If something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. What if I told you that someone on eBay is selling an Orpheo bass saxophone for the Buy It Now price of $1,300. Would that sound too good to be true? What about if that bass saxophone appeared to start at the low, low price of $5.00. Would that sound even more amazingly too good to be true?
Well it appears that eBay dealer HANKIESANDMORE, is selling what they claim to be a new, Orpheo bass saxophone in a no reserve auction. Bidding started at about the price of a Grande espresso drink at Starbucks.
Source: HANKIESANDMORE
This is how the eBay dealer describes this deal:
Features:
Clear brass lacquer finish
Low Bb key and High F# key
Two necks
Two year warranty
Deluxe, lightweight case with wheels and 2 year warranty
Sounds good, right? Well not so fast. There are also these instructions you need to follow:
Terms of sale? Mmm… 
What do they mean by that? Oh, and what the hell is a “real offer”? 
I have a confession to make. Yesterday I saw this same ad on eBay. Unfortunately I didn’t save the auction in my Watch List, so I can’t tell you for sure that today’s dealer name is the same. (The email address is.) However, yesterday’s auction is no longer even appearing on eBay. Today’s listing is brand new.
That said, yesterday (Dec. 12) I sent an email to the seller because I was curious about a bass saxophone that I could maybe get for $6.00. (Plus free shipping.) So this is what I wrote to the seller:
Hello.
You have an Orpheo bass saxophone for sale. What exactly are your terms of sale?
Also, could you tell me what kind of “New” condition this instrument is please? (According to eBay’s meaning of “New”.) Since you’re not a music store, I’m assuming the sax must have been sold to at least once. I’m just wondering what kind of packaging material is still with the horn, since these particular bass saxophones are quite fragile, and shipping can lead to damage.
Thank you for any information you can share.
Regards,
Helen
And this is the reply I got:
Hi ,
Thank you for showing interest in our item on ebay.The buy it now price of this item is 1,300.00 usd, shipping and insurance included.We offer 30 days to return it against full refund if by any reason you are not satisfied with it .In order to buy it you will need to provide us your ebay username, name and full shipping address!
You will get an ebay invoice (instructions how to pay). Item will be removed from ebay to avoid other offers.Your reply will be very apreciated !
Thank you,
P Dwight
As I said, a little later in the day the auction was gone from eBay, and doesn’t appear in the Sold or Completed listings. Very strange. Furthermore, if you search for Orpheo bass saxophone in completed listings, you’ll find this same horn in an auction that ended December 9, but the link to the past auction doesn’t follow through. Strike that. Apparently eBay removed the auction between the time I started writing this article and now.
This is all very confusing, and somewhat suspicious to my mind. Besides, notice how the seller completely ignored my question about the “New” status of the instrument. If you look at today’s auction, the horn is again being described as “New”.
As far a warranty goes, I’m curious about this supposed 2 year term that comes with the horn. Since you’re not buying from a dealer, I’m not seeing how it’s possible to have any warranty whatsoever.
These Jinyin-made, American-style bass saxophones, are notoriously weak in construction. They do not have a good reputation. Even packaged properly, they are prone to shipping damage. I can’t imagine what kind of damage this instrument would suffer when it’s shipped without proper protection.
I’m not sure what’s up with this dealer, with this auction, and with this horn in general. Is there really an Orpheo bass? Can you really buy it for $1,300? The cheapest I’ve seen a Jinyin bass in the past was the Canex for $2,000. However, even its price had jumped to $3,000 in 2009, and is likely higher now.
At present the auction for this Orpheo bass is set to run until December 18. There are currently 2 bids on the horn, with the high bid being $6.50. Let’s see what happens as the auction progresses.
Just remember that old adage: If something sounds too good to be true, it likely is. Is it really possible to get any kind of saxophone—let alone a bass—for the price of a premium cup of coffee?
Hi I was wondering what your opinion is of the Martell sax.I have a chance to buy one for $800.00 but I’m leary cause there’s not that much info about these saxes.it is in perfect condition no dings or scratches, silver just needs polishing and a repad.what do you think should I buy it or should I buy a Chinese base for $3500?
Hi jaime. Welcome to my site.
Do you mean Martelle? With an “e” on the end–like the one that I wrote about in January 2012? That particular one was made by Orsi BTW.
Martelle didn’t make their own saxophones, but had their horns stencilled by others. The bass that I wrote about in January 2012, is the only Martelle bass that I have seen to date. All the other Martelle brand saxes that I have run across were made by Julius Keilwerth.
Is the Martelle you’re considering also an Orsi stencil? Does it look like the one in my article? Or does it look different?
With regards to which bass to buy, here are a couple of things to consider:
Orsi made decent horns. They were not in the league with Selmer or Keilwerth, but they were decent. My very first tenor sax was an Orsi-stencilled LaMonte that my parents bought me when I was in Jr. high. It roars to this day, and would make a fine back-up horn (were it not for the fact that I have 8 or so other killer tenors to choose from like Tonekings, Hohners, Mark VIs, Zephyrs, etc.). The Orsi has a full, rich sound with good intonation. It will still play circles around the cheap, Asian crap that you can buy.
Any bass saxophone that you can pick up for $800 is a steal. I’d buy it in a heartbeat and run before the seller reconsiders the price.
The Chinese bass you’re talking about is the Jinyin-made version, and by all accounts they are not very well made. When you get it, you will need to budget for repairs. Some players have ended up returning them, because their techs couldn’t get the horns working right after a few hours on the bench. This has been due to damage or poor construction. The player ends up being out the repair costs, return shipping, and still has no horn.
If you want to get a Chinese bass, get the better Jinbao-made one, and get one through a reputable company like J’Elle Stainer (I’m not sure they have any left), or International Woodwinds. This way if there are problems, they will stand behind their product, and help you out.
So those are my thoughts. Hope they are helpful in your bass quest. :2cents:
Hi Helen,
It sounds to me like an unscrupulous distributor dealing in horns that have “fallen off the truck.”
The first clue is the “terms” that include an off-site conclusion of the deal, a loophole that exists in Ebay’s terms of service to allow for the case when a local offer makes an item no longer available.
I agree. I would think twice about doing business with someone who works that way repeatedly.
paul
Hey there Paul.
Oh this was such a scam. Too bad my blog went crash, boom, bang, the day I wrote this article. I would have loved to nail this sucker to the wall for what he was doing. Although I suspect eBay may have done exactly that.
This same picture, description, and email address appeared in a whole bunch of different eBay ads, all for the same Orpheo bass, that most likely didn’t really exist for sale. (At least not at the advertised sale price.)
Because of my website problems, and the time I had to spend on dealing with my site, I didn’t have the chance to keep track of the various dealer names of those who were ostensibly selling this sax. In some of these cases, the dealers had thousands of eBay transactions with 100% positive feedback. All of these Orpheo bass sax auctions vanished from the eBay site within hours of posting, with not a trace of their existence remaining, except the number.
I’m not that up exactly on the ins and outs of eBay, but I have a suspicion that someone likely stole dealers’ IDs. I can’t figure any other way that you could have this many different, supposedly reputable, dealers on eBay all trying to do an off-line deal on a horn that was priced way under cost, with free shipping thrown in to boot.
Although I’m often accused of being cynical, in this case I think I’m just being realistic.