I may already know your answer but this is really hard for me to pass up.

I found a person selling an Epson pro cinema 1080UB NIB for $1400.00 I am assuming I wont get a warranty with it and it could be hot.

What would you do.

First off, 1400.00 is alot of money to throw away if the unit is bad. Any savings by buying this unit would be gone after teh first time I had to get it fixed.

Also I may get into trouble for stolen property.

I dont know I am so torn... Do the right thing or Do the wrong thing a pass up a good deal.

I appreciate all opinions, just be nice and no flame wars.


Thanks
Alias "BCHBOY1206"

Sorry, you can't make a post like this on a forum where most of us work hard to afford our sometimes expensive hobby, and not get flamed. If it's stolen, it's some kindred spirit like the rest of us who had it stolen from them. I think I speak for most when I say, I hope you throw down the cash and it breaks after 2 minutes.

I hope you throw down the cash and it breaks after 2 minutes.

Thanks Georgeorwell, Hope yours breaks too (only kidding) I wont stoop that low.
I am not sure what the story behind the unit is other than it is new in the box and it is only $1400.00. I was assuming the rest, yea I know, a$$ out of me.
Who knows maybe he bought it and decided he didn't want it or couldn't afford it, dont know for sure yet.
People always buy items from others because they dont want to pay the price of a new one, nothing wrong with that is there? I too work hard like most everyone here and I wasn't expecting the flame to come at me for asking a question, or for opinions. I was expecting opposing opinions on the matter. All I guess I want from the board is if I should I pass on this deal on the unit I have been salivating over for sooo long...

I guess I can chalk your opinion up to "stay away from it or Kharma will get me" ;)

thanks
Jim

How about I buy it for $1400 then you buy it off me for $1650.You still get a good deal and you'll always know the person you purchased it from didnt steal it.

Sounds like a classic "too good to be true" deal to me. I wouldn't bite.

-comix

How about I buy it for $1400 then you buy it off me for $1650.You still get a good deal and you'll always know the person you purchased it from didnt steal it.

Heheheh

" Moe, hey Moe....you and Larry come check this out"

I would ask a few questions and if from that you can determine that it was not stolen, then you just have to decide if you want to take a risk on a new projector with out a warranty. Personally if I knew that it was not stolen I would buy it. if I thought or knew it was stolen then I would not touch it with a ten foot pole.

Ask the seller for the serial number and call Epson to see if it comes up as a stolen unit (doubtful but you never know) , if the seller is legit he should not have an issue with simply telling you the serial number . It could just be somebody down on their luck that ordered a new 1080UB and lost his job the next day (or something along those lines) , you never know . Sounds too good to be true and I would certainly dig deeper into it before buying but legit deals like that do pop up once in a while ( maybe WAF had something to do with it ;) ) . However , if you seriously suspect it is stolen then by all means don't go near it .

- Jason

Ask the seller for the serial number and call Epson to see if it comes up as a stolen unit (doubtful but you never know) , if the seller is legit he should not have an issue with simply telling you the serial number . It could just be somebody down on their luck that ordered a new 1080UB and lost his job the next day (or something along those lines) , you never know . Sounds too good to be true and I would certainly dig deeper into it before buying but legit deals like that do pop up once in a while ( maybe WAF had something to do with it ;) ) . However , if you seriously suspect it is stolen then by all means don't go near it .

- Jason

Good advise. The serial number is on the box, so if he gives you an excuse about opening the box to get the serial number beware.

Thanks Georgeorwell, Hope yours breaks too (only kidding) I wont stoop that low.
I am not sure what the story behind the unit is other than it is new in the box and it is only $1400.00. I was assuming the rest, yea I know, a$$ out of me.
Who knows maybe he bought it and decided he didn't want it or couldn't afford it, dont know for sure yet.
People always buy items from others because they dont want to pay the price of a new one, nothing wrong with that is there? I too work hard like most everyone here and I wasn't expecting the flame to come at me for asking a question, or for opinions. I was expecting opposing opinions on the matter. All I guess I want from the board is if I should I pass on this deal on the unit I have been salivating over for sooo long...

I guess I can chalk your opinion up to "stay away from it or Kharma will get me" ;)

thanks
Jim

No one can say you don't have a sense of humor. Of course, mine is under "legit" warranty, so no worries. In all seriousness, I would ask why he's selling, is there a receipt, where was it bought from....you should pretty quickly understand the situation based on those simple questions. Every time I have sold a projector (and I've sold quite a few), those are standard questions I'm asked and would expect from a prospective buyer. Good luck!

Thanks all, that is just the feedback I was looking for.

I called Epson and they stated that warranties dont transfer and the original "purchaser" would have to turn it in for any warranty issues.

I have a few days to ponder this more and I am leaning towards just saving up for the 6500UB, maybe the piece of mind alone would be worth the extra money.

Thanks again all,
Jim

People often spend more than they can afford on things, find they can't return for a refund and then sell the item at a significantly lower price OR they discover for whatever reason they just can't use the item as they thought they could.

EXAMPLE is my bride takes several hundred pictures a day and recently bought $3,000 worth of higher end quality camera with very expensive zoom lens. After about 60 days she decided it was too heavy and couldn't perform as her older camera. She sold the camera and lens and accessories for about 50% of what we paid because we were past deadline to return the stuff to the retailer - our loss was someone's gain and they were thrilled to get it!

So far as having a warranty it would depend on whether or not the original buyer registered the projector with the manufacturer. In the case of the camera my wife had not submitted the warranty registration - consequently the buyer was able to get full warranty in his name.

SECOND EXAMPLE - we bought our current HT projector at a closeout store. It was a demo floor unit from a CostCo store. We paid $600 for it at a time when the average "street price" was around $2600.

NO warranty. It's been almost two years and we have used it almost daily and it works perfectly.

Our personal experience is that there are always one-of-a-kind bargains out there to be found by alert and careful shoppers - let me underscore "alert and careful" because as others have posted there are also a lot of scams and stolen stuff being sold.

Our rule-of-thumb is that if the seller of something like this - camera, projector, pinball machine or whatever it is we are wanting to buy is close enough for us to drive over to personally check it out we will consider doing the deal but NEVER will we buy a big ticket item from a distant and unknown seller.
goodluck - could be the deal of the day that you have found!!!

Thanks all, that is just the feedback I was looking for.

I called Epson and they stated that warranties dont transfer and the original "purchaser" would have to turn it in for any warranty issues.

I have a few days to ponder this more and I am leaning towards just saving up for the 6500UB, maybe the piece of mind alone would be worth the extra money.

Thanks again all,
Jim

I actually had called Epson to enquire about warranty transfer for their PJs. First the agent gave me the standard answer that it can not be transferred. But on pestering her a little more she agreed that they just look at the purchase date. So ask this person about the original purchase date and if he/she has the receipt. You might actually end up getting the remaining warranty. AFAIK, Epson does not discriminate between different sellers for honoring the warranty (like most manufacturers do in case of receivers).

A used model is about $2,000, so $1,400 is worth a risk even if your 1st possible repair may cost $400.

OTOH, how long would it take you to save up for the 6500 vs. grabbing the 1080ub?

Life is full of choices. I've an Epson 400. Other than the fan noise, it was OK for the $$$. It is my 6th or 7th PJ since 2002.

Good luck.

Thanks for the input, and good input as well. The seller said he had a screen set up and we can hook it up to ensure it works.
After speaking with him he appears to be well spoken, probably early twenties and seems on the up and up, it's very possible he is just down on his luck with this economy. I suppose if I get the feeling that it is hot I will leave it alone. I cant afford to get caught with stolen merchandise-that would cause lots of problems in my profession. I will be checking it out Friday AM, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Thanks
Jim

Thanks again,

The UB is effectively discontinued and $1400 is not an absurdly low price to pay for one. In fact, somewhere out there there's probably even one cheaper. It's also not unreasonable to think that you may even be able to get a warranty on this unit. Since it's NIB, you'll be the first to register it. Just ask the guy where it originally came from and register it as though you bought it from there. It's never the case that only the original buyer can get the warranty. Otherwise it would be impossible to get warranty service on a gift item.

While I certainly don't know for sure, it seems this guy is probably on the up and up. When you check out the unit, if he seems OK, go for it. I think your original problem was automatically assuming that it was hot. It looks like that may have been a huge stretch in this case.

Jim

***************** U P D A T E *******************

Well everyone I am embarrassed to post this but if someone can learn from my mistake it will be worth it.

After work this morning I went to the bank with my friend and picked up $1450.00. We drove to the address and called him on the way and he said he would meet me out front.
So far all seemed fine, as we followed him to "his" apartment he spun around and I had a gun trained at my stomach. He said give me the money. My freind was about 10 feet behind me so I figured he would be OK so with my quick thinking I was like " Duh what money" He got pissed and I was about to dirty myself (it was a big GUN" Looked like a Baretta 40 cal). So I told him it was in my truck so he called my friend to him while I went to get the money. By this time we were working our way back to the street. I went to the truck and flipped the wallet under the seat. I wanted to make a run for it but he had my friend.
I grabbed a few singles and a fifty and crumpled it up in my hand as I walked back towards them, my friend started slowly to the truck, I handed him the cash and started to walk away backwards. By the time he said "that aint all of it" we were in the truck squealing tires out of there.... All we could do was laugh (nerves I think) and thank our lucky stars we weren't killed. For the small price of $53.00 we learned a big lesson today. I could have lost all the money or our lives. Thank you God and thank you Kharma although you did take a little bite out of my BUTT....

Well, that's the story and I guess I will continue to save up for a new in box Epson 6500 from a real distributor. Wow, never again....

I am still shaking.

Jim

:eek: Atleast you and your friend escaped the situation unharmed. I would not have even attempted to buy that new for $1400. Thats just to cheap of a price for a brand new 1080UB.

Thanks for keeping us informed.

Couple years ago there was a very good deal on an Arcam receiver and the guy wanted over $1,000 in the Bronx. Unless it's PayPal, I hate to carry that much cash with me.

You're real lucky.

Happy New Year.

Good to know that you and your friend escaped safely with your money.
Whenever making deals like this its always better to meet at some busy public place where both the seller and buyer are comfortable. I have heard of such criminals posting ads on craigslist or posing as buyers.

You should definitely report this to the police (if you have not already done so).

This didn't happen in Long Beach California did it? I just sold my 1080UB (Home Edition) for $1600.00 to someone on Craigslist and he mentioned the same story. Apparently the guy did in 5 other guys.

Did you call the cops?

Yea, I did file a report. I gave them a good description, the cell phone number and e-mail address the guy was using. I wonder if he was dumb enough to use a private computer which could be located by an IP address or the phone number could be tracked to his location. Hopefully they will be able to find him. I was really lucky but the next guy may not be.

Point1, It was very close to Long beach... a mile or so from the LB civic center. It probably was the same guy and he had a real good story, he knew a bit about H/T and the 1080UB so I am sure I wasn't his first.

He went by the name Matthew Porch, just throwing that out there just in case he's dumb enough to use the same name again.

Jim

Sorry to hear that you got taken like that Jim. When I saw the CL posting I knew it was too good to be true. I hope you can get your money back and they lock up the dude for a good while.

Threatening someone with a gun and robbing them is never ever acceptable.

best regards to you. Glad you made it out ok