CHICO — I’m a musician and frankly that’s a hobby that is good for the soul and not your bank account, so I try to buy things on sale or used whenever I can.
Because I do a lot of shopping online at places like Reverb and Sweetwater, the ad algorithm is pretty familiar with me and tends to constantly show me guitars, amps, basses and everything else music-related when scrolling through social media. Recently, I got an ad for a Fender Telecaster that, when checked at Sweetwater was $1,399.99, at just $249 from Sam Ash Music.
Well I’ll be damned. What crossroads do I have to meet the devil at for that price? Unfortunately not even the devil could get you that price because it wasn’t real.
The ad claimed Sam Ash was closing stores and having an absurd sale because of it. I did some very quick digging and found plenty of scam warnings about these ads — which have been suddenly quiet for days now. Even Sam Ash’s official website has a scam warning saying that the goal of the scam is to get money and disappear without sending anything. You don’t even get a knockoff.
It’s not uncommon for a store to mark down items when closing to liquidate stock, but anyone who has ever gone into an expensive store during a “blowout sale” will tell you that it starts with the most modest of decreases. Finding 10% off of an item can be lucky. So there is no way a guitar worth more than $1,000 is going to drop by more than 75%. No matter how enticing that might be.
Stay safe out there folks and to my fellow musicians, check out used gear on Reverb.com. It’s a legitimate place to find marked down equipment. May your gig pay enough to add onions to your ramen tonight.
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Scam of the Week generally runs every Tuesday. Readers are welcome to contact reporter Jake Hutchison to report scams and potential scams they have come in contact with by calling 828-1329 or via email at [email protected].
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