Bb Soprano Saxophone + Starter pack only £99.99??? Is this a scam?

Question

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&Item=260253236437&Category=16203&_trksid=p3907.m29

Answer 1

Hi there.  Well, I doubt that it is a scam.  However, I assume that the instrument is one straight out of China,  assembled by a 13 year old kid.   You get what you pay for and any instrument, that is normally priced expensively, now found on an auction site for pennies on the euro (?) is going to be more of a toy than a quality instrument.    They are made of sub-standard materials... the metal is brittle... there are no parts available WHEN (not if)  they break down...  just a mess.  In fact,  most of the time,  those instruments do not even play straight out of the case.     I think you will feel like kicking yourself if you fall for a product as the one you are looking at.  Just to put your mind at ease though... email the seller and ask the name brand of the instrument and where it is manufactured.   If they tell you Selmer or Yamaha...  you have hit the jackpot!!!   But I have my doubts.  Good Luck... let me know what happened.  I would be very interested.  :))

Answer 2

Well... The other products that come with it are top notch... the ZZ reeds I hear are really cool (I haven't tried them yet), but Vandoren is high quality.  The Rovner ligature is great, too.  From what I can tell, most of the accessories are pretty decent... but the sax itself?

It never mentioned a name brand, nor did they show it in any of the pictures... The poster seemed to skirt around the issue and wrote:

"I took it to a professional sax instructor and they approved it as being a very good saxophone for a beginner or a pro"... this raises my eyebrows!  If the "pro instructor" was worth their tuition, they would have specified the quality... and they may have, but the seller certainly didn't!  Not to mention, that without a brand name listed, consumers also cannot tell what to expect in terms of quality or craftmanship!

Now, as far as the price goes, if you want to dump that much money on a less than worthy horn... The extras kind of add up to the price.  It's like you are being charged for reeds, ligature, cases, etc., but you get the sax for free.  You could go ahead and buy it, but know that you are most likely NOT getting a quality horn.  If you know that, expect that, and just want to use it to mess around with, it's not a bad deal.  

However, I would recommend that you save your money and just buy a decent model- one from a reputable dealer- that you can try before you buy, and that will serve you over many years.

The other thing to look at, is where do you live?  I live in the US... when I enter that into shipping, the price skyrockets to $299!- Just for shipping! (How do you get the little "pounds" thing that's like the "$"? lol)  I would NOT pay that much, EVER, for a sax that was less than quality.

You could email the seller and see what brand it is, but my intuition tells me that if it WAS indeed a good quality, the brand would have been the FIRST thing the seller listed.

Good luck, and hope I could help!

*EDIT: If you do contact the seller, try to also ask for the model or the serial number, if they're willing... then you can check for yourself if it's legit.  They could tell you it's a Selmer (generally high quality), but it might be one of their student model lines (like Bundy or La Voix).  They wouldn't be lying about it being Selmer, but it would make a HUGE difference in quality.