Always Remember, Buyer Beware!

eBay is currently afflicted with a glut of musical instrument auctions from Chinese sellers of questionable honesty. The prices are ridiculously low, but the shipping costs more than make up for them, and many of the instruments are obviously unlicensed knockoffs of familiar brands. Some are sure to be out and out ripoff situations where you'll never see your money again, while many of those who do received the merchandise purchased are sure to be disappointed because it isn't what it appears to be. But the titles for the auctions do offer a cheap form of amusement. An example is this auction for "elegant of popular music tool electricity guitar." Ummm, okay. Its a major irony that the Chinese government spends lots of time and effort trying to control the flow of information into China via the Internet to maintain its grip on power, yet apparently has little worry about the hit to China's reputation these dodgy eBayers will generate. I guess as long as someone in the Chinese bureaucracy gets a cut of the action they don't care.