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Stolen bass which pops on another website...

Theobald

Theobald

Oct 16, 2019
104
179
Munich - Germany
#1
... and the original seller claims its not the same.

Hello ! I just wanted to share my adventure of the last few weeks. I bought in June a Rickenbacker 4003W on an auction website (something ending with bay...). The shop had it listed available (which is, I think, mandatory on these websites), while the same model was listed unavailable on their official website. Since these basses are quite rare here in Germany, I bought it, including the extra price to cover the fees of the auction website. The seller accepts the order, and sends me the bass. Which appears never picked-up by DHL. I fill a claim, the seller says the parcel was stolen, and that he will soon receive another batch of basses and I can chose one of them, but no walnut. I accepted to take a black one, which I received, and I am perfectly happy with it, maybe more than if I had received the walnut one.

fast forward to this morning, I see a Rickenbacker 4003W popping on another website. To me, it is the exact same wood grain. Of course, I informed the original seller, who claims the bridges are different and it cannot be that bass.

Rickenbacker switched to bridge v2 around 2022, the cover of the bridge pickup was removed in April 2025, both basses have the no-cover bridge pickup. They can only have the same bridges (from factory of course). And I do not see any difference on the pictures...

Here are both basses. What do you think?

The one I bought...

s-l9601.jpg


s-l960.jpg


s-l9602.jpg


vs the one currently available ...

222.png
333.png
111.png
 
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#3
It is hard to believe. He filled a claim to DHL, plus it is a rather big shop... It does not sound clever to steal from your own business! Or he sold the instrument twice and knew he would get out of it by sending me one of the new ones.

Of course if he got the money back from DHL, he might as well not want to lose time on this and basically tells me not to worry.

Anyhow, I do have my bass, and am happy with it. No reason to worry indeed. :cool:
 
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#4
Theobald said:
It is hard to believe. He filled a claim to DHL, plus it is a rather big shop... It does not sound clever to steal from your own business! Or he sold the instrument twice and knew he would get out of it by sending me one of the new ones.

Of course if he got the money back from DHL, he might as well not want to lose time on this and basically tells me not to worry.

Anyhow, I do have my bass, and am happy with it. No reason to worry indeed. :cool:
Click to expand...
Yes, but isn't it kind of fishy that the seller denies that it's the same bass? And what about that other site? They must have bought a stolen bass regardless.
 
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#5
The second site is a classified ads website. (C2C basically)

I don't want to denigrate the original seller, who might simply want to avoid more troubles from a closed case, from his point of view (at least that is what I assume...) For sure, something is fishy in the matter. I am still trying to figure everything out, I will let you know if I get more info.

Anyway, I got a replacement, the seller is not interested... Even if it was the stolen bass and I was going to inform the police, what could they do?
 
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#7
I discussed a bit more with the seller, who is convinced the wood grain is slightly different. He thanks me for the hint, and claims he cannot do more because he already handled the case to DHL.
Either he is dishonest and tries to protect himself, or he does not see what seems obvious (at least to me and you...)? I doubt I can go further here. Three possibilities:
A. The seller is honest, and the bass is not the same one. I inform the police, I disturb everybody and potentially put myself in trouble
B. The seller is honest, but the bass IS the stolen one. I inform the police and the seller eventually gets his bass back, even if he is not after it...
C. The seller is dishonest, and the bass was sold to the person trying to sell it now. But contacting the police, I put that person and potentially myself in trouble.

If the bass was stolen, I would be happy that it goes back to the shop. If the shop was not 100% honest, in the end I got a bass, so it is not that important. Plus I live in an area where you can easily be in trouble with lawyers involved. And for less than reporting a theft which was not one. Even if on my side the only version I have is that is was indeed stolen.
 
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#9
RattleSnack said:
Maybe possible scenario: owner listed the bass and sold it to you. Than his friend calls and says he gotta have that bass. Owner tells you it's stolen and gives you another one. But new owner doesn't quite like it and just puts on sale...
It's probably something simple like that, I doubt it's cinister and crime involved.
Click to expand...
Absolutely! What I see more is that in such a case, the seller was not 100% honest. But I don't want to put him in trouble. As I said, in the end I got a bass which suits me perfectly.
 
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#12
RattleSnack said:
Maybe possible scenario: owner listed the bass and sold it to you. Than his friend calls and says he gotta have that bass. Owner tells you it's stolen and gives you another one. But new owner doesn't quite like it and just puts on sale...
It's probably something simple like that, I doubt it's cinister and crime involved.
Click to expand...
I also think is it some permutation of this scenario.

Anyway, not your bass, not your problem. You did the right thing letting the shop know.
 
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#14
Since you say the bass was marked as "sold" on the store's actual website, my guess is that it was sold already and the stock just wasn't updated on Ebay. Rather than potentially get dinged by Ebay they just created a DHL label in the system to release the funds but didn't actually schedule a pickup (then any resolution could be done outside of the Ebay system). They may have only realized after the fact that there wasn't going to be a convincing replacement on the way from Rickenbacker to fill the gap.
 
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#15
Bass4ThePublic said:
I wouldn’t have contacted him. Sure way to get ghosted. I would’ve met in person with a couple cops in tow.
Click to expand...
I contacted the first seller. No reason to meet him with cops. I got a bass, same model, different color (I know, walnut basses sound different...). I accepted the replacement. Our transaction is closed. My initial purpose was to help him get his bass back. And was surprised by the answer.
If he is involved in any bad way, I don't really see the reason to deny it is the same bass. It is easier to tell me "You are right, thank you for the hint!" I would not track him down to make sure he does everything to get the instrument back. Denying against all odds that it is indeed the bass he sold me is a strange move, which deserved to be reported here, to entertain the Talkbass community :)
 
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#16
sunbeast said:
Since you say the bass was marked as "sold" on the store's actual website, my guess is that it was sold already and the stock just wasn't updated on Ebay. Rather than potentially get dinged by Ebay they just created a DHL label in the system to release the funds but didn't actually schedule a pickup (then any resolution could be done outside of the Ebay system). They may have only realized after the fact that there wasn't going to be a convincing replacement on the way from Rickenbacker to fill the gap.
Click to expand...
I agree. But they could have tell me "sorry, we made an inventory mistake, the bass was already sold". I would have been disappointed for 2 weeks before they offer me the black bass as a solution, that's all. And it would have cost them less money and time...

Edit: my bad! I understand that you think they were expecting another walnut bass soon enough to be unnoticed. It makes sense indeed!
 
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#17
Theobald said:
... and the original seller claims its not the same.

Hello ! I just wanted to share my adventure of the last few weeks. I bought in June a Rickenbacker 4003W on an auction website (something ending with bay...). The shop had it listed available (which is, I think, mandatory on these websites), while the same model was listed unavailable on their official website. Since these basses are quite rare here in Germany, I bought it, including the extra price to cover the fees of the auction website. The seller accepts the order, and sends me the bass. Which appears never picked-up by DHL. I fill a claim, the seller says the parcel was stolen, and that he will soon receive another batch of basses and I can chose one of them, but no walnut. I accepted to take a black one, which I received, and I am perfectly happy with it, maybe more than if I had received the walnut one.

fast forward to this morning, I see a Rickenbacker 4003W popping on another website. To me, it is the exact same wood grain. Of course, I informed the original seller, who claims the bridges are different and it cannot be that bass.

Rickenbacker switched to bridge v2 around 2022, the cover of the bridge pickup was removed in April 2025, both basses have the no-cover bridge pickup. They can only have the same bridges (from factory of course). And I do not see any difference on the pictures...

Here are both basses. What do you think?

The one I bought...

View attachment 7286375

View attachment 7286376

View attachment 7286377

vs the one currently available ...

View attachment 7286383View attachment 7286378 View attachment 7286379
Click to expand...
Not the same bass and I can prove it
 
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#18
I would steer clear all around. There are too many negative consequences, unfortunately, from doing the right thing. People don’t care about the truth and honesty these days and I wouldn’t fight this battle. It’s just a bass and a little bit of money. Stay away from all involved and if you have friends nearby, tell them via word of mouth to stay away too. Leave it behind and play the black bass loud!
 
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#20
2thAche said:
Gotta be the same bass, too many of the same woodgrain patterns, front and back. The thing that's odd is that the seller knows it was stolen from DHL (which would not be his fault), but won't admit this is the same bass. Why would he not?
Click to expand...
If both basses were made by Rickenbacker at the same time period they may be made form the same tree and have very similar grain patterns. Without the serial number you can’t know.
 
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