Eko is an old italian brand, they were the biggest musical company coming from the so-called "music district" of Recanati and Castelfidardo, near Ancona, central Italy: once it was the center of accordeon factories, then in the 60's they started building virtually any kind of instruments: many brands like Farfisa (organ) became quite famous.
If you ever found some old Eko (or Melody, Gherson and other similar brands), they could be well made instruments, with good craftmanship; maybe crappy electronics but it would be easy to solve this problem.
In the 80's due to a general crisis in the market (when the japanese instruments became very good) Eko closed its plants.
The new Eko-branded instruments are made in China, so they're very cheap: unexpensive, low quality. I checked a Stingray-like one, and it was very poor.
If the one you saw is so unexpensive, there is a reason. I wouldn't suggest to buy it, unless you don't want to take it as a "desperate backup", or you're a beginner who just wants to try playing bass. Keep in mind that the resale value is an important factor in choosing a bass, and in this case it would be almost nothing (at least here in Italy).
Anyway, I recently answered another thread (the "help me identify this" kind) about an old Melody, and I can say that many italian basses from late 70's-early 80's are like their japanese counterparts: sometimes ugly, but well-made, sturdy, reliable ones.
