# Vintage Melody Maker SG in Ottawa. Questions...



## StevieMac (Mar 4, 2006)

Looking for input on this one. I've been messaging the seller who agreed to hold this guitar for me. At my request, they provided a physical address, email address, and phone number however my spidey senses are tingling just a little bit. The main reason is that they provided a Kanata address however the area code for their phone number is for central Illinois (217). I'm also not familiar with the email addy they provided: (their name)@gmx.com I left them a voicemail message but haven't heard back from them yet. Any comments or suggestions about how to proceed would be welcome.

Gibson Melody Maker vintage | Guitars | Ottawa | Kijiji


----------



## BlueRocker (Jan 5, 2020)

GMX.COM is free email like GMail (see below). If you can do an in-person deal I don't see an issue, but I wouldn't drive to Ottawa for it. User has been on Kijiji 27 days...

If it was a scam, it's certainly a weird way to do it - a low value vintage guitar with a bunch of questionable mods for not a lot of money.


----------



## bobartlarry (Dec 3, 2016)

If you reverse image search their profile pic, it comes up with some other names, not Gill Burrows. I'll echo what bluerocker said, and would only do a deal in person.


----------



## StevieMac (Mar 4, 2006)

Thanks for that @BlueRocker 

I messaged him about the Illinois phone number so we'll see what comes back.


----------



## BlueRocker (Jan 5, 2020)

StevieMac said:


> Thanks for that @BlueRocker
> 
> I messaged him about the Illinois phone number so we'll see what comes back.


If it's for real on hold, I'm sure you could convince one of our Ottawa friends to do a pick-up. If you suggest that and get a song and dance or the guitar magically changes locations, you know what's up.


----------



## StevieMac (Mar 4, 2006)

Funny you should mention that because one of our Ottawa members reached out to me already to do just that. I'll see what comes back about the phone number and go from there.


----------



## HeavyMetalDan (Oct 5, 2016)

bobartlarry said:


> If you reverse image search their profile pic, it comes up with some other names, not Gill Burrows. I'll echo what bluerocker said, and would only do a deal in person.


Man, how do you reverse image a picture of someone


----------



## fogdart (Mar 22, 2017)

That’s a very cool guitar. I hope it works out for you Steve!


----------



## bobartlarry (Dec 3, 2016)

HeavyMetalDan said:


> Man, how do you reverse image a picture of someone


I use Google Lens on my android, and Chrome on my desktop.
On desktop in Chrome, right click on the picture, and you should have an option to Search Google For Image.

Seems they removed that from mobile, so I installed Google Lens. It adds a step, but same thing.
Long hold the image you want to search for, and an option will be to Search the Image in Google Lens, it'll show you Visual Matches, but also shows you generic results for similar items.


----------



## Chito (Feb 17, 2006)

Seems legit only because he has another guitar for sale.


----------



## HeavyMetalDan (Oct 5, 2016)

bobartlarry said:


> I use Google Lens on my android, and Chrome on my desktop.
> On desktop in Chrome, right click on the picture, and you should have an option to Search Google For Image.
> 
> Seems they removed that from mobile, so I installed Google Lens. It adds a step, but same thing.
> Long hold the image you want to search for, and it'll open it in Lens, it'll show you Visual Matches, but also shows you generic results for similar items.


Very cool

Thanks


----------



## ricky_b (Feb 15, 2016)

bobartlarry said:


> I use Google Lens on my android, and Chrome on my desktop.
> On desktop in Chrome, right click on the picture, and you should have an option to Search Google For Image.
> 
> Seems they removed that from mobile, so I installed Google Lens. It adds a step, but same thing.
> Long hold the image you want to search for, and an option will be to Search the Image in Google Lens, it'll show you Visual Matches, but also shows you generic results for similar items.


Works great. Looks like it was for sale in Texas on Reverb a while back


----------



## nonreverb (Sep 19, 2006)

ricky_b said:


> Works great. Looks like it was for sale in Texas on Reverb a while back


Nice work....this and the fact he's only been on 27 days kinda makes it look scammy IMO.


----------



## mick.335 (Sep 23, 2020)

According to his photo he lives in London, England and is a member of Polish Hearts. Looks pretty sketchy to me.


----------



## StevieMac (Mar 4, 2006)

Update: With a special mention and sincere gratitude going out to @Parabola who found the following Reverb sold listing. Fortunately no money changed hands and no travel time was wasted on this scammer. They dropped out of contact yesterday so I figured something was up. Lesson learned:









Gibson Melody Maker 1967 Mahogany | Reverb Canada


1967 Gibson Melody Maker SG up for sale. Super lightweight and fun - neck feels incredible. It's always the first comment from guitar playing friends. Perfect balance of weight between neck and body. Incredibly versatile guitar for a range of genres. I had a credible and talented l...




reverb.com


----------



## BlueRocker (Jan 5, 2020)

StevieMac said:


> Update: With a special mention and sincere gratitude going out to @Parabola who found the following Reverb sold listing. Fortunately no money changed hands and no travel time was wasted on this scammer. They dropped out of contact yesterday so I figured something was up. Lesson learned:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


It's now marked as "Pending" on Kijiji. This is a weird way to scam someone, I'd think you'd want to sell it to as many people as you could. Anyway, I don't think this guitar is worth the potential headaches so you're probably best off avoiding it.


----------



## Parabola (Oct 22, 2021)

Looks like @ricky_b found it too in this thread. Lots of good info from everyone on here actually.

We take care of our own.


----------



## Permanent Waves (Jun 2, 2020)

This is a great thread and kudos to all the sleuths out there. Lots of good tips and tricks! The profile pic leads to dating sites, that's a dead giveaway to stolen identities. It also shows what lengths some people will go to run a scam. He's been up for 4 weeks and has other listings that also seem legit and a bit more realistically priced. He's got 1 good review from shortly after signing ip and the reviewer seems a lot more legit than him (6 years and 5 good reviews). He must have done 1 real deal on that account to establish credibility.


----------



## ricky_b (Feb 15, 2016)

Permanent Waves said:


> ...He's got 1 good review from shortly after signing ip and the reviewer seems a lot more legit than him (6 years and 5 good reviews). He must have done 1 real deal on that account to establish credibility.


Maybe he also owns the other 6 year old Kijiji account and decided to go to the dark side with a new fake profile LoL


----------



## Parabola (Oct 22, 2021)

Well he’s back and has resisted it n Kijiji for $900. This time claiming he bought it last year at a well known local used music store.

I’ve reported it to Kijiji but it still is up, along with the original user account.

Hope nobody gets sucked into this.


----------



## BlueRocker (Jan 5, 2020)

Parabola said:


> Well he’s back and has resisted it n Kijiji for $900. This time claiming he bought it last year at a well known local used music store.
> 
> I’ve reported it to Kijiji but it still is up, along with the original user account.
> 
> Hope nobody gets sucked into this.


Did this guy ever try to actually scam anyone, like by asking for money up front or something? He could just be an idiot.


----------



## Parabola (Oct 22, 2021)

He didn’t reply to my initial messages when it was first listed, but did with others.

Sometimes what is being stolen is not money. I have no idea what this guy’s play is, Best case he is some idiot who likes screwing around with people, worst case he’s harvesting names, addresses and phone numbers for some other purpose.

Whatever is going on, he’s not legit and should be avoided.


----------



## powrshftr (Sep 8, 2006)

It’s a weird situation….I messaged him about the guitar, and he’s evasive like a scammer, yet he talks the talk like he is 100% a guitar player.
Scammers don’t often do a very deep dive on learning the vernacular and terminology.


----------



## Parabola (Oct 22, 2021)

powrshftr said:


> It’s a weird situation….I messaged him about the guitar, and he’s evasive like a scammer, yet he talks the talk like he is 100% a guitar player.
> Scammers don’t often do a very deep dive on learning the vernacular and terminology.


So my messages to him were guitar player to player questions, and ignored. But I also mentioned that I am local and wanted to meet him as soon as possible. Radio silence…..which is weird, if you have an active and motivated buyer not arguing over the price, you jump on it.

I bet if I said I was out of town and asked about shipping, he would reply.


----------



## 2manyGuitars (Jul 6, 2009)

Parabola said:


> This time claiming he bought it last year at a well known local used music store.


Even better…
15 years ago!

_Now_ try explaining the recent sold listing from Reverb.


----------



## sebdhm (3 mo ago)

Little update on this, a friend of mine has been very interested in the guitar so he asked for a picture under the pickguard... Just investigated the pic and he sent him a picture of a totally different guitar, those melody makers do not have that neck tenon and the advertised guitar does not have a gloss finish like the picture... 










He was supposed to go check the guitar out today and the guy mysteriously went silent as of yesterday.


----------



## Parabola (Oct 22, 2021)

This is a game at this point, I reported it on Kijiji with links to the reverb listing, so I have no idea what more proof they need.


----------

