stuff missing from the machine (Jackpot, vendor, gold award, back door, bonnet, escalator, etc.).

Isn't it easy to say, hey, don't blame me I am not an expert. However, if you look at the description, he sure makes it sound like he is an expert.

If he really had a slot collector look at the machine he would not have listed it that way in the first place. Why didn't he tell us what the slot collector had to say about the machine? I think we all know the answer to that.

Regarding the other machine, I told him how to check to see if the castings were iron (use a magnet). So he knows but does not want to admit it. He still claims that machine is close to 100 years old.

I actually don't have that big of a problem with the other machine since it at least has the right parts on it.

Isn't it interesting that the two high bidders (on the RAT) have a total of 3 feedbacks between the two of them?

His last post about shills makes no sense.

[Dave]

Just a follow up.

The seller has updated the listing yet again. Now it pretty much lists everything that is missing.

Specifically, here is what he says

I have been notified by a collector that there isn't much that is original to the original bird of paradise on this machine and it does not have , and I quote them there is no "Jackpot, gold award, vendor mechanism, escalator, back door, back bonnet" I don't know much about these things so please take this advice since this came from an avid collector. The machine is nice, it works great, it's pretty, it has great things and parts on it, but if you are looking for a true bird of paradise, this isn't the machine for you unless you can spend a lot of money to get the missing parts for it that make it complete.

I still don't agree with " The machine is nice, it works great, it's pretty, it has great things and parts on it, ... but at least he mentions that it is missing major parts.

In any case, anyone new into the hobby should now know what they are getting (or should I say NOT getting)

I am glad the seller finally agreed to post the new information and I don't think I will report him to E-bay.

[cashpaidauctions]

THe reason I made that post about the shills is because of the comment one of your members made in a message (read above) "With luck, maybe one or more shills will make the seller eat it for the time being."

I don't think that's fair to make a threat like that since we have done everything we can to fix.

Also, I dont' have a magnet, is there another way to check if it's iron or alum? It's super super heavy, does that tell you anything? It was hard for 2 people to lft.

[watlingboy]

I appreciate the seller listing what he or she did, however the most glaring problem was not addressed. IT HAS A MILLS MECHANISM IN IT. It has a mechanism in it from a different company and you will never make this machine correct and comolete. That is the most important point which should be mentioned. I have no problem with saying it is nice looking and plays well, each to his own, all long as all the glaring problems are stated.

Watlingboy